The Awe-Inspiring Beauty of Tom Cruise’s Shattered, Troll-like Face

Summary

In this article, the author discusses the divide between successful movies and interesting movies. He claims that movies have become less thought provoking and have skewed more toward efficiency, because this will bring in more money. In the past, films would validate social evolution and introduced a vision for the future. However, modern reality has become less concrete and many of the situations and characters that were prevalent in older movies are no longer applicable to modern film.The author’s other main compliant was the lack of an audiences concern for the more introspective concepts introduced by films such as What is reality? He claims the shift in the contrast between modern and older films is due to the fact that film present an object reality, but situational reality is often more complex so audiences feel a disconnect between them and the story being told to them.

Example

While reading this article, I was reminded of the movie Inception (2010). In Inception, a team of 4 (including Leonardo DiCapprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy) have the ability to enter people’s memories and use this skill to steal information. In the beginning, Leonardo DiCapprio recruits Ellen Page to join their team and teaches her how to create a new reality within a person’s dreams. However, the main concern through out the movie was the risk of becoming trapped within the subconscious and losing their grip on reality. DiCapprio’s character had done this before with his wife and it led to her losing her understanding of reality. The end of the move leaves us with an ambiguous answer as to whether he is in reality or is once again stuck in his subconscious.

Connection

The article and Inception are similar because the author is asking the same question as the movie, What is reality? The article discusses meaningful movies and how objective questions like these are what make movies truely interesting. One of the biggest questions within Inception is whether or not the main characters will be able to make it back to reality, and if they are actually in reality or if DiCapprio has once again been trapped in his mind. Inception draws on a lot of the principles that the author claims are no longer present in modern films.