Two movies: Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, and Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolen are getting massive publicity before they come out because of a social media trend.
Why are these two movies sparking so much excitement, and will this help get people back into theaters?
It would be interesting to analyze the new era of film marketing and what made the marketing of these films successful.
To be fair, Barbie and Oppenheimer are very different films with (presumably) very different target audiences. An interesting angle to look at would be how the 'Barbenheimer' phenonmenon helped both these films, where instead of rivalling the two at the box office, it became a shared activity that helped both films with ticket sales.
Both directors have their individual fanbases and are known for making slightly out-of-box films, which may have what made them compatible. – Janhabi Mukherjee6 months ago
Adding to the note above, I think it might be good to also look at how watching the films back to back in whichever order you want might compliment some of the themes in the movies, to my understanding. I think, on top of the social media trending for these two movies, something about their storytelling, and perhaps overlapping of either story elements, camera work, or themes, likely also impacted the Barbenheimer phenomena, so, it may be worth the writer of this topic's time to look into those and see if it matches up with reaction to the Barbenheimer trend on social media. – Siothrún6 months ago
Nice topic, but too broad. Try zeroing in on just one or two aspects, as in the note above (as in, not "marketing" as a whole, but maybe just storytelling and camera work). – Stephanie M.5 months ago
I wonder whether this has happened before. That might give a point of contrast and allow the writer to build a theory around what happened here. I am curious about how films that are very different occasionally work together like we saw with Barbie and Oppenheimer. – Elpis19884 months ago
I saw a very interesting article that stated that Barbie and Oppenheimer are connected because they each represent a contributing factor to societal and environmental decline: cheap plastic in Barbie's case and nuclear war and fallout in Oppenheimer's. – Debs2 months ago
The subconscious is the basis of both Christopher Nolan’s movie Inception and is one of the most foundational theories created by the iconic Swiss psychiatrist. It would be interesting to see the correlations and the strands of ideas Nolan had taken from Jung’s work on the subconscious and applied it to the big stream. Taking a look at what are some of the "Easter Eggs" Nolan had within the film as an ode to Jungian thought.
This sounds like a fun topic! I really admire Nolan's work, and I am sure he went to extensive lengths to connect the film to known psychiatric theory. Perhaps this topic would be even more interesting if we looked at other, less explicit, psychiatric, pshycological, or even philosophical connections that could be drawn from the film - whether they were intended connections or not. Consider the work of people like William James, Wegner, Wenzlaf, and Kozak to name a few. – jkillpack5 years ago
Uncut Gems is a Netflix original film about a jeweler Howard Ratner played by Adam Sandler who makes a high-stakes bet that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime but simultaneously could end up in his death.
We see throughout the film, Howard takes numerous unnecessary risks as a gambling addict. In the end, even as he wins, he is murdered in cold blood. In a traditional story, this would be a sad ending, a tragedy.
But, viewing the film in the modern era, as a tale not about flying too close to the sun and instead about the greatest catharsis, an ultimate victory, and the immediate cessation of future suffering.
Howard if he continued living would have inevitably found himself in trouble, his addiction had led him to his death after all, but in the film during his greatest high, he is quickly and painlessly removed from any potential of that feeling to be lost by. He dies with his victory.
Black Swan, the obsession with being the best at the cost of all else.
Tar and the abusive teacher
Whiplash, the synthesis of obsession and abuse leading to a sort of harmony.
The films concern the performing arts in their various forms, each taking a distinct POV. But all of them run a similar line of thought which is "But at what cost"
At what cost do we sacrifice our essential being to become, "a great" in Whiplash?
Consequently what price is too high for "perfection" in Tar, and who pays when the tab is due?
If we aren’t our accomplishments, who are we in Black Swan?
In a society driven by a consumptive need to be the best, how much is too much to attain it?
It may be interesting to have The Perfection and I, Tonya as part of this discussion - especially in regards to the kind of personal motivations that drive the need to be best - even apart from individual ambition. – Janhabi Mukherjee6 months ago
You could make mention of Phantom Thread; this film includes a lot of references to psychoanalysis and the central character is a great example of the toxicity of a narcissistic perfectionist who projects his pedantry onto those closest to him. – Tahlia4 months ago
Explore regency era nostalgia and how it is a big part of contemporary culture. Also discuss the role of technology and how and why people yearn for the pre digital age.
Look at film and TV adaptations of the Regency era, such as Pride and Prejudice, Bridgerton, Emma, Becoming Jane, Belle, Sanditon, Death Comes to Pemberley, etc). Many of these are based on or around Jane Austen and her works. Discuss Austen’s influence on the Regency era and the subsequent rise in “Regencycore” in fashion and entertainment.
