If anything they beat the drum too much, I didn’t see “Don’t Look Up”, because of Trump Fatigue. Like so much media from 2015-2020 that got made had one note, and that note was “Orange Man Bad”, and I’m like “I know, I couldn’t be more aware that orange man bad. I did everything I could to stop it, but Americans are idiots.”
It’s like… I get it everything is fucked. You can stop blasting the despair in my face any second now.
Like I’m actually glad Hazbin Hotel got delayed for so long, because I just know Adam was basically just “Donald Trump with a harp and a halo” in an earlier draft, there’s no way in literal Hell he wasn’t.
Pretty much, the problem is Hollywood can only choose between “Make a good movie” or “Have a good message”, when “Make an entertaining movie that deliver the message without being overly preachy” was always an option, gaming does it all the time. (Which is probably why Video Game Movies are such big money makers now)
PS: Waterworld is sadly the best movie you’ve listed here, TDAT is the second best.
Also the inciting incident to the 'verse of Firefly:
Mal: "Here’s how it is: (The) Earth got used up, so we (moved out, and) terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with new technologies, some not so much. (The) Central Planets, them as formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I’m Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity.
I actually really liked the premise behind that one, the idea that collectively since we flooded our entertainment with cynical grimdark media, we all just accepted that ill use of technology leading to an apocalypse was an inevitability, and apathy let it happen.
It was an interesting message that I would’ve liked to see in a different vehicle.
Pretty much, see the endless amount of idiots who unironically see themselves as the antagonist and think it’s a good thing.
(Trump’s kids unfavorably comparing the Left to the Resistance in the newer Star Wars films which very blatantly had the First Order be a stand-in for America’s Alt Right and Kylo Ren a warning about toxic masculinity, now that’s something I’ll never forget)
the message went completely over the heads of the people it needed to reach
You had a series of very cynical and deliberately manipulative media coverage of the film which tried to spin it as anything but a climate change movie. And then you had a bunch of “man on the street” pieces intended to make viewers appear stupid.
But the core theory of media influenced economic change is rooted in the idea that a movie can shift people from their profit motives. No oil executive is going to watch a slapstick comedy and decide to shift his business’s core financial model because of a few jokes. No bank executives are going to divest from carbon emitting industries because some Hollywood starlets made fun of them. No senior member of political leadership is going to change how mining permits and environmental regulations are written because Adam McKay posted big numbers at the box office.
The Network didn’t change how Americans consumed their news media. Soylent Green didn’t cause Americans to reconsider our policies on factory farming. Jarhead didn’t cause any military personal to exit Iraq or Afghanistan. The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
And even then I have to remind people that saying “Idiocracy is a documentary!” that they’re being too optimistic.
We are NOT in a fully-automated sex-positive polygamous future with leadership that acknowledges society’s problems and places its best and brightest towards a solution, one where free speech is so alive you can even name your restaurant “Buttfuckers” and no one’s even slightly offended, one where even the least educated people in our society can get good quality high-paying jobs in everything from the arts to medical, one where sex work is no longer demonized and is considered so valid a profession that you can get your ass rimmed at Starbucks while waiting for your coffee.
And I don’t understand why people think we have it anywhere near that good.
There was definitely commentary on the media in the movie, and society at large, and corporations, and politicians. But the core message of the movie was not just their willingness to let disaster happen in exchange for wealth and power, but also their willingness to lie and manipulate the population for their own selfish gain.
The people it needs to reach are world leaders, and that’s just not going to happen. World leaders aren’t blind to the problem, they’re just fine with burning the earth for money.
Ellen DeGeneres saw Trump watching Finding Dory and tried to explain that the movie was about how it was wrong to separate families.
Trump loved it and had a viewing party at the White House.
ICE illegally separated families at the border, kicked parents back to Mexico, and adopted the kids into white families… And those were the lucky ones, the unlucky ones died in a concentration camp composed solely of children where the teenagers were expected to take care of the kids who were in turn expected to take care of the toddlers.
Trump and his wife Melania showed up with the latter literally wearing a shirt that read “I don’t really care, do you?”
You cannot appeal to the conscience of someone who doesn’t have one, no matter how good your movie is or what it’s about.
I really like the first half of the movie. That feeling of outrage as they try to get attention is just so well done. But the second half just gets too painful. I can’t watch it
I mean they did.
Don’t Look Up was huge. It had an all-star, ensemble cast and was one of the biggest releases of 2021.
How many times do you expect them to best the drum?
If anything they beat the drum too much, I didn’t see “Don’t Look Up”, because of Trump Fatigue. Like so much media from 2015-2020 that got made had one note, and that note was “Orange Man Bad”, and I’m like “I know, I couldn’t be more aware that orange man bad. I did everything I could to stop it, but Americans are idiots.”
It’s like… I get it everything is fucked. You can stop blasting the despair in my face any second now.
Like I’m actually glad Hazbin Hotel got delayed for so long, because I just know Adam was basically just “Donald Trump with a harp and a halo” in an earlier draft, there’s no way in literal Hell he wasn’t.
Learned a new term the other day, The Doomscroll Industrial Complex
Joan is a great writer! I’m glad to see a fellow lemming linking her work here.
