The Emptiness of Modern "Eat the Rich" Cinema | The Backdrop

*Insert Joyce Messier quote here*

Amazing epsiode Darren, amazing one.

Capitalism co-opting the criticism is diabolical. It's a trap and there's no escape because people can't think of an alternative. Even a post-money Star Trek still has capitalism in some form.

One trend with these movies that I find interesting is how the idea of the super rich as ‘great men’ has kind of evaporated. Less Machiavellian Bond villain, more Blackadder style inbreds.

So glad I watched this! I had read Darren explore this topic before but this kept going and exploring new grounds. The ending was especially insightful for me. Amazon and co are glad to co-opt criticism of them and of eating the rich in general, but are probably more reluctant to go for anything that offers nihilism or an actual solution. Speaking of productive solutions in movies, we need more filmmakers like Spike Lee who are unafraid to get polemic. Go ahead and throw scenes of Black communities coming together and discussing the ugliness of racism or clips of white supremacists running over peaceful protesters in your popcorn movie (Black Kklansman in both cases). We need it!

I think the problem with having this conversation, in any capacity, is the question of who has the power and what prevents them from exploiting it. Money is just a tangible and universal form of power and all of it is being hoarded by the upper class. We have a history of places in which power was not handled responsibly for an extended period of time and we can't comprehend a world in which power simply does not exist. There's always a narrative in which power is abused by those who have it, either by a group (large or small) or a single individual, through ignorance, anger, and arrogance and those are intrinsic problems with people rather than systemic ones. It's very hard to keep this on the topic of film, I've edited this comment a few times just to keep from going on a tangent