[BLOG] 2014: A Brief Look Back and a Look Ahead
Once again time hurdles forward and another year has come and, by midnight, will be gone. And while much of this year, like the years before it, was pretty much business as usual, I must say that 2014 has been a very transformative 365 days, both personally and for the country (if not the world). As 2015 lies mere hours away, I thought I’d take a moment to look back at the areas where I’ve observed the most noteworthy changes, some positive and some not so much.
Hollywood Increasingly Noticeable Limp
There’s a reason why the prediction of an impending Hollywood implosion made by long time buddies Steven Spielberg and George Lucas last year still looms over the roofs of nearly every major film studio. Despite a rather lucrative holiday season to counter some of the damage done, 2014 is predicted to end on a low point for the North American box-office, down 5% from last year. The year opened strong with successes like The Lego Movie and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but ultimately the summer months (where Hollywood is expected to make the bulk of its profits) were widely a disappointment. Even the year’s most profitable film, Transformers: Age of Extinction (also considered one of the year’s worst films) had to be rescued by the international market, a market that has pretty much saved most of the big budget movies this year. It would seem that I’m not the only one to be suffering from blockbuster fatigue, as the entire country is apparently losing interest in spending inflated ticket prices pictures that might not be worth the price of admission. Warner Bros didn’t get a second wind until it released the final installment in The Hobbit trilogy at the end of the year, and Sony (poor, poor Sony) just couldn’t catch a break at all. It’s not all doom and gloom for Hollywood however, as next year is expected to be far more profitable with some highly anticipated sequels expected to drop. Even still, it’s hard to ignore the pattern of declining interest in capes, spandex, dystopian teen angst, explosions, and toilet humor.
Independent Cinema Had a Good Year
While blockbusters may have been hurting in 2014, it would seem that Indie films are continuing to move along strongly. A lot of the “Best of” lists, including the lists of many mainstream critics, I’ve seen this month are widely populated by smaller budget fair like Boyhood, Selma and Nightcrawler. I find it tragic that, in my busy schedule, I was unable to see a number of these films, especially considering the praise many of them are getting. They are still on my “Must Watch” list though, so I know I’ll get to them eventually. In the meanwhile I can say that the Indie flicks that I did manage to see have definitely been worth the hype. Independent cinema continues to be an arena where ideas and imagination can be allowed to thrive without the burden of big budget studio interference. Quite a few actors are noticing this and are increasingly turning to these projects to really test their limits (I mean take a look at Captain America himself, Chris Evans, who delivered a solid performance in Bong Joon-ho’s science fiction/thriller Snowpiercer). Praise must be also given to first time directors too, like Justin Simien and his biting satire Dear White People, and Australian director Jennifer Kent and her deeply unsettling horror film The Babadook. While many folks will be looking forward to next year releases like Star Wars: Episode VII and Jurassic World (myself included), I will also be looking forward to future independent projects.
Post Racial United States Still a Delusion (But…)
This has been a very trying time for people of color in this country, and unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 12 months you’ll know why. Before I discuss the more heavy events that have been consistently making the news these past few months, I want to stick around in movies for just a moment longer. The movies are supposed to be a place where people go to take a breather from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. They’re supposed to be that place where you can either escape the real world for a couple of hours, or a place where you can sit back and meditate on the complexities that world without said complexities weighing you down. This year I have found it difficult to do this thanks to the voice of racism in Hollywood growing ever louder.
Two biblical epics were released in 2014; Darren Aranofsky’s Noah, and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings. Both of these films took Old Testament bible stories set in periods where the locales would have been populated by people of color and filled them with predominantly white English actors. When called out on these questionable casting decisions the filmmakers were dismissive at best, and out and out offensive at worst. The screenwriter for Noah tried to defend the casting by using the baffling logic that the race of the characters shouldn’t matter since they’re supposed to be “stand-ins for all people.” If that’s the case then why did the stand-ins for all people only look like white people? Ridley Scott was less tactful in his response the his film’s casting decisions. “I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such.” Smooth, Ridley.
Not even comic book movies are safe. When Fox announced that it would be rebooting The Fantastic Four, and that it would be casting African American actor, Michael B. Jordan, as Johnny Storm, a character traditionally white in the source material, the internet nearly had a heart attack. Throngs of angry commenters (mostly white, though sadly some of of color as well) sprung to their keyboards to try and defend why the character shouldn’t change, and to lament over the loss of the days where all superheroes were white instead of just most of them. The racial climate in this country this year has been truly vexing, made all the more frustrating by the fact that the place I would normally go to escape for a moment has also been engulfed by it. It hasn’t helped that a number of black celebrities have adopted the idea that turning a blind eye to their race will somehow fix the institution of racism in this country (Raven-Symoné and Pharrell Williams, just to name a couple; click here for one of our pieces on this budding “trend”).
And now on to the heavy stuff. It was hard to focus on the holiday season this year, as the closing months of 2014 were populated not by shoppers and caroling, but by protesters and “die-ins”. Across the United States police departments and the black community have been in a perpetual state of conflict over the continued harassment and killing of people of color by the police in this country, brought to a head by the refusal to indite Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo, the officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner respectively, two unarmed black men. The results of these cases have been met with country wide protests that have been only been increasing in volume. Ferguson, MO continues to see unrest as the police in the city become increasingly more militant, and New York is feeling the effects of this volatile situation as well, following the fatal shootings of two NYPD officers in Brooklyn by a deranged gunman claiming to be inspired by the social unrest.
I could go on about how it should go without saying that the deaths of those officers was tragic and unrelated to the predominantly peaceful protests, about how unfair it is that the protesters, families of those slain by police, and the black community as a whole, have to show support for the police losing their own, while being given no such reciprocity. I could go on about how terrible our media has been about covering these turbulent times. But if I did, then I would lose the real reason I bring all of this up. It’s easy to see the negative in what’s occurring in our country right now, to lose ourselves in the anger these events draw out of us. But in spite of all of this chaos, I see a bright spot. That the protests have not ceased, that more and more voices are joining in solidarity with those who are crying out for an end to this injustice, that the media has been doing everything in its power to slander the protesters yet still the movement grows, is a sign to me that things might actually get better. Unlike temporary fads like the “Ice Bucket challenge” the cry for an end to police brutality is showing no signs of stopping. Perhaps it is overly optimistic of me, but it is my hope that in 2015, this movement will be the catalyst for some real change in this country and its troubled history with race and law enforcement.
The Cynical Owl Continues to be Awesome
And to wrap this piece up, I’m going to end on one of the most positive developments of 2014. This year the Cynical Owl has seen some serious growth. We’ve had the successful screenings of several of our projects, including our short films Surfboard and She (both of which can be viewed here on our Youtube channel, which you should definitely subscribe to). As the organization bids farewell to this year and looks to the future, we are planning some big things that you, dear followers, should definitely want to stick around and be exited for. We will keep you posted on these surprises as they develop right here on our website. In the meanwhile I’d like to say to all of you that have supported us and continue to support us on our journey, have a happy and prosperous new year. I look forward to seeing all of you in 2015.