Anyway, while I was home I rented "Away We Go," that movie with John Krasinski (Jim from the Office) and Maya Rudolph. It's about a slacker couple who are having a baby, and they go visit friends all over the country to decide where to raise the kid. That's the plot. It's directed by Sam Mendes (who directed "American Beauty" and "Revolutionary Road") and Dave Eggers helped write the script. Good indie credentials!
And it was a legitimately sweet movie. I liked it more than I thought I would, but the whole time I couldn't stop thinking about how all these sweet little indie love stories are the same these days. The characters are always similar (goofy, sweet guy and "interesting," slightly edgy girl) and there's always a soundtrack of mellow indie rock.
Has anyone noticed that since Garden State came out, this formula has been followed a lot? I'm thinking of 500 Days of Summer, Juno, Nick and Norah, etc. And it seems to be hugely successful. The thing is, these movies put themselves in a kind of counter-hegemonic light - they seem to be subverting what we expect from a mainstream movie because the characters are quirky and alternative, the soundtracks feature little-known bands, and the dialogue is full of sometimes-obscure pop culture references. When Garden State came out, it really did seem like a new kind of thing. But now, I kind of get the sense that this format is played out. It seems in trying to resist the current big studio hegemony, these movies (many of them are produced by divisions of major studios, in fact) are kind of just making a new template. It's not really imaginative anymore.
The more movies I see, the more I understand that truly original filmmaking is becoming harder and harder to find in major studio productions, even when they're trying to be "alternative." It's not that I don't like these Garden State-esque movies, I just feel a little pandered to. It may be time for a new mold!
No comments:
Post a Comment