This is a blog about M.Night and a few other things. Movies. This is a blog about movies. I’ve been very unimpressed with movies lately. It feels like they are the last things to return post covid in any meaningful way. There are a few out right now that are solid—Tar was on point. However, the stuff I see coming is not very noteworthy. I was holding out hope for Knock at the Cabin, which is based off of Paul Tremblay’s Cabin at the end of the World. I thought it would be twisted and devious and interesting. However, it is not. The film is straight forward and clear from beginning to end. Any minor attempt at twist is lost almost in the moment the attempt it made. This is further interesting because according to an article I glanced over, the ending in the film does not mesh with the novel whatsoever. So, the straightforward nature of the film is definitely a choice.
All of this is to say that I have not been very impressed with films. Moreover, I don’t expect to be. The stuff coming out looks pretty straightforward as well, or at least looks to be, well, bridgey, if you are looking at this Marvel film about to be dumped on us like an afterthought. I want good. I really do. Maybe I need to go back to being the change I wish to see in the world and start making good fiction myself. Perhaps that is the problem. Too many of us aren’t really pushing the envelope and creating interesting stories. Safe is boring. Safe is dull…. Safe pays the bills.
I recently pitched a story that was not safe. It was downright literary in comparison to a lot of what has been coming out in that storyworld, and I didn’t get that story. I’m trying to learn from that. I’m trying to learn to keep being unsafe. We all should try to be a little more daring.