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> I won't mourn movie theatres (though I hope places emulate the likes of Alamo Drafthouse and do dinner, drinks and let us make an evening out of watching a mo

> I won't mourn movie theatres (though I hope places emulate the likes of Alamo Drafthouse and do dinner, drinks and let us make an evening out of watching a movie), but I do worry about things like movie financing. It feels the industry has split in two, either making super-expensive superhero blockbusters or super cheap indie films. I'm informed by my cinemaphile friend that exactly this phenomenon has been much remarked upon in the last 15-20 years. Mid-budget films, which used to be very common, are mostly dead, leaving a couple kinds of low-budget film (the startup-model where you put out a ton of cheap movies and hope one is the next Blair Witch—and yes, most of this is horror—and the "indie" film kind) and the mega-budget ones that are basically investment vehicles. So, two kinds of films that exist because those models are the best ROI, and then indie films, and that's about it. Meanwhile, there are still tons of good films coming out, but most are (broadly) in the "indie" bucket. People who complain that nothing good is made anymore[0] must just be looking at what's advertised heavily, is all I can figure. Dozens of good-to-great movies come out every year, including a whole bunch from the US. [0] Then there's "it's all remakes now"—but 1) it's not, and 2) Hollywood started churning out tons of remakes about as early in their history as they possibly could, and never stopped.

