Ideological Movies Made Within 5 Years?

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Ideological Movies Made Within 5 Years?

Coolness Averted: Feb 20, 2007; oh don't worry, I can't smell asparagus piss, it's in my DNA

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Yeah the 5 year rule kinda sucks for picking out particularly good examples of mainstream-ish movies that have clear ideology and are fun to watch
I'd lean away from comic book and franchise blockbusters because arguably their ideological agenda tends to be "keep the franchise going, oh but also dress it up like <thing that's in the popular zeitgeist>" and I'd think in a class room with college age kids the shitshow of arguing about whether those movies have genuine ideology or not is all the more likely to get ugly.

Sorry to Bother You is also pretty clear about its ideology
Green Book is a sappy terrible film intended to assuage white guilt about the treatment of African Americans with a schlocky "See, we can all learn from each other?" story made even worse by attempts to graft the generic story over real people/a historical figure. The other suggestions in the list are actually enjoyable to watch though. It might be worth bringing up if the kids can remember the giant Oscars stink over this movie a few years ago.
The Big Short has clear messages about the moral rot of the financial sector, though might be a bit boring for them but stars actors they'll recognize.
Jordan Peele's Get Out is still in the 5 year window too.

The later Purge movies (like The First Purge) wear their ideology on their sleeve and also turned into decent thrillers. They're now about a corrupt government murdering people in the streets and framing the poor for it as an excuse to continue to crack down and distract from a failing society. Yeah I know I just said stay away from franchise films, but the purge carved a weird niche, the studio just wanted to keep churning out sequels and didn't seem to pay attention to who they left minding the shop, and then the actual good purge movies with commentary got popular so it has changed its focus.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2020 08:59

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 11:51

Coolness Averted: Feb 20, 2007; oh don't worry, I can't smell asparagus piss, it's in my DNA

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Pirate Jet posted:

Yeah I don’t get this take of movies being not very ideological lately, if anything it’s gotten more and more blatant.

If you need something SFW but also want to incite a discussion, you can really open a can of worms by showing Zootopia - a movie that, in its efforts to be antiracist, becomes absurdly racist.

Remember how your introduction to satire was 'A Modest Proposal'? The issue isn't movies don't have an agenda, it's just OP needs the hugely obvious hits the kids over the head sort of thing. Where the movie says 'this is about x'
Like Zootopia, is very obvious for it's antiracism message, but I think you're arguing more that it's flawed.
In the same way I think most posters here would argue Wonder Woman had a very clear neocon and reactionary warhawk ideology thinly masked as 'feminist' but that's a bit too complex a take for an intro class imo.

Majkol posted:

He probably can't show Sorry to bother you to teenage students, what with all the swearing, drug use and man-horse cock.

I assumed it was college kids, but yeah high schoolers or younger probably shouldn't be shown any of those movies from my list.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2020 17:12

Coolness Averted: Feb 20, 2007; oh don't worry, I can't smell asparagus piss, it's in my DNA

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General Dog posted:

Yeah, I'm just saying it's a good example of a movie that wears its ideology on its sleeve.

Elysium is a good baby's first political allegory, but that's 2013.

Yeah district 9 or snowpiercer would be great too, but they've also aged out of the window.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2020 00:34

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H13 posted:

Personally, I feel like Joker made efforts to kinda avoid being ideological.

They mention a lot of things (EG: The riots etc.) but it makes an effort to keep the focus on the character of The Joker himself. When asked if he wanted to create a movement or whatever, Joker said "No." I think the commentary on capitalism, devaluing mental health, rich vs. poor etc. were all the framework to set up a plausible fall-from-grace character arc, but the film wanted to just be a character study.

That doesn't prevent it from being ideological ('cos there's a LOT in there), but I'd rather pull apart a movie which was overtly, from the outset, trying to be ideological. I'll put it on the list of movies to watch and have another look 'cos I know there's a fair bit in it.

You just dismissed a movie with a very clear ideological message as 'just a framing' I'm not sure I know what you mean by ideological movie anymore.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2020 05:08

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > Ideological Movies Made Within 5 Years?