(note: I am challenging myself to write every day for 30 days. What follows may not necessarily be interesting or even coherent. Parental discretion is advised.)
Last night at the Golden Globes awards hosted by Ricky Gervais was quite the jaw-dropper in how brutally he eviscerated various of the celebrities in attendance. Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cats, sequels/rehashes/remakes; all were targets for Gervais to snipe at.
And boy did he land those shots.
Have a listen at the opening monologue to see for yourself.
In ye old days of drive-ins and VHS, I have loved much of what Hollywood put out. From E.T. to Nightmare On Elm Street, The Goonies and heck, Care Bears Adventures; growing up, I thought Hollywood was imaginative, original, creative and full of passion and commitment towards the art of storytelling.
Now as a jaded adult wearing his nostalgia goggles, even I would have to agree with Gervais that a lot of the criticism he heaped onto Hollywood’s elites seemed well deserved. I grew up in an era where stars like Harrison Ford, Nicole Kidman, Arnold Schwarzenegger all appeared larger than life and exuded this sense of… being “more” than the rest of us. Like, these actors and actresses somehow represented in an archetypal way the peak of human evolution in that they were far more attractive, intelligent and charismatic than any one of us mere mortals could ever hope to be.
Gods and Goddesses forged within the fires of Hollywood.
Now, times have changed. We don’t see celebrities in the same way we used to. They no longer enjoy the level of worship and fame bestowed upon them in the past. Instead, we see flawed human beings struggling to maintain a persona within an industry known for greed and exploitation.
The “monologue” Gervais unleashed last night is as good a reflection as any on the current state of Hollywood and it’s agenda. He mirrored the contempt that many of us felt towards these “Gods” and the machine that helped in manufacturimg them.
It made me wonder how his contempt and open disrespect was tolerated by whomever is responsible for giving Gervais the green light to say what he said. Would you hire someone to host a prestigious event knowing that they will ridicule and embarrass the attending guests?
Why would you allow for someone to bite the hand that feeds them? Because he’s “funny”?
It’s the Golden Globe awards. Not a roast. Seems like they didn’t learn anything from Seth McFarlane hosting the Oscars.
Personally I’ve never liked Ricky Gervais for his sarcastic and negative sense of humor. He’s not Bill Hicks, Charlie Murphy, George Carlin, Jim Carrey, Mitch Hedberg or a Jim Gaffigan. To me, he’s about on the same level as whats her name… that chick with the comedy special nobody liked and the one who pretended to fall down in front of Kayne/Kim because she thought it was funny… Oh yeah, Amy Schumer.
Bleh.
But I have to admit it was amusing to see the reactions of the guests. It almost seemed like whoever authorized Gervais’s script wanted Hollywood to be punished in a perverse sadomasochistic way. Watching celebrities like Tom Hanks and Tim Cook flinch and scrunch their faces did make for an entertaining time, I admit. The squirm was real.
It was all done with open contempt and it certainly seemed like a needed reckoning for an industry that for too long has placed profit above it’s art.
Because everyone loves a good movie. As a film aficionado, I could see the decline of storytelling appear around the early 2000s. A good example of how radically film-making has shifted comes from examining Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Those were epic films. Fellowship, Two Towers and Return of the King. Each did not rely upon badly done computer effects that made actors look as if they were juxtaposed alongside a cartoon. Trolls and orcs and all such monsters appeared believable and realistic. Acting was well done. The music was inspired. Tolkien’s story was done justice.
With Lord of the Rings, Jackson created a masterpiece that will endure for years and decades to come.
…And then he did the Hobbit.
When it was announced that Jackson was going to split Hobbit into three parts, many fans reacted with derision and disbelief, feeling such a decision to be motivated purely by financial reasons. Why would the Hobbit at 300 pages need three separate films when by contrast, Fellowship of the Ring was done as a single movie based on a book with 479 pages?
It didn’t make sense from a storytelling perspective. And the Hobbit was wretched. Gone was everything we liked about the LOTR trilogy. In came the “new” Hollywood which was focused on special effects and brand name recognition at the expense of telling a tightly focused and gripping story.
So this, as well as the popularity of superhero films, really became the moment Hollywood went from making movies that elevated and honored storytelling to films that provided little more than a glittering spectacle that many of us will quickly forget about.
Look, they remade the Flintstones. And… God, man… the Fast and the Furious movies are to blame for films that pander to the spectacle crowd.
Robocop? C’mon… Did we need that one? Remake the Ghostbusters with an all-female cast? Why? Charlie’s Angels with wooden actresses?
And what happened to you Pixar? Swallowed up by the Disney machine? Originality no longer allowed?
What I imagine is happening is that when a film does well at the box office, studio executives deconstruct it’s elements. They write down all the reasons for its success. Looking at the Fast and the Furious films for instance, it can be broken down to answers ranging from “diversity” “intense special effects and action” “machismo” “beautiful women” “engaging music” “youth-centered demographic”, etc. The story itself is the last thing Hollywood seems to care about. Just look at the eighth season of Game of Thrones or the television show “Lost” which helped popularize the “anything goes and we don’t have to bother explaining it” method of storytelling. Just keep viewers hooked. Do whatever it takes.
Except to provide a good story.
Instead of original and compelling new ideas, Hollywood is churning out films designed to make a buck. Designed by a “woke” committee that feels it is important to ensure “diversity” “feminism” and sociopolitical agendas to be inserted and “fairly” represented in films. We can no longer go to the movies to escape the real world of political and social “wokeness”. Hollywood is now a cultural narrative machine that tries to please everyone but satisfies few.
And it seems that Gervais is mirroring what we many of us think about Hollywood today. Nepotism, exploitation, a lack of creativity, child molestation, pompous egos and “woke” culture… It’s depressing to see what I once loved fall from such grand heights.
That is not to say good movies or television shows aren’t being made anymore, it just means they’re much harder to come by. The new Star Wars for instance, really took a steaming dump over the nostalgia of my youth with it’s “modernization” and “subversion of expectations” of such a revered cultural work of art. Because that is what movies are supposed to be. Art. Modern day mythology. It is the equivalent of plays and myths that the Romans and Greeks used to love and enjoy and passed onto generations to follow.
Real art endures. It lasts. Fifty years from now our kids will still watch the Matrix and nobody is going to care at all about Fast & The Furious or the female reboot of Ghostbusters beyond such films being cultural oddities and relics of their time.
One saying that I am particularly fond of is that art is a reflection of humanity’s spirit. When we see movies without imagination, without focus, without attention to detail and respect for storytelling; it tends to echo the demands of us, the movie-going public who pays money. Society. If we view movies as a product to be consumed rather than as an art to admire, we will be given more of what is demanded and not what is actually needed.
All this is not to say that cinema is dead. Christopher Nolan continues to push the envelope, the Joker actually was a brilliant film even if it was derivative and depressing, and we have a new Dune coming out that looks deliciously ambitious with much epicness and spice to be had.
Also, television has been given a new life on streaming services like Amazon Prime, Netflix and Disney plus. The Boys, the Witcher and the Mandalorian all manage to tick the right boxes in terms of placing storytelling at the forefront with effects and ideas that engage rather than distract.
Hollywood at the moment, is being put on notice. As we are seeing with negative reactions to Rise of Skywalker and Game of Thrones. Too much “wokeness” or spectacle is going to push viewers away rather than draw them in. It seems like we’ve accepted sub-par writing and shoddy storytelling for far too long. We no longer are willing to accommodate the monstrous egos that Hollywood has promoted and protected.
The tide is beginning to turn.
Thanks Ricky Gervais.
Hollywood needed a spanking.
