Filmmaker Fancy #2: Contemporary

Recently, Netflix released David Fincher's newest film, The Killer (2023), into a brief theatrical window before yanking it out and gently plopping it onto everybody's favorite streaming service. I saw the film at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard with my younger brother and sister and we had an absolute blast. There was a fight sequence set in Florida that was especially note-worthy (definitely something I'll have to bring up later when I tear down modern day fight scenes). As for the rest of the film, the world will never know a purer joy than watching Michael Fassbinder stretch for long stretches (hehe) of time. Side note: the Chinese Theatre needs the Egyptian treatment STAT.

Before you continue any further, let it be known that this is not a review of the film, but rather an appreciation of a certain aspect about it that motion pictures today need much more of.

What might that aspect be?

Could it be Michael Fassbender's sublime performance? It could. Could it be the gorgeous color grade? Maybe. Perhaps it's something a little more unconventionally seen in films from well-established auteurs these days: a contemporary setting.

"An artists duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times" (Nina Simone). Besides a lot of producers out there disregarding this statement in favor of reflecting a healthy set of box office numbers, I think you would be hard-pressed to find somebody that does not feel this way about art. After all, think about how much can be gauged about early, American society from the paintings of Winslow Homer. Especially as it relates to celluloid, film is an incredible medium for societal and zeitgeist historical preservation.

Not to be Debbie the downer, but I feel that many of our greatest auteurs have given up on the digital age preferring to live in the past through their films. I want to ask why that is: after all, the perspective my generation has is pretty much ONLY the digital age. I, myself, have had Instagram and Facebook since before I could count! Why don't these filmmakers use their perspective to tell us something about the world we live in TODAY?

Besides the Kissing Booth films of course, where are the mainstream, high-end budget contemporary films? As I type this, Ridley Scott's Napoleon (2023) is hitting theater screens, Tarantino's newest film is rumored to be set in the 1970's, and Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) is set nowhere near our day and age. Besides Mr. Scott perhaps, a lot of our most treasured filmmakers started out making films that were set in the then contemporary times.

What changed?!

I had a conversation about this exact topic not too long ago. The suggestion my buddy proffered was that with everybody glued to their phones, with everybody being fed constant cycles of information whether it be true, false, or somewhere in between, and with everybody seemingly uninterested in the world at large, films will not contain nearly the character, charm, or interest they once did.

My answer (paraphrased, of course) was "so, all we have left is fiction/non-fiction history, sci-fi, horror, and superheroes?" Suffice it to say, I felt he had a point...

...then The Killer (2023) came out.

Avoiding as many spoilers as possible, Fassbender's character goes about his mission utilizing Amazon, WeWork, and many other contemporary companies to weasel his way around obstacles. The character wears a smartwatch and plans his escape routes under the assumption that cameras are everywhere. Of all the things in the film, this was the most revelatory to me. Instead of being afraid that this new world of ours has nothing to offer dramatically, Fincher proves the naysayers wrong and plunges his story richly into a world we all recognize.

We need more of this. For most of human history, the world has not been nearly as accessible as it has been now. You're going to tell me that there is no way to leverage this world-defining, major shift in global relationships into an incredible, dramatic film?

If anything, there is too much substance for even the greatest of filmmakers to handle. Dramatic filmmakers need to learn a thing or two from the shovels of modern-day set comedies that are coming out nearly every month.

As storytellers, we need to look around at the world around us and form hardened criticisms and then filter those into high-performing, entertaining films.

I refuse to believe should Kubrick, Welles, or Lucas begin their filmmaking careers today that they would start somewhere other than here...

...except Kubrick maybe...or Lucas...but Welles! Welles for sure!

I'll always love you, Orson.

This article was written and edited by: Avi J. Peress.

Filmmaker Fancy #3: Coming: December 4th, 2023