roymurdock 5y ago
Can you recommend some good movies from last/this year? Have been digging into old movies to get my fix recently thinking there wasn't anything good out.
- DullBlueDot 5y ago
  I highly recommend the In/Frame/Out YouTube channel for dissections of good indie and older classic movies. His year-end lists are always satisfying. The Scottish accent is the cherry on top.
- handrous 5y ago
  If you watched the film "Happy Death Day" (if not the lesser sequel) and enjoyed its exploration of a kind-of goofy mashup (Ground Hog Day x Teen Slasher), the same director made a film built on, roughly, a similar concept, just called "Freaky". If you already suspect you might like it, don't read anything and just watch, though you may be able to guess the mash-up from the one-word title. It's fun, and well-made. I'm struggling to think of much else that I've personally seen, from last year, that wasn't a little too indie or "genre" for me to recommend it to someone whose tastes I don't know—I didn't get much new watched, and mostly caught up on some reputedly-great stuff I'd missed from the prior five years or so (I keep up with a mix of pop junk food films, which I do like, and the "good" stuff, but usually don't have time to watch anywhere near all of either) aside from some fairly taste-specific newer material I watched. Some other titles I'm seeing, from people I know and trust, for 2020, include: First Cow; The Old Guard; Portrait of a Lady on Fire (technically a 2019 film, but widely available in 2020); Wolfwalkers (animated); Spontaneous; Bacurau; Blow the Man Down. There are lots more, that's just a varied sampling.
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    Happy Death Day was a great, and unique, idea I loved it. I even thought the second was not bad even if I don’t think they needed to try and explain what was happening scientifically. I forgot about Freaky and will have to watch that. I actually think TV shows are where good film comes from these days, especially with them not being made for syndication so we now can get 6 episode seasons. Mare of East Town was a great mystery that just came out. It is true that the superhero genre has hijacked a lot of talent.
- bloat 5y ago
  From what I've seen released from 2020 onwards I've particularly liked: Black Bear, Possessor, Palm Springs, Love And Monsters, Psycho Goreman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, White Tiger, Moxie, The Mitchells Vs The Machines Going back a bit further: Saint Maud, Color Out Of Space, Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, Midsommar, The Lighthouse, Crawl, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
nineplay 5y ago
> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore must just be looking at what's advertised heavily I can't speak for everyone but I think it's hard to find anything 'fun'. The indie films inevitably seem to be deadly serious, whether it's terrible crimes or failing relationships or the inevitably of death. If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. It feels different. Spielberg was fun, Lucas was fun, Hitchcock was fun. Perhaps they were the outliers even during their times, but it seems like all that sense of adventure has been sucked into the big franchises and mangled into these lowest-common-dementor films. The international market wants big explosions and 'clever' comebacks.
- handrous 5y ago
  > I can't speak for everyone but I think it's hard to find anything 'fun'. The indie films inevitably seem to be deadly serious, whether it's terrible crimes or failing relationships or the inevitably of death. If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. Yeah, good point. Fun films from the more indie side exist, but they aren't the norm, that's true.
  - devonkim 5y ago
    Psycho Goreman is a great example of a mid-budget movie that’s 100% about the fun. The issue really appears to be about movie investors being unwilling to take risks like they used to, which makes sense given investor sentiments as a whole across the past several decades leaning more and more conservative as wealth loss protection is a requirement, which removes a lot of creative room for new IPs.
- majormajor 5y ago
  That's a broader cultural issue for all sorts of art today, not a movie specific thing. The depressed/angry mood has been building for a couple decades or more, and getting more widespread. Even something intentionally over the top like Fast and Furious or Marvel has more "serious issue" stuff in many of the installments from the last 5 years than previously. It's easier in the news to see all the bad stuff that used to get hidden behind the scenes, so until something happens about that or people just tired of seeing it both in the news and in art, I imagine it'll be here for a little longer.
mywacaday 5y ago
What would have been considered a mid budget film?
- prpl 5y ago
  Probably many movies you can think of from the 90s/00s that were not blockbusters, especially romcoms.
- chalst 5y ago
  Being John Malkovich had a budget of $13 million in 1999 - I'm guessing that's mid-range.
- handrous 5y ago
  Not a great link, but this covers the gist of it: https://www.flavorwire.com/492985/how-the-death-of-mid-budget-cinema-left-a-generation-of-iconic-filmmakers-mia https://www.flavorwire.com/492985/how-the-death-of-mid-budge... It quotes a (clearly a bit exaggerated for effect, at the low end) range of $500,000-$80,000,000 as "mid budget", and gives examples of the category including Blue Velvet, The Godfather, and Hairspray. It's not that no films are made in that range anymore, just that it's much harder to find financing for a project in that range for a film intended for wide release and any amount of promotion. The money guys want a nothing-budget movie that might become a hit (the startup model), or huge can't-lose projects with likely outcomes that don't include a loss, or not much of one (the formulaic international-friendly [by which I mean China-friendly] action blockbuster that everyone seems to hate, but that nonetheless consistently make piles of money) It quotes a bunch of mid-budget directors complaining about this, some leaving filmmaking entirely because their options seem to be to go back to making shoestring-budget movies like they did when they were starting out, or start working on projects they don't like (huge-budget films), aside from self-financing. They seem to be concerned about how the next generations of directors will develop their careers, without stable financing for directors who've "made it" but don't want to make Marvel movies and such—IMO we're probably heading back to something resembling the studio system, largely, so the era of lots of Important Directors who Really Matter may be on its way out, anyway, at least for a while. [EDIT] Also, searching things like "the death of the mid-budget film" turns up tons of material like this.
