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Discussion
Whatever happened to the legacy of high brow pseudo-intellectual movies like:
—The Ice Storm (1997)
—American Beauty (1998)
—Wonder Boys (2000)
I saw American Beauty when I was about 12-13 and it kind of blew my mind in terms of like social rebellion and anti-conformity themes. It was a box office success and won Academy Awards while Wonder Boys isn’t about a dysfunctional family per se but has similar social themes and college-type intellectual window dressing.
I saw The Ice Storm a few years later but don’t see movies like this much anymore. I assume that ensemble dramas just aren’t marketable anymore, although movies with sexual transgressions are always sort of attractive to certain American demographics. I remember reading that screenwriter Alan Ball tried to write American Beauty as a stage play first—these kinds of movies have the trappings of the metaphysical musings and characterization and dialogue of a stage play, like Ibsen’s A Doll’a House or something.
You can almost imagine Tobey Maguire in the Wes Bentley role in American Beauty. Maguire was in The Ice Storm and Wonder Boys.
Any other good movies like this you can think of? How would you describe them?
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Movies that center around good plot and dialogue are still around, they're just made and distributed independently. The big studios are doing remakes and superhero movies these days. Find a theater that also runs independent films and you'll enjoy the movies again. Enjoy!
I appreciate the invitation. I have three young kids so nights out at the theatre are not common.
I am thinking of Alexander Payne movies having this streak: About Schmidt, Sideways, The Holdovers.
Are there any indie movies from the last 10-15 years you’d recommend similar to Linklater or Payne?
I would put Banshees of Inisherin and Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri in this category
I’m curious. What do you think the definition of “pseudo-intellectual” is?
I guess, in retrospect, now that I’m older, rewatching the above movies makes me think they haven’t aged all that well, and are more a product of their time. Like I said, I was 12-13 when I first saw American Beauty. It was “deep.”
So you’re looking for movies that 13 year olds find deep today but in 25 years will look back and not think so?
Wonder Boys is the only of the list to age gracefully.
I watched it today and felt it was a bit pretentious!
The story isn't but the characters are by virtue of their field in academia, which the movie definitely makes fun of.
2 of the 3 films you mentioned flopped at the box office. American Beauty was the only big hit
Agreed. I’m not surprised by this. I guess I’m just asking for more recommendations of movies like this with that sort of suburban social rebellion.
I can look through my IMDB for some.
The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and Bluebird (2013) are very similar and quite good, suburban isolation and displacement.