Actually, if you would go and watch the barbie movie instead of bitching about it you would find a very good Oscar worthy movie which humorously points out several flaws in our current society hiding in plain sight.
And truly, what or who is bigger then oppenheimer in modern history? The man literally changed the world and is more or less the reason behind the longest period of peace in the west and beyond. It turned out that fear, deterrence, is the only thing that keeps war away.
They got that message loud and clear in Iran and Northern Korea. Especially after what happened in Libya and Syria.
Anyway, politic bullshit aside so far 2023 is, I think, a very good year for cinema.
Next to that I've seen this meme repeat itself yearly over the last five years. It's getting tiresome. It's time to think up a new one.
Not to derail your point, but I am 100% positive that the meme isn't saying Barbie is a bad movie at all. This meme isn't near as deep as you're giving it credit for.
It's making the observation that Hollywood has eroded its creative foundation to the point that there have only been two movies that anyone is talking about this year. Whereas in years past there would be dozens.
I have certainly noticed that over the last few years I care less and less about yet another Marvel movie or remake of an awesome 80s or 90s movie. It's extremely obvious why masterful productions like Barbie and Oppenheimer stand out above everything else this year. These would have been great movies in the 90s too, but they would have actually been competing against substantially more films that are worth talking about.
Studios used to make more films at lower budgets. Now they put all their eggs in fewer baskets. Theatres are struggling with the low volume of new releases.
Interestingly, Margot Robbie, the actress for Barbie, is actually a Lemmy user. I randomly found her in a thread talking about the movie industry strikes.
Holy shit, Pulp Fiction was done on $8.5 million. That seems absurdly cheap. I honestly figured it would be closer to Ace Venture, cost-wise.
Also The Crow and The Mask having matching budgets surprises me. I always assumed The Mask was a more expensive film given the amount of CG work it needed.
The Lion King and Shawshank Redemption also came out that year. There are probably other great ones, but I think those two have longer lasting influence than at least half the movies in this list.
The Shawshank Redemption's political subtext just seems so utterly naive today - and Forest Gump's is downright alt-historical.
Speed is just cop-prop, Interview With A Vampire glorifies yet another Antebellum South slave owner, The Crow is just right-wing revenge fantasy in goth clothing, and Ace Ventura's gross transphobia is so fucking ick it might just as well be used as a TERF training documentary.
Oh, and Maverick just wasn't that good to start off with.
Yup, I saw almost all of them in theater when they were released, except Shawshank I never saw it, yeah I know it's about the best movie in the world, but I never saw it, go figure. And I have not seen Maverick too.
Trying to think off the top of my head so I'm probably forgetting a lot but for 2023:
Beau is Afraid
Evil Dead Rise
Knock at the Cabin
The Boogeyman (haven't watched but heard it's good)
BlackBerry (Not horror but also a great 2023 movie)
For 2022:
The Menu
Pearl
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Black Phone
Mad God
A Wounded Fawn
Men
X
Spoonful of Sugar
Barbarian (thanks mr_sifl)
I think there's a lot of good movies coming out but they just don't get the same kind of social media attention as the biggest ones like Oppenheimer or Barbie