- 5y ago
majormajor 5y ago
The good news is that an indie film on zero budget from the 90s was much more technologically limited than it is today, so access to fancy cameras matters less than it did then, and it lets talent shine more.
iNane9000 5y ago
How do I find these movies? Amazon has some old, mostly low quality movies, but nothing good or recent. They got rid of the criterion collection years ago. Sincere question: How does one even find or acquire films today? I’d love to watch a movie, but literally don’t know how to go about it anymore. Netflix is not an answer as most of their content are not movies and basically spam to me.
- sosborn 5y ago
  Netflix has a tab to browse only movies. Amazon does too. They usually have a handful of quality old movies (lots of junk too), but some of their originals are very good.
  - telesilla 5y ago
    This is my go-to when I want to browse Netflix https://www.finder.com/uk/netflix-around-the-world/genre-list https://www.finder.com/uk/netflix-around-the-world/genre-lis...
- ghaff 5y ago
  Amazon has tons of movies but many of them you have to buy/rent a la carte. At least in the US, there's Red Box for mostly recent films. You can also subscribe to Netflix' DVD service--although their back catalog isn't as good as it used to be.
- heurist 5y ago
  Check out the Criterion Channel: https://www.criterionchannel.com/ https://www.criterionchannel.com/
- WalterBright 5y ago
  The TCM channel does a good job of organizing films into categories. I've been watching their Film Noir picks every Saturday night. Lots of fun movies I never knew existed.
  - handrous 5y ago
munificent 5y ago
> Then there's "it's all remakes now"—but 1) it's not, It really is, if by "remake" you mean all ways of leveraging existing IP. Here are the top ten box office films of 2020: * Bad Boys for Life (sequel) * Sonic the Hedgehog (videogame) * Birds of Prey (comic book) * Dolittle (book) * The Invisible Man (book) * The Call of the Wild (book) * Onward (original) * The Croods: A New Age (sequel) * Tenet (original) * Wonder Woman 1984 (sequal, comic book) Two originals. Now go back 20 years: * Mission: Impossible 2 (sequel) * Gladiator (book) * Cast Away (original) * What Women Want (original) * Dinosaur (original) * How the Grinch Stole Christmas (book) * Meet the Parents (remake) * The Perfect Storm (book) * X-Men (comic book) * What Lies Beneath (original) Four originals. Go back another 10 years: * Ghost (original) * Home Alone (original) * Pretty Woman (original) * Dances with Wolves (book) * Total Recall (short story) * Back to the Future Part III (sequel) * Die Hard 2 (sequel) * Presumed Innocent (book) * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (comic book) * Kindergarten Cop (original) Five originals. Another ten years to 1980: * The Empire Strikes Back (sequel) * 9 to 5 (original) * Stir Crazy (original) * Airplane! (original) * Any Which Way You Can (sequel) * Private Benjamin (original) * Coal Miner's Daughter (original) * Smokey and the Bandit II (sequel) * The Blue Lagoon (book) * The Blues Brothers (SNL sketch) Five originals again. I'm going by top box-office gross here because I think that's a good proxy for what is successful. You can look at other years, but there is a very clear (but not overwhelming) trend towards movies based on familiar content. It's not clear whether studios are leading audiences or vice versa. Probably some iterative process of both. There's also a clear trend away from dramas. I think that's because drama (and non-slapstick comedies) tend to rely heavily on specific cultural norms for their effect which makes them translate poorly. There is a very clear trend especially in the last decade or so of Hollywood focusing on movies that will also do well in China in particular.
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  Airplane was not strictly an original, it was a remake/spoof of Zero Hour from 1957 and more broadly spoofing the "disaster" film concept.
  - 5y ago
watwut 5y ago
> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore[0] must just be looking at what's advertised heavily, is all I can figure. That would be me. I am utterly uninterested in superheroes and found movies I seen last years somewhere between boring repetitive and annoying. Tho I liked parazite and some of other international splash making movies. At minimum they used different tropes. I have no idea where those fun indie movies are nor how to find them. Like, where should I go to be able to find some I might like?
- handrous 5y ago
  1) Try film festival schedules or lists-of-what-showed from previous years. Not just Sundance and Cannes and such (though lots of the films shown at those are, in fact, good, so don't not look at those)—if you have any special genre or topic interests, there may be some festivals for them, so look up a few big ones and start browsing. Why previous years? Because those films usually aren't widely available the same year they're in festivals, and you'll get the benefit of reviews, if you don't want to just start blindly watching anything that looks interesting. 2) There are niche streaming services that specialize in genres, or in indie + international, films, which are great for finding all kinds of wonderful things you'd never have known about otherwise. mubi.com, for instance, features those sorts of films from all years, including recent ones. Shudder is a streaming service for horror films (horror is downright rich these days—I can provide lots of strong, varied recommendations from the last few years, if you're into that kind of thing). Stuff like that. Really, just look up lists of video streaming services and take a glance at the catalogues of any you've not heard of.
  - hnu0847 5y ago
    > horror is downright rich these days—I can provide lots of strong, varied recommendations from the last few years, if you're into that kind of thing What would you recommend?
    - handrous 5y ago