I think that Dimension 20's "A Court of Fey and Flowers" demonstrates a good answer to that question. Regency relies upon emotional stories, as opposed to totally power driven narratives. They aren't necessarily about the clash of big G Good, and big e Evil, but about the messy, dramatic, and difficult parts of people's lives. They can be very emotional, and very exciting. I believe people yearn for a pre-digital age (consciously or not, intentionally or not), because the human connection available was both not as overwhelming (as say the internet, which contains perhaps all of human knowledge?), and also more personal, more intimate, more direct. Screens are screens. They literally stand between the people connecting. Regency is just one of many eras/genres which predates digital and film tech (and one of the most recent periods) – skjamin1 year ago
-It's glamorous and opulent, sitting at a sweet spot of history between the dirty and unenlightened middle ages so you can portray royal elegance without having to ignore the dirty and superstitious reality of Medieval Europe, country estates are a much more romantic setting than a castle. -It also takes place just before the industrial revolution and all of the social problems associated with modernity, -Jane Austen, The Bronte Sisters, even Marry Shelly are really one of the earliest cohorts of female writers with an enduring legacy that can be tied to a specific literary movement (in my uneducated opinion) and thus those stories persevere.
– Cedarfireflies551 year ago
Regency-era popular culture pieces significantly identified the manifestation of affect. The crucial contribution of feelings and emotions parallel to or in opposition to rationalism portrayed the complexity of regency-era productions that made them appealing to the audience. I think the sudden surge of highly sexualized films and storylines and an obsessive focus on individual identities led more than a few frustrated viewers back to the era of romantic relationships where human emotions were valued and not over-analyzed psychoanalytical. – Golam Rabbani7 months ago
I might suggest limiting the discussion to pieces like Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Bridgerton, Becoming Jane, and the like. Nothing wrong with Death Comes to Pemberley or Belle, but I see these two as crossing into different genres or belonging in other discussions. That is, Belle has a Regency backdrop, but is more about her life and search for identity as a biracial woman. Death Comes to Pemberley is a P&P offshoot/pays homage, but is more a mystery story. – Stephanie M.6 months ago
Media literacy is the ability to understand and analyze works such as movies, television, books, and even video games. That said in recent years there’s been a notable lack of nuance in media discussions and even worse a rise in pushback against anything that challenges the audience’s comfort, claims such as "All sex scenes are useless", "protagonists shouldn’t be bad/do immoral things" and "There should be a clear lesson in a story"
46% of American adults in a survey say that they didn’t learn media literacy in schools, which begs the question of why not? What consequences have arisen due to low media literacy and how can they be corrected going forward?
A good place to look at whether or not audiences are losing media literary is on Booktok. Creators who critically review books are often slammed and shamed for taking the pleasure out of reading. When in all reality, readers do not want to be made to feel uncomfortable with the authors and reading themes they choose to support. – morgantracy5 months ago
"The Idiot Plot, of course, is any plot that would be resolved in five minutes if everyone in the story were not an idiot." — Roger Ebert in his review of Narrow Margin (1990)
The 2008 black comedy "Burn After Reading" by the Coen Brothers is a film of fools doing foolish things to disastrous consequences. Each character for the most part overestimates their own standing and refuses to see the world as it is, but is that ideologically driven, do these people within the story have ideologies? For a film that is based in D.C. and told from the perspective of a C.I.A operative it’s politics are remarkably scant, so then what drives each character to behave the way they do?
Of the antagonists in The Last wish, these two stand head and shoulders above the rest. But between them who can be argued to be the "better" villain.
Horner is a throwback, an old school villain, evil at his core. Unrepentant and callous his simplicity lends itself to easily understanding why he’s a villain but, that same simplicity could be critique as lazy or unoriginal due to him always taking the worst most inhumane option.
Contrasting him is Death. Death plays with Puss in Boots but is solely focused on him. It could be argued he is cruel and unfair but he’s literally death and that is his nature. Is his simplicity better than Horner’s due to him being more of a force of nature than an character.
What elements make each villain unique?
Great topic! Maybe comparing these villains to other villains in the shrek universe and puss in boots films would help strengthen this – Anna Samson1 year ago
Cool topic! Maybe comparing these two villains to other villains in all of the fictional universes you can think of that have a similar dynamic to both Jack Horner and Death would give some perspective to both these villainess characters in - Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
– PinkLisa8 months ago
