If your issue is that this slate of movies don’t propose a strong moral vision, I think you’re picking a bad year to do it considering the triumph of Train Dreams, and yes, One Battle After Another.
Given the original Pynchonian pessimism of Vineland, I found that Paul Thomas Anderson actually subverted those themes for a more optimistic moral vision. That our kids are worth it, that their future isn’t guaranteed. That these government agents with such a nihilistic and cynical view of the world are just that, and the world need not succumb to an evil of solipsism.
You might be onto something with Bugonia and Marty Supreme, but you’re picking the wrong fight with OBAA, I think.
I agree. I quite liked One Battle After Another because in the core of it is not choosing one ideology or another (both are similarly revolting), but rather choosing a life with your loved ones.
And it did touch me emotionally, all satire and clownship aside.
"The most popular Hollywood movies are bad, but I have no basis on which to claim this because I haven't seen OBAA, Sinners, Weapons, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Train Dreams, Hamnet, or most of the most critically acclaimed films of the past year."
Sounds like a bad movie picker problem, not a modern cinema problem. Plenty of contemporary films are amazing, you just have to stop watching the ones that hate humanity. Hamnet and Train Dreams alone prove that! Both are 2025 masterpieces about love, loss, and what makes us human.
I absolutely agree with your take on Marty supreme and I don't tend to watch Hollywood blockbusters. The best movies are independent, festival or foreign. You should check out Sentimental values which was in the best picture line up. Fantastic acting, interesting story with a heart ❤️
You have to go abroad for any ounce of serious cinema. The Secret Agent (which is everything OBAA is not) and It Was Just An Accident were both PHENOMENAL.
Not every movie needs to teach us about goodness, beauty, and truth or be Citizen Kane. Indeed it would be equally empty if every movie followed that script and we were expected to go to the theater only in service to those values. That being said, I fully agree Is that Hollywood has too many movies that show us 'indulgent moral chaos with zero attempt to define what constitutes a virtuous life' and I take a pass on every one of them, no matter what awards they are up for.
In my view, the reason that modern movies are empty is because of the influence and to some degree outright control of Hollywood by the left. The left is now fully nihilist. That is, the left rejects all facts which clash with their ideology and all human values, honesty, competence, integrity, excellence, beauty, etc., as such. The result is films in which characters are somewhere between purposefully degraded and outright disgusting as if this is the inevitable result of being human and with whom no one who likes thinking and reason wants to spend even a few minutes, much less two hours.
This is some cult-brain nonsense right here. First, why do films have to espouse values and portray behaviours prescriptively rather than just explore different situations?
Second, saying that the left is nihilist is a contradiction in terms. Nihilism is the absence of meaning or, in the sense you're using it, an absence of values or political positions. But that would mean the left is no longer of the left. You're contradicting yourself.
You're done, because you're a cultist with incoherent views. If the left rejects all values, then it's not "left", is it. "The left" is a reference to certain social, economic and political values and views, by definition. Perhaps you don't know what "the left" actually is, but have just heard about it in Fox News?
When he leaves after (finally) beating koto endo, (without staying for the championship,) I think it's actually his turning point, he finally realizes the emptiness of the lifestyle he was leading, and what actually matters are his relationships,
This change in him is brought out even more, through the scene of him getting emotional seeing his baby, which i think, is him realizing that to an even greater extent.
P.S. both Josh safdie and timothèe chalamet are jewish, don't think they would intentionally try to portray the new in a completely negative light.
A better title is Why some Modern Movies Feel So Empty. DW absolutely hated Marty Supreme. I thought it was a great commentary on paying the price- he's a great ping-pong player, so what. It was very similar to Scorcese's Raging Bull but without the poetry. 2023's Perfect Days is a lovely film that has earned it's place in my head's long term storage.
Your critique lumps all film under one umbrella and expects them to perform the same task: morally instruct. That's a sanctimoniously limiting view of cinema.
In a biopic like Marty Supreme, what’s the alternative? Reshape a deplorable but successful person into something more “redeemable,” or fabricate an event so he is "punished"?
Also, you seem caught in a similar disagreement as Herbert and Tolkien and their philosophies on storytelling.
I completely agree with you and Marty supreme, and it hurts that for a character to be openly Jewish right now in cinema means also desecrating yourself, and being the worst character depicted with no morals, no humanity, rude and entitled …. Or dying in a holocaust film. I guess these are the only two types of Jews that are allowed to be depicted. God forbid it’s a well-rounded person.
I too find it hard to uncover a decent contemporary movie, one that doesn't end with an explosion or drags us through miles of supposedly meaningful, but highly obscure character development. I too am a huge fan of Citizen Kane. But for regular entertainment, I tend to hover in the late 1990s and early 2000s to enjoy many movies from the past two decades that are not only watchable but highly meaningful and still enjoyable: The Shawshank Redemption; A Few Good Men; Parkland; A Simple Plan for instance. There will always be shlock and shock. There always were. It's largely a question of personal discernment
I feel like most popular media is anti-human. It's a reflection of this post-capitalism world that's been erected around us to stamp the humanity from us to make us into productive consumer cogs in the machine.
If your issue is that this slate of movies don’t propose a strong moral vision, I think you’re picking a bad year to do it considering the triumph of Train Dreams, and yes, One Battle After Another.