      Oh no, I was afraid someone would take me up on that! Hahaha. No particular order. Since 2010ish. Not an exhaustive list of all good horror in that time frame. - You're Next. It's a trad home-invasion/slasher kinda thing but... then changes genre. I'll leave it at that. - Cabin in the Woods. Needs no introduction? Solid humor-horror. - Evil Dead. The soft reboot. Pretty good for the kind of thing it is, which is an Evil Dead-type movie, of course. - The Babadook. Great horror for people who like to be scared but don't want gore. Extremely efficient use of a tiny cast and very few locations. - It Follows. A core concept that's creepy as hell, and some damn fine imagery that will stick with you. Lots of moody, slow-paced (but good!) scenes but... it does follow. Unsubtly very much about the harmful aspects of sex and sexual behavior. - The Witch (or, The VVitch, as it's styled). If you like frontier-type stuff, with period-accurate dialog, plus horror, this will very likely be up your alley. Nb that here "frontier" means "New England, probably just a few miles in from the coast", not, like, the "Old West". - Bone Tomahawk. Action-horror that is set in the Old West. Not exactly a piece of fine film-making but it pretty much does exactly what it sets out to do, and does it well, which makes it a success in my book. - The Void. Carpenteresque creature work and Lovecraftian baddies. Excellent example of a throwback horror movie that aims to feel like it was made in another decade. - The Girl with all the Gifts. Some people liked this a lot more than I did, so I'm including it. I thought it was just OK. Basically a zombie movie, kinda. - Krampus. I'm not usually into Christmas-horror, which tends to be sub-b-grade garbage and otherwise just isn't to my taste, but watched this because I kept seeing it recommended, and... wow, it's actually good. Careful that you get the right film, there are a bunch with similar titles and I'd guess most of them are terrible. This is the 2015 one directed by Dougherty. - Get Out. I'd call it just OK (I don't... think I was supposed to find as much if it laugh-out-loud funny in the final act, as I did?) but accept that I'm probably wrong about that, given the overwhelmingly-positive reaction. - Train to Busan. Maybe my favorite zombie-hoards type of movie I've seen. - Sorry to Bother You. If you like genre-bending and lots of absurdism in your horror, this one's for you. - Happy Death Day. Slasher x Ground Hog Day, with that concept explored for just about all it's worth. Relatively light-hearted (it'd almost have to be) but not without tension. Sequel's less good—not awful, but a big step down. Same director made a similar film, "Freaky", that's another mash-up concept, and is quite good. - It Comes at Night. Uh... if you really like movies that make you kinda wish you'd never watched them, not because of, say, realistic gore, but because they sorta make your soul hurt, this is a very good movie of that kind. But maybe don't, though? - One Cut of the Dead. Brilliant concept, fun throughout. Not in any sense a traditional zombie movie, and I would 100% recommend it to people who usually don't like zombie movies. Don't spoil it, go in as cold as possible. It's one that is much better if you know almost nothing about it before you start. - Game Night. Horror-adjacent, at least. Not amazing but another one that I watched after being repeatedly assured by many people that it was much better than it looked like it would be (it looked pretty bad), and it was. - Hereditary. I hated this one but it's another where my opinion is way, way in the minority. Lots of people love it. - Colour out of Space. If you can tolerate, or actually enjoy, Nic Cage, and like Lovecraftian horror, this is worth a watch. Good FX work. - The Last Matinee. By-the-numbers slasher set in a Uruguayan movie theater, in the 90s. Great kills, the right kind of gross, good set-up/pay-off, good at making you care enough about almost everyone that you're sad when they get got. Requires tolerance for subtitles. - Caveat. Tight little small-cast film (I think it was a during-the-pandemic production, maybe?). Very stupid-sounding premise that ends up making enough sense in the film itself, and a lot more by the time it's over. - Vicious Fun. I probably like this one more than it deserves, but I do like it. Horror-comedy, heavy on very winking-at-the-camera references to other horror films and the genre itself. It gets a little bit of the bad kind of indie-feeling in some of the shot choices and acting, but the way it keeps delivering even when you think it's winding down or running out of tricks is outstanding. Did not go the direction I thought it would, judging just from a short description of the plot. - My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To. Probably the art-housest film on this list, so keep that in mind before deciding to watch it—you're not in for a standard horror experience, though there is tons of tension and definitely some murderin'. Very good, though. Strongly recommend avoiding spoilers as discovering what the movie's about is a big part of the experience. - The Haunting of Hill House. OK, so it's a self-contained season 1 of an anthology series, not a movie, but it's (like The Babadook) a really good watch for people who like horror but not a bunch of gore or a sky-high body count. Creators seem to both know what themes are and how to use them for horror, which wouldn't be impressive in an ideal world, but is in this one.
masayune 5y ago
how do you find these good, low budget movies? would love to know your discovery process
- johnchristopher 5y ago
  Personnaly I regularly check out the sundance festival entries and anything produced by annapurna and https://a24films.com/ https://a24films.com/
- wwweston 5y ago
  Find someone who is more into movies than you are and talk to them regularly. :) I got introduced to a bunch last year by making the acquaintance of a film grad student who ran a movie club that met via Discord every Saturday night to discuss a film of the week. I think this could also probably be approximated by finding someone into film on social media, or watching entries accepted into well-regarded film festivals, or if you happen to have an active mom & pop video store in your area, talking with the clerks.
- bloat 5y ago
  I use Letterboxd. Its pretty easy to get started, look up a bunch of movies you know you like, read some of the reviews, follow some people who seem like they know movies and would be into interesting stuff, and then see what comes your way.
reaperducer 5y ago
Hollywood started churning out tons of remakes about as early in their history as they possibly could, and never stopped. Very true. From the 1930's until now, the percentage of Hollywood films that aren't recreations of an earlier film, a book, or a play is vanishingly small. To be sure, there is still a good number of original films, even big-name ones, but those are very few and far between.
- trynewideas 5y ago
  Broadway celebrates revivals, but Hollywood is almost ashamed of remakes. There's a Tony award for best revival, but only a Raspberry for worst remake. Both are a form of unoriginal profiteering, on at least a business level. Maybe it's the permanence of a film compared to the ephemerality of a live performance, but the vast difference in how they're received has always bugged me.

