Honey, They Shrunk the Movies

It might seem odd to complain about the lack of movies worth seeing on the eve of Hollywood's biggest release of the year, Wicked: For Good. But, like Elphaba’s gradual transformation into the Wicked Witch of the West, going to the movies has, over the years, gone from good to bad. (Advance word has it that, with this sequel, the Wicked franchise itself has done the same.)

I miss the days when going to the movies, especially this time of year, was fun. 

Movies have delighted me ever since I watched Bambi and Snow White as a child.

During my youthful winter staycations here in Cleveland, my dad—who had a gift for making the ordinary seem special—would take us to a different movie each night. “Movie vacations,” he called them. We saw everything from Dirty Harry to The Towering Inferno.

In the 1970s, film's best decade, going to see movies like Star Wars and Jaws was always a special event, just as every new James Bond film was. My love for movies inspired me to take film classes in college, and, during my years in New York, to attend preview screenings of soon-to-be classics such as The Silence of the Lambs and Home Alone. After returning to Cleveland in the late 1990s, I kept up my moviegoing habit. 

Over time, however, there was less and less I wanted to see. The pictures got small, to quote Norma Desmond.

Today, like everyone else, I mostly avoid going to theaters and lazily watch movies in the family room. This past Sunday, during a rare trip to the local multiplex, I saw an entertaining but forgettable film. While there, I accidentally walked into a theater showing the brand-new release, The Running Man, and all the seats were empty. 

But streaming isn't killing the movies. Creative bankruptcy is. 

While I am excited for Marty Supreme, the new Timothée Chalamet ping pong film releasing on Christmas Day, moviegoing cannot make a comeback on the basis of just one or two sporadic triumphs.

Going to the movies will likely never regain the magic it once held in abundance. For that to happen, moviemaking must reclaim its magic, once again making audiences offers they cannot refuse. 

In today's world, Minecraft has replaced The Godfather, and TikTok is more captivating than Taxi Driver. 

It's been a long goodbye.

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