I have a confession to make. It isn't something extremely immoral or unethical to consider it a sin or something alike, but there was a time when every once in a while—and increasingly less—I felt in my body the urge to save a good amount of dollars, buy a ticket to Los Angeles and leave everything behind. As an aspiring filmmaker, I have read, heard and seen many stories that invited me to want to become one of those few seven art's artists who, against all odds, changed their lives in the name of this art and settled in the famous city of stars.3
Today everything is different. My mentality changed. Certain spark related to this apparent journey I never made died, but not because of fear of failure. I have always told myself "I'm not going to die without having directed a movie" and I will stand on that hill strongly until the day I finish shooting a film I directed. Nonetheless, after watching AppleTV+'s new series, The Studio, the longing and that sigh that silently screams certain resignation made me realize that I first have to fight to do something in the land I was born in. I believe I have a responsibility and a deep desire to change things in the country that represents me but, at the same time, I know that is quite difficult. I'm a nobody in the film industry, at least for now. Although it would be even more difficult to go to an unknown place to try to join a system that most likely has thousands of people lined up waiting for their opportunity like I would be.
In this spectacular and extremely fun series, Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick, a Continental Studios executive who desires to be the head of the company from the bottom of his heart. After 22 years, it seems his time has come: the director for donkey's years has been fired and the chances of being promoted are high. The boss of all bosses (played by Bryan Cranston) finally gives him the long-awaited news. Matt is now who he has always wanted to be. But at what cost? The answer is pretty simple: he just has to balance producing "pretentious" cinema suitable for the Oscars and any other awards and trash everyone likes to then be able to finance that said cinema full of pretentiousness. Easy-peasy.
Nowadays, ideas are recyclable but, overall, disposable. The risks of just coming up with them requires money, energy and time from production companies that, due to the lack of bold scriptwriters, limit themselves to buy pre-existing franchises to line their pockets, which is the industry's main concern. We won't analyze statistics because that's not our goal, but it's known that most modern titles are nothing but video games or novels adaptations, remakes, sequels and any other by-product. This disagreement between doing on the one hand and undoing on the other clearly only involves the most-renowned production companies. Not all of them can afford such luxury. This famous Hollywood dream many of us genuinely hold onto seems to be slowly shattering, but is it possible this has always been this way and times haven't changed as much as we think?
In this ten-episode series shot in the best Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) style from Iñárritu, we immerse in the life of this newly-appointed director who lacks the guts to say what he thinks but who also is well-intentioned, although that means lying to directors due to logistics errors and buying scripts to then bury them. Rogen plays a man who is clearly lost, nearly as much as he was when he first started in the industry. His former boss (Catherine O'Hara presenting a hilarious renaissance of her career) blackmails him to get what she lost somehow. His new boss only wants money-making, cheap trash and, in this way, he enters a vicious cycle in which the only loser is art.
The question regarding artistic creation and destruction is still there. Is art created out of a personal desire and buried due to an understanding of how the machine works? Or is it created out of an external desire and buried due to the regret of not doing something more personal? I once heard all stories have already been told, so are cinema's days numbered? Do we have to make peace with the idea that nowadays cinema must be pure entertainment and nothing more? If you ask me, there's not many things I can love so much in this world like a good, original, innovative, clever idea. When it happens, it's like a miracle to me. Like this crazy self-critique to an extremely rotten system like the Hollywood one.
Published on ABRIL 14, 2025, 12:26 PM | UTC-GMT -3
If you liked this article remember to give it a COMMENT 🗣️ and FOLLOW ME for more movie and series articles 📽
View replies 1