roymurdock 5y ago

Can you recommend some good movies from last/this year? Have been digging into old movies to get my fix recently thinking there wasn't anything good out.

DullBlueDot 5y ago
I highly recommend the In/Frame/Out YouTube channel for dissections of good indie and older classic movies. His year-end lists are always satisfying. The Scottish accent is the cherry on top.
handrous 5y ago
If you watched the film "Happy Death Day" (if not the lesser sequel) and enjoyed its exploration of a kind-of goofy mashup (Ground Hog Day x Teen Slasher), the same director made a film built on, roughly, a similar concept, just called "Freaky". If you already suspect you might like it, don't read anything and just watch, though you may be able to guess the mash-up from the one-word title. It's fun, and well-made. I'm struggling to think of much else that I've personally seen, from last year, that wasn't a little too indie or "genre" for me to recommend it to someone whose tastes I don't know—I didn't get much new watched, and mostly caught up on some reputedly-great stuff I'd missed from the prior five years or so (I keep up with a mix of pop junk food films, which I do like, and the "good" stuff, but usually don't have time to watch anywhere near all of either) aside from some fairly taste-specific newer material I watched. Some other titles I'm seeing, from people I know and trust, for 2020, include: First Cow; The Old Guard; Portrait of a Lady on Fire (technically a 2019 film, but widely available in 2020); Wolfwalkers (animated); Spontaneous; Bacurau; Blow the Man Down. There are lots more, that's just a varied sampling.
- edgyquant 5y ago
  Happy Death Day was a great, and unique, idea I loved it. I even thought the second was not bad even if I don’t think they needed to try and explain what was happening scientifically. I forgot about Freaky and will have to watch that. I actually think TV shows are where good film comes from these days, especially with them not being made for syndication so we now can get 6 episode seasons. Mare of East Town was a great mystery that just came out. It is true that the superhero genre has hijacked a lot of talent.
bloat 5y ago
From what I've seen released from 2020 onwards I've particularly liked: Black Bear, Possessor, Palm Springs, Love And Monsters, Psycho Goreman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, White Tiger, Moxie, The Mitchells Vs The Machines Going back a bit further: Saint Maud, Color Out Of Space, Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, Midsommar, The Lighthouse, Crawl, The Personal History Of David Copperfield

nineplay 5y ago

> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore must just be looking at what's advertised heavily I can't speak for everyone but I think it's hard to find anything 'fun'. The indie films inevitably seem to be deadly serious, whether it's terrible crimes or failing relationships or the inevitably of death. If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. It feels different. Spielberg was fun, Lucas was fun, Hitchcock was fun. Perhaps they were the outliers even during their times, but it seems like all that sense of adventure has been sucked into the big franchises and mangled into these lowest-common-dementor films. The international market wants big explosions and 'clever' comebacks.

handrous 5y ago
> I can't speak for everyone but I think it's hard to find anything 'fun'. The indie films inevitably seem to be deadly serious, whether it's terrible crimes or failing relationships or the inevitably of death. If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. Yeah, good point. Fun films from the more indie side exist, but they aren't the norm, that's true.
- devonkim 5y ago
  Psycho Goreman is a great example of a mid-budget movie that’s 100% about the fun. The issue really appears to be about movie investors being unwilling to take risks like they used to, which makes sense given investor sentiments as a whole across the past several decades leaning more and more conservative as wealth loss protection is a requirement, which removes a lot of creative room for new IPs.
majormajor 5y ago
That's a broader cultural issue for all sorts of art today, not a movie specific thing. The depressed/angry mood has been building for a couple decades or more, and getting more widespread. Even something intentionally over the top like Fast and Furious or Marvel has more "serious issue" stuff in many of the installments from the last 5 years than previously. It's easier in the news to see all the bad stuff that used to get hidden behind the scenes, so until something happens about that or people just tired of seeing it both in the news and in art, I imagine it'll be here for a little longer.

