2023 - Cinematic Expectations
Paramount Pictures
So here I am again, back from obscurity. Where have I been you might ask? I’m afraid I don’t have the right response for the curious reader, or, at least one that I feel offers you sincere clarity. I’ve been busy, sure, personally and professionally. But I know it’s best to simply jump write in with some new, authentic and (one would hope) thought-provoking content.
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So, curious reader, am I unjustly vexed at our beloved cinema industry for its current vague intentions? Christmas movies, though not entirely without cause, have mostly fallen from cheesy yet charming into a more brash formula that, while entertaining, mostly borders on a festive-themed parody. Relationships, particularly those of family, are a thematic concern that warrants centre-stage in these features. I look to It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and question why I’ve still yet to see it in colour.
Elsewhere, I’m dogged by this sense that cinema has drifted towards an enigmatic presence over the last month or two, with the exception of one or two films that use the wonder of cinema as a very literal influence. It always has been this way, mysterious and undeniably alluring that is, but not since lockdown has it felt lacking in this manner. Ultimately, I’m no fan of extravagant CGI on an eye-watering scale. Besides, Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) will likely commercially surpass its predecessor, whether or not I buy a ticket.
With the Academy Awards somewhat imminent, oscar season, often a fertile period for cinema; if a little contrived, is late to the party this year. With Babylon (2022) and The Whale (2022) soon to be cinematically released in the UK, there remains some cause for excitement. But, outside of this, the plain looks a little barren.
Mostly I think it’s that I’m releasing how much I miss my happy place. Winter tends to have that dozing effect on me. In the comfort of the cinema, with my partner sitting next to me, mirroring my childish state of elation, I may as well be in paradise; nirvana; the promised land. Sincerely. It’s the one place I can switch off my adult-centric disposition and enjoy the spectacle as a child might, with purity and without agenda.
I look ahead further still to Oppenheimer (2023) Zach Braff’s first solo creative venture since Garden State (2004) and Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and realise there’s certainly light on the horizon. Barbie (2023), meanwhile, is certainly an intriguing prospect in context. A return to relative normality, then, it seems. Reasons for us to cross that golden threshold once more.
Cinema is overdue for a change in the status quo; a more concurrent supply of quality features with genuine depth, but a doubt the time will ever pass when I don’t long to be under its roof, with her.