Time to whine about Hollywood, again...

I haven't watched the Oscars, but have to say, my interest level (and, I suspect, that of most of the world) regarding nearly all of the nominated movies might just about be at a record low this year.  (I have almost certainly said something similar about previous year's selections, but I can't be bothered checking right now as to which have been the worst.)

I say that having attempted to watch Sinners on whatever streaming service it is on.  I watched it with my son, who is more into dark (/black) movies than me, and we were both completely un-engaged at the 45 minute mark and gave up on it.   Sure, I understand it starts having some good music later, but really, there were no especially sympathetic characters that I can recall, and the friendship between the Chinese family and the black main characters felt a little, um, contrived? for the era.  

And for something that is seen as a black empowerment project, I thought the film seemed to play right into the hands of conservative (and long standing) racist criticism that black people are (shall we say) oversexed and can't help but engage in it at the drop of a hat.

Maybe it all turns around later in the film, but given that I'm not the world's biggest vampire movie fan, one has one's doubts.   All I know is that a dubious mash up of a film should open more engagingly than this one...

As for Marty Supreme:  virtually all reviews said there were no likeable characters, and as soon as I heard it was directed by the same guy who made Uncut Gems - which I complained about here as being un-watchable with its noisy, shouty audio a particular issue, I knew it would not be for me.   (And since then, I was listening to two Brisbane ABC radio hosts just last week who said they both found it completely underwhelming and full of unpleasant people shouting at each other.)   

One Battle After Another might be OK, I guess:  but it's one of those movies which I have heard so little about (for a fairly big budget film with big actors) that I automatically suspect that it doesn't hit the mark, as it's modest box office also suggests.  I feel generally a bit "over" Leonardo DiCaprio too:  an actor who I feel is too often in movies too earnest for his own good.  (Actually, to be clear, I was never really a fan.)

Anyway, I don't think I'm alone in feeling Hollywood seems not to know what people are able to get excited about anymore.  It's like we're waiting for a new genre to be invented to get us engaged again, but no one know what it is...