Given the original Pynchonian pessimism of Vineland, I found that Paul Thomas Anderson actually subverted those themes for a more optimistic moral vision. That our kids are worth it, that their future isn’t guaranteed. That these government agents with such a nihilistic and cynical view of the world are just that, and the world need not succumb to an evil of solipsism.
You might be onto something with Bugonia and Marty Supreme, but you’re picking the wrong fight with OBAA, I think.
I agree. I quite liked One Battle After Another because in the core of it is not choosing one ideology or another (both are similarly revolting), but rather choosing a life with your loved ones.
And it did touch me emotionally, all satire and clownship aside.
"The most popular Hollywood movies are bad, but I have no basis on which to claim this because I haven't seen OBAA, Sinners, Weapons, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Train Dreams, Hamnet, or most of the most critically acclaimed films of the past year."
You sound utterly ludicrous.
Sounds like a bad movie picker problem, not a modern cinema problem. Plenty of contemporary films are amazing, you just have to stop watching the ones that hate humanity. Hamnet and Train Dreams alone prove that! Both are 2025 masterpieces about love, loss, and what makes us human.
Very few, if any, contemporary films are amazing.
Train Dreams was beautiful I agree.
I absolutely agree with your take on Marty supreme and I don't tend to watch Hollywood blockbusters. The best movies are independent, festival or foreign. You should check out Sentimental values which was in the best picture line up. Fantastic acting, interesting story with a heart ❤️
You have to go abroad for any ounce of serious cinema. The Secret Agent (which is everything OBAA is not) and It Was Just An Accident were both PHENOMENAL.
Wish you had seen "Hamnet" instead.
Not every movie needs to teach us about goodness, beauty, and truth or be Citizen Kane. Indeed it would be equally empty if every movie followed that script and we were expected to go to the theater only in service to those values. That being said, I fully agree Is that Hollywood has too many movies that show us 'indulgent moral chaos with zero attempt to define what constitutes a virtuous life' and I take a pass on every one of them, no matter what awards they are up for.
Contemporary cinema doesn't feel unwatchable though. Why do people on Substack keep posting statements like this?
In my view, the reason that modern movies are empty is because of the influence and to some degree outright control of Hollywood by the left. The left is now fully nihilist. That is, the left rejects all facts which clash with their ideology and all human values, honesty, competence, integrity, excellence, beauty, etc., as such. The result is films in which characters are somewhere between purposefully degraded and outright disgusting as if this is the inevitable result of being human and with whom no one who likes thinking and reason wants to spend even a few minutes, much less two hours.
This is some cult-brain nonsense right here. First, why do films have to espouse values and portray behaviours prescriptively rather than just explore different situations?
Second, saying that the left is nihilist is a contradiction in terms. Nihilism is the absence of meaning or, in the sense you're using it, an absence of values or political positions. But that would mean the left is no longer of the left. You're contradicting yourself.
Your response is entirely false. I clearly defined why the left is nihilist. We're done.
You're done, because you're a cultist with incoherent views. If the left rejects all values, then it's not "left", is it. "The left" is a reference to certain social, economic and political values and views, by definition. Perhaps you don't know what "the left" actually is, but have just heard about it in Fox News?
When he leaves after (finally) beating koto endo, (without staying for the championship,) I think it's actually his turning point, he finally realizes the emptiness of the lifestyle he was leading, and what actually matters are his relationships,
This change in him is brought out even more, through the scene of him getting emotional seeing his baby, which i think, is him realizing that to an even greater extent.
P.S. both Josh safdie and timothèe chalamet are jewish, don't think they would intentionally try to portray the new in a completely negative light.
A better title is Why some Modern Movies Feel So Empty. DW absolutely hated Marty Supreme. I thought it was a great commentary on paying the price- he's a great ping-pong player, so what. It was very similar to Scorcese's Raging Bull but without the poetry. 2023's Perfect Days is a lovely film that has earned it's place in my head's long term storage.
Your critique lumps all film under one umbrella and expects them to perform the same task: morally instruct. That's a sanctimoniously limiting view of cinema.
In a biopic like Marty Supreme, what’s the alternative? Reshape a deplorable but successful person into something more “redeemable,” or fabricate an event so he is "punished"?
Also, you seem caught in a similar disagreement as Herbert and Tolkien and their philosophies on storytelling.
When it comes to Welles: The Trial >>Touch of Evil >>>>> Citizen Kane. These are facts.
I completely agree with you and Marty supreme, and it hurts that for a character to be openly Jewish right now in cinema means also desecrating yourself, and being the worst character depicted with no morals, no humanity, rude and entitled …. Or dying in a holocaust film. I guess these are the only two types of Jews that are allowed to be depicted. God forbid it’s a well-rounded person.
I too find it hard to uncover a decent contemporary movie, one that doesn't end with an explosion or drags us through miles of supposedly meaningful, but highly obscure character development. I too am a huge fan of Citizen Kane. But for regular entertainment, I tend to hover in the late 1990s and early 2000s to enjoy many movies from the past two decades that are not only watchable but highly meaningful and still enjoyable: The Shawshank Redemption; A Few Good Men; Parkland; A Simple Plan for instance. There will always be shlock and shock. There always were. It's largely a question of personal discernment
I feel like most popular media is anti-human. It's a reflection of this post-capitalism world that's been erected around us to stamp the humanity from us to make us into productive consumer cogs in the machine.