Movies Are Telling Us That We Are Not Interesting
One thing I’ve noticed about film over the last decade or so is how many stories are set in the past (the same applies to novels). This of course excludes the exponential explosion in science fiction/superhero films, but I’ll get to that soon.
I think there’s a very simple explanation for this trend: cellphones and the apps through which people communicate. It’s difficult to write dialogue and create narrative tension when people don’t, well, dialogue. LOL!
Put another way, if you want to create a film that is a contemporary work of realism, 90% or more of the “action” would be people staring at their phones, texting, watching TikTok, making videos and posts for social media, etc. In short, in terms of narrative tension, we are not that interesting. Frankly, we’re bores.
Martin Scorsese’s much anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon is now in theatres. It is set in the 1920’s, long before screen time. I have no doubt Scorsese is deeply invested in this story, but it’s no accident that so many contemporary films inhabit our past rather than our present. Full disclosure: I am not a big Scorsese fan, but there is some irony in his only win for Best Picture, The Departed. Why? First, it’s a terrible film (this is objective truth), and second, it’s the only Scorsese film I can recall that includes a decent amount of contemporary phones and texting (admittedly, on the front edge of the texting explosion), and wow is it all boring. I remember sitting in the theater angry that I’m watching Leonardo DiCaprio sit in a hotel room for ten minutes or so, by himself, texting. This is supposed to create narrative tension? This is a “scene"? I remember leaving the film telling people how much I hated it because if I wanted to watch people text or stare at their phones I would, you know, just go out into the world. It did, however, effectively hold up a mirror: we’ve reached peak boredom as a species.
Let’s dive deeper. How about we take a quick glance at the nominees for best picture in 2022:
Nightmare Alley, set in 1946 Dune, science fiction, sans cellphones Drive My Car, based on a 2014 short story and set in Japan Belfast, set during the Irish "Troubles," starting in 1969 Licorice Pizza, set in 1973 The Power of the Dog, set in 1925 West Side Story, set in 1957 King Richard, where much of the Williams sisters' youth is pre-cellphone era Coda (winner), a remake of a 2014 French film starring deaf characters
See a trend? How about last year (which is still this year)?
2023’s winner, Everything Everywhere All at Once is another multiverse, sci-fi fantasy effort. Phones not required. Some other films nominated last year? Elvis; Avatar: The Way of Water; The Fablemans (Spielberg’s childhood); All Quiet on the Western Front; The Banshees of Inisherin (set in 1921); Women Talking (set in 2010 in an isolated Mennonite colony); Top Gun: Maverick (all talking mostly through cockpit radio!).
2020 winner? Nomadland, set among people on the margins and largely positioned away from such technology.
2018 winner? Greenbook, set in the 1960’s.
2017 winner? The Shape of Water, set in the 1960’s
2013 winner? 12 Years a Slave.
2012 Winner? Argo (set in 1979)
This year’s likely winner? Oppenheimer. Expect more biopics, as they meet this reaching into the past requirement quite nicely.
Conversely, the science fiction/superhero explosion nullifies the need for our boring forms of communication by simply moving beyond them, not including them, using holograms or telepathy or time travel, multiverses, etc. Or they just replace texting with fighting and monologues, not necessarily in that order.
I feel bad for contemporary writers—screenwriters, novelists, etc. The challenge of sitting down and writing a thriller, of writing high narrative tension is daunting when much of the audience could simply say, “Why wouldn’t they just text?” or “Can’t they just do Find My iPhone and track their location?” “Don’t they have GPS? WTF?” Wait, there’s a stranger in town? A quick social media search makes them unstrange. Even old villains are on LinkedIn looking to network.
So the solution presents itself, and it’s simple—let’s move this a little back into the past or… how about a dystopia where teens fight to the death and don’t have phones because they have “regular” weapons instead? There are no doubt exceptions to my complaint, as some writers and filmmakers have proven extraordinarily creative in depicting our modern condition (I’m sure an example will come to me soon.)
To be clear, I am not criticizing the writers and directors. Instead, I am surrendering to the fact that they don’t have much choice. Some of our most compelling contemporary narratives are Netflix reality pieces that follow Formula One drivers around the track or watch professional tennis players practice and talk about pressure.
Or how about a medium like television? My personal favorite is Severance, which is possibly the best work ever made in the genre. If you know the premise, there is no contact allowed with the outside world while at work (thus, you are severed from it).
Maybe we’ve experienced a different kind of severance that is, when you think about it, stark. In the age of the personal brand and distant “followers,” we are having a hard time telling stories about ourselves as people. Maybe there isn’t that much to say. Stories are earned.