mywacaday 5y ago

What would have been considered a mid budget film?

prpl 5y ago
Probably many movies you can think of from the 90s/00s that were not blockbusters, especially romcoms.
chalst 5y ago
Being John Malkovich had a budget of $13 million in 1999 - I'm guessing that's mid-range.
handrous 5y ago
Not a great link, but this covers the gist of it: https://www.flavorwire.com/492985/how-the-death-of-mid-budget-cinema-left-a-generation-of-iconic-filmmakers-mia https://www.flavorwire.com/492985/how-the-death-of-mid-budge... It quotes a (clearly a bit exaggerated for effect, at the low end) range of $500,000-$80,000,000 as "mid budget", and gives examples of the category including Blue Velvet, The Godfather, and Hairspray. It's not that no films are made in that range anymore, just that it's much harder to find financing for a project in that range for a film intended for wide release and any amount of promotion. The money guys want a nothing-budget movie that might become a hit (the startup model), or huge can't-lose projects with likely outcomes that don't include a loss, or not much of one (the formulaic international-friendly [by which I mean China-friendly] action blockbuster that everyone seems to hate, but that nonetheless consistently make piles of money) It quotes a bunch of mid-budget directors complaining about this, some leaving filmmaking entirely because their options seem to be to go back to making shoestring-budget movies like they did when they were starting out, or start working on projects they don't like (huge-budget films), aside from self-financing. They seem to be concerned about how the next generations of directors will develop their careers, without stable financing for directors who've "made it" but don't want to make Marvel movies and such—IMO we're probably heading back to something resembling the studio system, largely, so the era of lots of Important Directors who Really Matter may be on its way out, anyway, at least for a while. [EDIT] Also, searching things like "the death of the mid-budget film" turns up tons of material like this.
5y ago

majormajor 5y ago

The good news is that an indie film on zero budget from the 90s was much more technologically limited than it is today, so access to fancy cameras matters less than it did then, and it lets talent shine more.

iNane9000 5y ago

How do I find these movies? Amazon has some old, mostly low quality movies, but nothing good or recent. They got rid of the criterion collection years ago. Sincere question: How does one even find or acquire films today? I’d love to watch a movie, but literally don’t know how to go about it anymore. Netflix is not an answer as most of their content are not movies and basically spam to me.

sosborn 5y ago
Netflix has a tab to browse only movies. Amazon does too. They usually have a handful of quality old movies (lots of junk too), but some of their originals are very good.
- telesilla 5y ago
  This is my go-to when I want to browse Netflix https://www.finder.com/uk/netflix-around-the-world/genre-list https://www.finder.com/uk/netflix-around-the-world/genre-lis...
ghaff 5y ago
Amazon has tons of movies but many of them you have to buy/rent a la carte. At least in the US, there's Red Box for mostly recent films. You can also subscribe to Netflix' DVD service--although their back catalog isn't as good as it used to be.
heurist 5y ago
Check out the Criterion Channel: https://www.criterionchannel.com/ https://www.criterionchannel.com/
WalterBright 5y ago
The TCM channel does a good job of organizing films into categories. I've been watching their Film Noir picks every Saturday night. Lots of fun movies I never knew existed.
- handrous 5y ago

munificent 5y ago

> Then there's "it's all remakes now"—but 1) it's not, It really is, if by "remake" you mean all ways of leveraging existing IP. Here are the top ten box office films of 2020: * Bad Boys for Life (sequel) * Sonic the Hedgehog (videogame) * Birds of Prey (comic book) * Dolittle (book) * The Invisible Man (book) * The Call of the Wild (book) * Onward (original) * The Croods: A New Age (sequel) * Tenet (original) * Wonder Woman 1984 (sequal, comic book) Two originals. Now go back 20 years: * Mission: Impossible 2 (sequel) * Gladiator (book) * Cast Away (original) * What Women Want (original) * Dinosaur (original) * How the Grinch Stole Christmas (book) * Meet the Parents (remake) * The Perfect Storm (book) * X-Men (comic book) * What Lies Beneath (original) Four originals. Go back another 10 years: * Ghost (original) * Home Alone (original) * Pretty Woman (original) * Dances with Wolves (book) * Total Recall (short story) * Back to the Future Part III (sequel) * Die Hard 2 (sequel) * Presumed Innocent (book) * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (comic book) * Kindergarten Cop (original) Five originals. Another ten years to 1980: * The Empire Strikes Back (sequel) * 9 to 5 (original) * Stir Crazy (original) * Airplane! (original) * Any Which Way You Can (sequel) * Private Benjamin (original) * Coal Miner's Daughter (original) * Smokey and the Bandit II (sequel) * The Blue Lagoon (book) * The Blues Brothers (SNL sketch) Five originals again. I'm going by top box-office gross here because I think that's a good proxy for what is successful. You can look at other years, but there is a very clear (but not overwhelming) trend towards movies based on familiar content. It's not clear whether studios are leading audiences or vice versa. Probably some iterative process of both. There's also a clear trend away from dramas. I think that's because drama (and non-slapstick comedies) tend to rely heavily on specific cultural norms for their effect which makes them translate poorly. There is a very clear trend especially in the last decade or so of Hollywood focusing on movies that will also do well in China in particular.

