Tom Jolliffe on the dumbing down of cinema…
The accusation of dumbing down seems to come up a lot in recent years. It runs through everything. Society in general, culture, media, music and film. So lets focus on film. It would be wrong to suggest that rudimentary plotting (for easy spoon feeding) hasn’t been around for decades in film. It has. It’s at the other end of the spectrum. Those films which challenge and engage us more intellectually, or even just emotionally. They are becoming less common, whilst the easily ingestible are the films that seem to get bankrolled with far more frequency.
It’s not to say you can’t do a film that is inherently simple. A good blockbuster is essential in cinemas make up. We need The Avengers to keep the gate receipts bursting at the seams. They don’t ask interesting questions, but it’s not their remit. Effort goes in and the results are entertaining. They’re simple without undermining the intelligence of the viewer. No, the problem lies when audiences are sold projects where the bare minimum amount of thought has gone in. Nothing has been considered beyond, “will this make a huge profit at the box office?” We’ve just had a film released that arguably better represents the notion of dumbing down at it’s grimiest level than anything else. A potential game changer in the worst possible way. The Emoji Movie.
So why would this film, based off emojis (that’s the little smiley faces you can put on a text dad. In case you were wondering) be potentially so influential? Here’s the thing; The internet has given us great freedoms. We’re now in an era when YouTube videos will grasp more viewers than even the biggest films of the year will pull into a theatre. What’s on these videos? Cats falling off things. People doing mediocre cover versions of songs. Make up and clothing tips (okay that could be classed in some manner as educational, so I suppose that can slide). It allows nerds like myself, with some bubbling embitterment about the 80’s being over, to vent my spleen (which is obviously a good thing). Prank videos (many of which are ingrained with an underlying nastiness, but somehow people in the millions seem to find them funny). These are 4-5 minute nuggets of “entertainment.” No thought or investment is required from the viewer beyond loading the page. On YouTube you don’t even have to click play, it’ll do it automatically. Slap your keyboard in the right place with an ape-like and belligerent club of your fist and the video might even go full-screen.
Several YouTube “stars” have already made films. I’m not completely dismissing the format. It’s a great tool for those who use them and opens up avenues that may have been lost to them. We’re looking at potentially the evolution point beyond TV. The next stage. There are also some effective proponents of their fields. I’ve watched a fair few vids from the Angry Video Game Nerd. I enjoy Honest Trailers and a few others. Like anything, when you go back to the well again, and again, things lose their vibrancy. Those trailers now just aren’t that amusing anymore, because we’ve seen the gag countless times. But when you are in control of your own network, you have the ultimate say on cancellation. It’s not in someone else’s hands. Plus at 4 minutes, your fans don’t have to give much to keep coming back. Click, play, done. Does it wear thin? Yes, but it doesn’t matter.
The thing is, we’re seeing this culture seeping into mainstream film. Comedic videos and skits on YouTube have few filters. Keep within the visual restrictions laid out on the site and you’re fine. You’re not governed by ratings in the same way as film. Be as crude as you like. Jokes lack invention and timing. Humour at its most crass. It’s not a new concept by any means, but cheap humour seems to go down well on the internet. The trouble is, now studios seem to think audiences don’t mind this. The Emoji Movie runs repeated gags about an emoji turd, or you have the recent remake of Baywatch. They dumbed down a TV show that was one of the dumbest ever made, stripped any of the charm it once had and turned it into a dreadfully unimaginative film that relied too much on crude humour. On YouTube anyone can be a comedy writer. In reality, not everyone can do it. If comedy film writers don’t think about construction and payoff of a gag with much more forethought than a dick joke, then we’ll get to the stage anyone can write a comedy film.
Improv is not a new concept either. Comedy videos on YouTube may often have an off the cuff element. It may sometimes work in the 3 minute concept if the performer is naturally sharp. In film the improv notion seemed to be re-popularised with Anchorman (still the finest modern example). It allowed the actors freedom to riff. A lot of films since have followed the formula. However this new “freedom” to take away the craft from a script (which will lay down a structure, when done right) and let your performers dictate scenes becomes indulgent and destructive when it doesn’t fit. You only need to watch the embarrassing outtakes from last years Ghostbusters remake. Or any of the countless dumb comedies being greenlit (which seem to star Zac Efron and/or Aubrey Plaza). Sometimes carte-blanche doesn’t work.
Everything gets reduced to attempts at Meme moments. A line or even a facial expression that may become internet folklore. The ability to screen cap something and label it has led to a lot of recognisable Memes. You’ll have seen one of a few Nic Cage pics, probably from Vampire’s Kiss. That film is now as famous for 2-3 minute clips and Memes as it ever was as a complete story. If I’m being honest I only discovered the brilliance of the film through Memes and a Nic Cage overacting compilation. There’s more pre-occupation with creating viral snippets than the film as a whole.
This isn’t just confined to comedy. It’s not just about wilful creative neglect. It’s a notion that audiences are slowly being drained of their attentive powers and studios cater to it. Maybe there’s a little truth to that. This is the net age, the smartphone age. Everything is easy now. Some people have become near incapable of concentrating for a 2 hour film. The phones come out. That little blue arc of light shooting up above from a seat a few rows down. Another to your right, then left. Suddenly you’re not in a cinema watching a film, you’re in a rock concert. It’s these people increasingly who are being catered to. Lowest common denominator filmmaking. Look at poor attempts at paint by numbers blockbusters like Terminator Genisys or The Mummy. Light humour, gags. Overt facial expressions. No attention paid to cohesion. Set pieces that go for scale first, over consideration of pacing, tension and thrills. “The sequence is big so it’ll work.” “This actress was in Game of Thrones. People will like her.” “Does she fit the role?” “Who cares?”
You’d probably look at the ever growing list of franchises, remakes, reboots and adaptations of tween fiction to know that creativity is being pushed aside by convenience. It’s far easier to put your efforts and money into making a sequel than creating something original and clever like Get Out. Continually taking the easy option, or going for the safe bet is going to create a cinematic culture of laziness that may become difficult to shake off, and when it gets to a point where a guy like Jordan Peele crafts a screenplay that’s insightful, witty and fiercely intelligent, but can’t get fincanced, then we’ve got problems. Culturally we may be embracing this dumbing down to an extent, but studios, as is their wont, overestimate the factor. They’re catering now, for what our level of attentiveness and thirst for challenge may be in 10 years. The scary part is how true it could become. But what about 10 years from now, when studios start catering toward an attitude from a further 10 years ahead? I honestly hope things get better and not worse. It becomes increasingly difficult these days to find interesting cinema. If it gets to a point of near-impossibility it’s going to be tough. Much like the environment, the attitude of “it doesn’t effect me now” doesn’t cut it. The trend needs to change now. It’s time to start climbing the hill rather than taking the easy roll down it.
Tom Jolliffe
