50 IDEAS TH AT CH AN GED E V E RY T H I N G
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DEAR TV: GROW UP
Like it or not, television is called “the idiot box” for a reason. But the past few years have seen new shows that are making TV into an art. Here are three:
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03.1 MAD MEN A subtle, devastating look at sin, redemption and consequences. Also, rampant alcoholism.
Let’s Make Movies for Other Hipsters
03.2 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA If you think this show was just sci-fi, you’re missing all of its political/ religious/social/economic/moral commentary.
APPARENTLY, VAMPIRES (AND HOBBITS, PIRATES AND ZOMBIES) ARE SEXY
05 03.3 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Through its five criminally underwatched seasons, FNL showed us family, faith and football as well as any show ever has.
Since 2003, it’s clear the nerds have won. Lord of the Rings won 11 Academy Awards. The Harry Potter books and films went from being “for kids” into an inter-generational phenomenon. Zombies took over the world, and pirates were all the rage. And Christians were excited at the prospect of Narnia films ... until they actually saw them.
Films have never been cheaper to make. And “indie culture” has never had more money to spend. The past decade has seen the rise of “hipster cinema”— studio-backed movies made by hipsters, for hipsters. To be sure, many of them are great films. Wes Anderson has been around since 1996’s Bottle Rocket, but his subsequent films, especially Royal Tennenbaums and The Life Aquatic, have solidified his status as the auteur of ironic detachment, family drama and sudden poignancy.
Oscar nominee Sofia Coppola took the indie world by storm, particularly with Lost in Translation, which was both beautiful and about twentysomethings’ search for connection. Perhaps the most hipster movie of all was Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, which combined a tale of parental love, childhood nostalgia and Karen O music into a sad, meaningful movie about the pain of growing up. These films made twentysomethings think, feel and, above all, told the stories they were living.
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