I agree with your comment on "heavy handedness". I think this is common in modern cinema in all forms. They fail to capture subtlety and come across as cartooni

I agree with your comment on "heavy handedness". I think this is common in modern cinema in all forms. They fail to capture subtlety and come across as cartoonish. For example, based on conversations I remember with the older generations from my early childhood, usually racism was not expressed as some sort of outright hatred. Far more common was just casual ideologies that were part of the thinking of the times and rooted in tribalism in general, but had an overarching affect on society. One of the old ladies at my church when I was a child told me, "birds of a feather flock together" regarding people of different races. They thought races should be kept separate and that problems came up when you mixed races together. To them, it was "just so" and just as casual as the thought "that businesses should not be open on Sunday" or whatever. It was a set of axioms that were ingrained in their thinking. But if you asked her if she hated black people, she would say "no, they're God's children", etc.