I did see the death of Stalin. As satirical and funny as it was it was dirt cheap to make and I bet you steamed it. This stuff doesn’t work in theaters on the big screen.
All dialog.
Dialogue works perfectly well on the big screen. I’ll start the bidding with Casablanca and we can escalate from there. My larger point, however, is that good films are still being made and we should support them. The trick is finding them amidst all the sludge. They’re usually not on the streamers’ front pages, and if they are, it’s only briefly, in the “new this week” section. But they’re there, buried in the libraries. The first task is simply to learn that they exist; the big companies devote most of their advertising to lowest common denominator junk. The next is to figure what which service has them this month, as they do move around.
I’ll make a point to see the good films in the theaters if I discover them in time (and nowadays, if they get a theatrical release at all). I’ll stream them if I miss them in the theater, and of course if they’re good enough for rewatching, I’ll stream them after their theatrical run is done. Unfortunately in today’s environment, many of the good films — many of which don’t get expensive marketing campaigns — are out of the theaters long before most people are even aware of them.
The current environment threatens to set in motion a Gresham’s Law of filmmaking, in which the bad drives out the good. I think that’s what Barry Diller was driving at. It may be futile in the long run, but I think we should try to support the good stuff while it’s still being produced.
Of the films I listed, you’ve seen The Death of Stalin, which indeed a worthy film. I take it you were unaware of the others. May I suggest that some evening, after you get tired watching the grass grow and the paint dry, spend a few minutes online on watch some trailers. I won’t challenge you to sit through all the movies I recommended, but a 2-3 minute trailer will give you a flavor. And if you are intrigued enough to actually watch three or four of them, that’s not a bad batting average for my list.
I read reviews. I pay attention to other people’s recommendations. I watch trailers. It’s not foolproof, and if a streamed film doesn’t grab me pretty quickly, I’ll move on. But once it becomes a habit, a bit of screening goes a long way. There are some great films out there, but we can’t rely on the industry to bring them to our attention.