throwawayboise 5y ago
Airplane was not strictly an original, it was a remake/spoof of Zero Hour from 1957 and more broadly spoofing the "disaster" film concept.
- 5y ago

watwut 5y ago

> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore[0] must just be looking at what's advertised heavily, is all I can figure. That would be me. I am utterly uninterested in superheroes and found movies I seen last years somewhere between boring repetitive and annoying. Tho I liked parazite and some of other international splash making movies. At minimum they used different tropes. I have no idea where those fun indie movies are nor how to find them. Like, where should I go to be able to find some I might like?

handrous 5y ago
1) Try film festival schedules or lists-of-what-showed from previous years. Not just Sundance and Cannes and such (though lots of the films shown at those are, in fact, good, so don't not look at those)—if you have any special genre or topic interests, there may be some festivals for them, so look up a few big ones and start browsing. Why previous years? Because those films usually aren't widely available the same year they're in festivals, and you'll get the benefit of reviews, if you don't want to just start blindly watching anything that looks interesting. 2) There are niche streaming services that specialize in genres, or in indie + international, films, which are great for finding all kinds of wonderful things you'd never have known about otherwise. mubi.com, for instance, features those sorts of films from all years, including recent ones. Shudder is a streaming service for horror films (horror is downright rich these days—I can provide lots of strong, varied recommendations from the last few years, if you're into that kind of thing). Stuff like that. Really, just look up lists of video streaming services and take a glance at the catalogues of any you've not heard of.
- hnu0847 5y ago
  > horror is downright rich these days—I can provide lots of strong, varied recommendations from the last few years, if you're into that kind of thing What would you recommend?
  - handrous 5y ago
    Oh no, I was afraid someone would take me up on that! Hahaha. No particular order. Since 2010ish. Not an exhaustive list of all good horror in that time frame. - You're Next. It's a trad home-invasion/slasher kinda thing but... then changes genre. I'll leave it at that. - Cabin in the Woods. Needs no introduction? Solid humor-horror. - Evil Dead. The soft reboot. Pretty good for the kind of thing it is, which is an Evil Dead-type movie, of course. - The Babadook. Great horror for people who like to be scared but don't want gore. Extremely efficient use of a tiny cast and very few locations. - It Follows. A core concept that's creepy as hell, and some damn fine imagery that will stick with you. Lots of moody, slow-paced (but good!) scenes but... it does follow. Unsubtly very much about the harmful aspects of sex and sexual behavior. - The Witch (or, The VVitch, as it's styled). If you like frontier-type stuff, with period-accurate dialog, plus horror, this will very likely be up your alley. Nb that here "frontier" means "New England, probably just a few miles in from the coast", not, like, the "Old West". - Bone Tomahawk. Action-horror that is set in the Old West. Not exactly a piece of fine film-making but it pretty much does exactly what it sets out to do, and does it well, which makes it a success in my book. - The Void. Carpenteresque creature work and Lovecraftian baddies. Excellent example of a throwback horror movie that aims to feel like it was made in another decade. - The Girl with all the Gifts. Some people liked this a lot more than I did, so I'm including it. I thought it was just OK. Basically a zombie movie, kinda. - Krampus. I'm not usually into Christmas-horror, which tends to be sub-b-grade garbage and otherwise just isn't to my taste, but watched this because I kept seeing it recommended, and... wow, it's actually good. Careful that you get the right film, there are a bunch with similar titles and I'd guess most of them are terrible. This is the 2015 one directed by Dougherty. - Get Out. I'd call it just OK (I don't... think I was supposed to find as much if it laugh-out-loud funny in the final act, as I did?) but accept that I'm probably wrong about that, given the overwhelmingly-positive reaction. - Train to Busan. Maybe my favorite zombie-hoards type of movie I've seen. - Sorry to Bother You. If you like genre-bending and lots of absurdism in your horror, this one's for you. - Happy Death Day. Slasher x Ground Hog Day, with that concept explored for just about all it's worth. Relatively light-hearted (it'd almost have to be) but not without tension. Sequel's less good—not awful, but a big step down. Same director made a similar film, "Freaky", that's another mash-up concept, and is quite good. - It Comes at Night. Uh... if you really like movies that make you kinda wish you'd never watched them, not because of, say, realistic gore, but because they sorta make your soul hurt, this is a very good movie of that kind. But maybe don't, though? - One Cut of the Dead. Brilliant concept, fun throughout. Not in any sense a traditional zombie movie, and I would 100% recommend it to people who usually don't like zombie movies. Don't spoil it, go in as cold as possible. It's one that is much better if you know almost nothing about it before you start. - Game Night. Horror-adjacent, at least. Not amazing but another one that I watched after being repeatedly assured by many people that it was much better than it looked like it would be (it looked pretty bad), and it was. - Hereditary. I hated this one but it's another where my opinion is way, way in the minority. Lots of people love it. - Colour out of Space. If you can tolerate, or actually enjoy, Nic Cage, and like Lovecraftian horror, this is worth a watch. Good FX work. - The Last Matinee. By-the-numbers slasher set in a Uruguayan movie theater, in the 90s. Great kills, the right kind of gross, good set-up/pay-off, good at making you care enough about almost everyone that you're sad when they get got. Requires tolerance for subtitles. - Caveat. Tight little small-cast film (I think it was a during-the-pandemic production, maybe?). Very stupid-sounding premise that ends up making enough sense in the film itself, and a lot more by the time it's over. - Vicious Fun. I probably like this one more than it deserves, but I do like it. Horror-comedy, heavy on very winking-at-the-camera references to other horror films and the genre itself. It gets a little bit of the bad kind of indie-feeling in some of the shot choices and acting, but the way it keeps delivering even when you think it's winding down or running out of tricks is outstanding. Did not go the direction I thought it would, judging just from a short description of the plot. - My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To. Probably the art-housest film on this list, so keep that in mind before deciding to watch it—you're not in for a standard horror experience, though there is tons of tension and definitely some murderin'. Very good, though. Strongly recommend avoiding spoilers as discovering what the movie's about is a big part of the experience. - The Haunting of Hill House. OK, so it's a self-contained season 1 of an anthology series, not a movie, but it's (like The Babadook) a really good watch for people who like horror but not a bunch of gore or a sky-high body count. Creators seem to both know what themes are and how to use them for horror, which wouldn't be impressive in an ideal world, but is in this one.

