Remember when movies used to be about things? Is it just because I'm getting old or are there a surprising number of films around these days that are essentially plot free? Was there ever a golden age of plotful films?
Recently my housemate and I have watched a number of "critically acclaimed" movies which we've got the end of and just been dumbfounded by the pointlessness of them. I say we were dumbfounded, I mean I was, anybody who knows my housemate knows that he could never actually be dumbfounded by anything. I actually can't remember what most of them were called because they were so non-descript my brain has merged them into a fog of grey nothingness. As an example yesterday, for some reason I sat through Frank, a "surprisingly heartwarming" comedy about the lead singer of a band who always wears a papermaché head. Now yes, I know, I should have known better but I was curious. I do often enjoy more off beat movies so I was willing to give it a chance. It was honestly just an hour and a half(-ish) of nothing. Nothing of note happened. Some people talked. A man wore a big head. It wasn't clever or funny, it wasn't even weird. If it had been weird I'd have respected it. It was just...nothing.
I've noticed a lot of comedy has gone this way too. People being irritated and irritable to eachother very occasionally making poor obvious jokes at eachother apparently passes for being funny. I know I have an odd sense of humour, I know I'm weird in that I find manatees and the idea of keeping a Roman Empire in your loft (but not for long in case it falls unexpectedly) funny but does anyone actually laugh at anything anymore or are we all happy to sit and quietly smile to ourselves a little bit now?
So there's my challenge to Hollywood and all the TV executives out there. Can we please have some entertainment that is, you know, actually entertaining please?
*By the way, I wrote this post while sitting in a coffee shop. I am the hippsterest.
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