Solid read. Thanks
Ya know I was watching a Why Files episode on Reptilians who farm negative emotions from humans by keeping us in a cycle of reincarnation.
That makes, too much sense when shit like the DIC you’re talking about exists.
The Day After Tomorrow had a dude that was basically a stand-in for Dick Cheney so Dennis Quaid could tell him that he should have done more sooner.
Waterworld, earth covered in water after the ice caps melted.
Geostorm took for granted that we needed a global network of satellites to battle climate change.
And who can forget The Happening or Birdemic?
Oh, you wanted good movies? (tho I lowkey love Geostorm)
Don’t forget wall-e
Not even a mention of Happy Feet. C’mon. Lol
This is a great though, and if anything, yeah, “pollution apocalypse” has become such a common trope at this point it’s almost lazy writing now.
Pretty much, the problem is Hollywood can only choose between “Make a good movie” or “Have a good message”, when “Make an entertaining movie that deliver the message without being overly preachy” was always an option, gaming does it all the time. (Which is probably why Video Game Movies are such big money makers now)
PS: Waterworld is sadly the best movie you’ve listed here, TDAT is the second best.
Many people forget that the reason everybody is trying to find a new planet in interstellar, is because climate change made theirs unhabitable.
Also the inciting incident to the 'verse of Firefly:
Was it explicitly climate change? I thought it was “blight” or whatever fictional disease killing crops.
I thought Tomorrowland was good. Not great. But good enough.
I actually really liked the premise behind that one, the idea that collectively since we flooded our entertainment with cynical grimdark media, we all just accepted that ill use of technology leading to an apocalypse was an inevitability, and apathy let it happen.
It was an interesting message that I would’ve liked to see in a different vehicle.
Not to mention the entire series of “Scorcher” movies, starring the famous Tugg Speedman.
And the message went completely over the heads of the people it needed to reach.
Pretty much, see the endless amount of idiots who unironically see themselves as the antagonist and think it’s a good thing.
(Trump’s kids unfavorably comparing the Left to the Resistance in the newer Star Wars films which very blatantly had the First Order be a stand-in for America’s Alt Right and Kylo Ren a warning about toxic masculinity, now that’s something I’ll never forget)
You had a series of very cynical and deliberately manipulative media coverage of the film which tried to spin it as anything but a climate change movie. And then you had a bunch of “man on the street” pieces intended to make viewers appear stupid.
But the core theory of media influenced economic change is rooted in the idea that a movie can shift people from their profit motives. No oil executive is going to watch a slapstick comedy and decide to shift his business’s core financial model because of a few jokes. No bank executives are going to divest from carbon emitting industries because some Hollywood starlets made fun of them. No senior member of political leadership is going to change how mining permits and environmental regulations are written because Adam McKay posted big numbers at the box office.
The Network didn’t change how Americans consumed their news media. Soylent Green didn’t cause Americans to reconsider our policies on factory farming. Jarhead didn’t cause any military personal to exit Iraq or Afghanistan. The only movie that seems to have really moved the dial on public policy is Idiocracy, the inspiration behind Elon Musk and Peter Thiel’s quest to get more IT people to fuck.
And even then I have to remind people that saying “Idiocracy is a documentary!” that they’re being too optimistic.
We are NOT in a fully-automated sex-positive polygamous future with leadership that acknowledges society’s problems and places its best and brightest towards a solution, one where free speech is so alive you can even name your restaurant “Buttfuckers” and no one’s even slightly offended, one where even the least educated people in our society can get good quality high-paying jobs in everything from the arts to medical, one where sex work is no longer demonized and is considered so valid a profession that you can get your ass rimmed at Starbucks while waiting for your coffee.
And I don’t understand why people think we have it anywhere near that good.
My brother-in-law explicitly thought that the movie was commentary on “the liberal media.”
There was definitely commentary on the media in the movie, and society at large, and corporations, and politicians. But the core message of the movie was not just their willingness to let disaster happen in exchange for wealth and power, but also their willingness to lie and manipulate the population for their own selfish gain.
The people it needs to reach are world leaders, and that’s just not going to happen. World leaders aren’t blind to the problem, they’re just fine with burning the earth for money.
Ellen DeGeneres saw Trump watching Finding Dory and tried to explain that the movie was about how it was wrong to separate families.
Trump loved it and had a viewing party at the White House.
ICE illegally separated families at the border, kicked parents back to Mexico, and adopted the kids into white families… And those were the lucky ones, the unlucky ones died in a concentration camp composed solely of children where the teenagers were expected to take care of the kids who were in turn expected to take care of the toddlers.
Trump and his wife Melania showed up with the latter literally wearing a shirt that read “I don’t really care, do you?”
You cannot appeal to the conscience of someone who doesn’t have one, no matter how good your movie is or what it’s about.
*gestures at all the recycled crap hollywood puts out.
That movie is so amazing
That movie was so difficult to watch
It physically hurt to watch.
I really like the first half of the movie. That feeling of outrage as they try to get attention is just so well done. But the second half just gets too painful. I can’t watch it
Yeah, one of the few good movies I watched that felt emotionally draining. Joker is another good example.