The 21st Century Film

Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I guess you could say the same for comedies and horror, that they always draw on the present anxieties and neuroses of the time. (00s "man child" comedies - e.g. are reflective of the changing conception men have of themselves in relation to women and other men)

Similarly I'm sure there were plenty of apocalyptic sci fi films before the 00s but they wouldn't have been so markedly about climate change, pandemics etc
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
The mainstreamification of zombies is notable, I suppose ("what would you do in a zombie apocalypse" etc.)

A lot of cult horror culture became mainstream as the fans of that stuff became the directors/producers of today (and NERD culture)

Also once again probably the biggest example of that was "The Walking Dead" which points up that you can't really talk about cinema in the 21st century without talking about TV

TV (aka Streaming) and cinema have become a lot more interchangeable it seems to me. Even the big, effects driven stuff with loads of CGI – Game Of Thrones being the obvious example
 
william_kent

william_kent

Well-known member
21st CENTURY AUTEURS

1: Sion Sono. ( LOVE EXPOSURE is my favourite 21st century film, will explain when I am sober ) ( successful transition to long form video, see DEEP FOREST or VAMPIRE HOTEL on amazon or Netflix, I can't remember which way round, but either way my favourite director of the 21st century )
2: Takashi Miike ( if only for GOZU, "DEATH IS NOT THE END", but LESSON OF EVIL is like a rollercoaster, the guy is responsible for so many amazing films, I'll argue that there were a few duds along the way, but the good outweighs the shite )
3: Nicolas Winding Refn. ( Bronson was admittedly rubbish, but I'll allow one misstep, otherwise incredible )
4: David Lynch ( he's still got it...TWIN PEAKS RETURN maybe the greatest long form video EVER ) (is INLAND EMPIRE 21st century? If so,DAVE deserves a bump to the number 3 spot sorry Nick )
5: Kim Di-kuk ( lol, he is a sick bastard, etc, my kinda guy (whooo! not literal, I do not condone molesting actresses on set or anything like that, but "art') )

edit: these are the directors who I will pay good money to see their latest work, everyone else "can get tae fuck"
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Toxic Masculinities

The Fighter
The Joker
The Killer Inside Me
300
The Fast and Furious franchise
Creed
The Wrestler
The Expendables
Rambo: Last Blood
Angel Has Fallen
Parker
Jack Reacher
Wrath of Man
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Descendants of the 80s action film and Fight Club. The flipside of Swingers and the Man Child Comedies. Films that straddle a fine line between cynicism and sentiment, self-parody and power-worship. Often politically reactionary, implicitly authoritarian or simply nihilistic. If Vince Vaughan was the ultimate Untermensch of the Man Child Comedy then the Toxic Masculinities films contain too many heroes and antiheroes to really have any at all. Whatever subtleties these films ever had have been (like Wall Street) stripped away by the fans, finally leading to the cultural phenomenon of Andrew Tate.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I considered adding Master and Commander: Far Side of the World to the Toxic Masculinities list, but I didn't want to upset the lads.
 
Ian Scuffling

Ian Scuffling

Well-known member
version said:
Therapeutic Horror

Basically any of the recent wave where the real monster's grief or trauma or whatever. Pop psychology wearing a bed sheet.
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Much of A24 falls under this. Subsuming some of the great filmmakers they've put on the map under the name of a distributor I think devalues their work (like the Safdies) by placing it alongside the dreck you're talking about, so while I don't disagree with @catalog I think it's worth the effort to not exclude good indie films of the last 12ish years that weren't released by A24 as well as not give undue credit to the garbage A24 frequently puts out (Ari Aster's work).
 
Ian Scuffling

Ian Scuffling

Well-known member
craner said:
Toxic Masculinities

The Fighter
The Joker
The Killer Inside Me
300
The Fast and Furious franchise
Creed
The Wrestler
The Expendables
Rambo: Last Blood
Angel Has Fallen
Parker
Jack Reacher
Wrath of Man
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Descendants of the 80s action film and Fight Club. The flipside of Swingers and the Man Child Comedies. Films that straddle a fine line between cynicism and sentiment, self-parody and power-worship. Often politically reactionary, implicitly authoritarian or simply nihilistic. If Vince Vaughan was the ultimate Untermensch of the Man Child Comedy then the Toxic Masculinities films contain too many heroes and antiheroes to really have any at all. Whatever subtleties these films ever had have been (like Wall Street) stripped away by the fans, finally leading to the cultural phenomenon of Andrew Tate.
Click to expand...
An interesting flipside to this - not toxic nor exemplary, but perhaps meditative or redemptive? Notably the two examples that immediately jump to my mind are First Reformed and You Were Never Really Here, both from auteurs established in the 20th century. Essentially films following isolatos doing simultaneous spiritual and political battle with older masculinities, in Schrader's case even ones he's responsible for creating. Possible additions: Under the Silver Lake, Blue Ruin, Burning, Killing Them Softly, First Cow.
 
Ian Scuffling

Ian Scuffling

Well-known member
I'm surprised no one's mentioned some of the slow cinema practitioners of the 21st century. Can't think of a clever name for this list but my contributions would be the works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Jia Zhangke, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
 
kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

Well-known member
The Beast which recently released this year deserves a mention. It does not take place entirely in the 21st century, but the section of the film that does is, greatly influenced by lynch and depalma in its LA setting and Elliot Rodgers insert character. Thematically, it also lends a lot to feel like of film that is of this time.
 
Ian Scuffling

Ian Scuffling

Well-known member
kid charlemagne said:
The Beast which recently released this year deserves a mention. It does not take place entirely in the 21st century, but the section of the film that does is, greatly influenced by lynch and depalma in its LA setting and Elliot Rodgers insert character. Thematically, it also lends a lot to feel like of film that is of this time.
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I mean I think we're talking more about films released in the 21st century regardless of setting. There's certainly an interesting conversation to be had about the trends in science fiction over the last 10 years or so, with Julia Ducournau and both Cronenbergs' work especially. Really excited to see The Beast and that new Coralie Fargeat film with Margaret Qualley.
 
WashYourHands

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Rambo birthed Andrew Tate? Cosmic

Awaits footage of Tate jumping into conifers off cliffs, sawing up arm lacerations without pain management and leading law enforcement through a labyrinth of old mine workings, only to eventually lay siege to his local police hq’s
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
WashYourHands said:
Rambo birthed Andrew Tate? Cosmic

Awaits footage of Tate jumping into conifers off cliffs, sawing up arm lacerations without pain management and leading law enforcement through a labyrinth of old mine workings, only to eventually lay siege to his local police hq’s
Click to expand...

Not First Blood, which is a very different kind of film.
 
WashYourHands

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Aye I have no idea of the content beyond First Blood, beyond some kind of Vietnamese revenge porn slaughter

He’s different from stereotypical Arnie roles in a way too because at least Arnie had punchlines and voodoo magic
 
version

version

Well-known member
The fourth one's in Burma. He's working as a snake handler in Thailand and gets roped into escorting some missionaries who end up being captured by the Burmese army. Rambo and a group of mercenaries go in and do Rambo things to get them back, like ripping a man's throat out with his bare hands and blowing a couple of guys through the windscreen of their jeep with the gun on the back. A modern classic.

 
luka

luka

Well-known member
funny how all these 15 year old americans know way more about cinema than grandad craner
 
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