masayune 5y ago

how do you find these good, low budget movies? would love to know your discovery process

johnchristopher 5y ago
Personnaly I regularly check out the sundance festival entries and anything produced by annapurna and https://a24films.com/ https://a24films.com/
wwweston 5y ago
Find someone who is more into movies than you are and talk to them regularly. :) I got introduced to a bunch last year by making the acquaintance of a film grad student who ran a movie club that met via Discord every Saturday night to discuss a film of the week. I think this could also probably be approximated by finding someone into film on social media, or watching entries accepted into well-regarded film festivals, or if you happen to have an active mom & pop video store in your area, talking with the clerks.
bloat 5y ago
I use Letterboxd. Its pretty easy to get started, look up a bunch of movies you know you like, read some of the reviews, follow some people who seem like they know movies and would be into interesting stuff, and then see what comes your way.

reaperducer 5y ago

Hollywood started churning out tons of remakes about as early in their history as they possibly could, and never stopped. Very true. From the 1930's until now, the percentage of Hollywood films that aren't recreations of an earlier film, a book, or a play is vanishingly small. To be sure, there is still a good number of original films, even big-name ones, but those are very few and far between.

trynewideas 5y ago
Broadway celebrates revivals, but Hollywood is almost ashamed of remakes. There's a Tony award for best revival, but only a Raspberry for worst remake. Both are a form of unoriginal profiteering, on at least a business level. Maybe it's the permanence of a film compared to the ephemerality of a live performance, but the vast difference in how they're received has always bugged me.