Future of Hollywood

With the wrong film winning the Oscar for Best Picture last night, I began thinking about the complete dichotomy there is between voters and viewers, and how it relates to the similar clash between critics and movie goers.

When a movie like Batman v Superman gets reviewed negatively, the general movie going audience needs to reconcile WHY they like the film despite its poor assessment by critics. I don’t think the same is applicable to the Academy awarding Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas or Moonlight over La La Land. Critics, for the most part, watch films differently than the general audience, and the scores they give reflect the broader scope of the film. With more moving parts to analyze, it’s more likely to lead to a separation between the audience and critics.

The Academy, however, is made up of members of the Hollywood community that consumes film on a level I would say lies closer to critics than movie goers. How then, can they, more times than not, give the wrong movie the statue?

The answer, as I see it, is indicative of the general Hollywood culture, and how it’s perceived in the majority of the country, and it is made up of two parts.  The first is one that, I would guess, most people see quite clearly, and that is the left leaning, P.C. cultured, and worst of all PANDERING nature that has taken over. The other part, I feel, is far more dangerous for the future of the film industry‘s perception among the general American population. Hollywood has long been famous for being made up of people who rely and thrive upon what people think of them. Something changed. They don’t care anymore. At least not the way they used to. They are much more content to make, promote and award films THEY like, than films that WE like. When a crowd pleaser like La La Land loses to a Hollywood pleaser like Moonlight, it runs the risk of putting off their source of income, at least to the extent they could have expected.