Mid-decade; Notable movie trends in 2015 as observed by Menstrual Bazin.
1. The Medium of Film Strikes Back:
In 2014, there were 2 major 70mm releases: Interstellar and Inherent Vice (35mm blow-up). Both were released on film ahead of digital.
Last year, the “Save Film Alliance” raised the stakes.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens offers full frame image on 70mm while digital releases got 1/3 of image cropped.
Hateful 8 has 6 mins edited off the non-70mm releases.
We also saw an increased return to shooting on film in popular releases, some examples:
007 Spectre
Umrika
Mississippi Grind
The Assassin
A Walk in the Woods
True Story
Suffragette (16mm)
Carol (16mm)
The Super16 grainy look is now a cool feature.
And possibly the future copycats…
2. Forward to the Future
2015 marks the “future” in the 1989 movie Back to the Future Part II. This year, we see an increased number of movies featuring retro futurism:
Pixels
Turbo Kid
Deathgasm
Liza the Fox Fairy
3. Gamify!!
As Computer aided visual effects become the new “cheap look”, action scenes now look like video games. Except video games have more realistic physics.
Mad Max (Not sure if I was watching a game or a crap movie)
Hardcore (first person shooter as a genre!!)
Gamechangers (docu drama about a game with a scene that plays like a game)
4. Sexual Fluidity and Beyond
10 years after Brokeback Mountain, Queer cinema is neither groundbreaking nor fashionable anymore. Even the latest installment of Yes or No is a total dud. In 2015, the mainstream cinema is gay about the B and T in LGBT.
Carol
Danish Girl
Sworn Virgin
About Ray
5. Animation Ins & Outs
2015 marks the end of Studio Ghibli with an incredible swan song that went largely unnoticed. It is now official – go 3D or go bust.
SpongeBob went 3D out of water.
The Peanuts gang returns in 3D.
The Arti: The Adventure Begins. Taiwan’s Pili (霹靂) Puppet Theatre. Sold out not just with 3D computer effects but with their pride. The usual Min-nan Chinese (閩南語) language has been replaced by Mandarin to please mainland Chinese audiences. The only characters that do speak the Taiwanese language are villains, traitors and a lecherous duck.
If Inside Out wins Best Animated movie, surely When Marnie Was There must win Best Picture?
6. South Indian Crime Action
Recent wave of kick ass movies are beating Hong Kong at their own game! This year it reached a new high with:
Thani Oruvan Yennai Arindhaal
Yennai Arindhaal
7. Social Media Marketing Hype
People with smart devices and have a social media life, have you wondered why a lot of people are praising crap movies???
Ex Machina (it’s not just robots that’s smarter than us)
Mad Max (the trolliest trend movie of 2015)
8. Spy Overdose
Need I elaborate more?
007 Spectre
Spy
Man from U.N.C.L.E
Bridge of Spies
Kingsman
Spy Time (Javier Ruiz Caldera)
9. “Single Shot” Movies
Last year’s trend of ‘one shot’ styled movies:
The record making Agadam
Birdman (simulated)
Victoria
Hardcore
10. A.I. Paranoia
Let me point out the elephant in the room. Such a pervasive theme and plot device that we now treat it as normal as ‘good vs evil’
Terminator Genisys
Ex Machina
Chappie
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Did we miss out any trends? Send us your comments below!
