Review of A Decade Under the Influence (2003) by Blind P — 15 Feb 2010
A wistful review of a bygone era of filmmaking during which an unprecedented freedom of artistry from corporate oversight and the need to pander to the masses created sweeping changes to the industry.
Unfortunately if you consider things from today's perspective you can see that all the gains made were lost and we are now in an enduring stage of rehashed garbage and star vehicles that take no chances and thus reach no heights. This is not true of all films, but I feel even a hardcase like myself has experienced a watering down of my tastes to a degree where the average is accepted in comparison to the overwhelming drek. For others I've said that things are so bad that anything that has even a dollop of original quality gets lionized and overhyped in the same comparison.
One can only hope in this age of new media that a new wave of artists will come along to change things for the better, but when big corporates control it all, it's hard to see. It must then rely on the audience to give chances to low budget independents instead of the latest googleplex crapfest.
Can only the "foreign" (non North American) markets deliver? Is there somewhere where artistic freedom of expression is sacrosanct? I hope so, because relying on the mass audience only gets us Home Alone 5 and Terminator 8.
As a documentary this works better as a signpost to direct a person towards the source material. There lies the value.
This review of A Decade Under the Influence (2003) was written by Blind P on 15 Feb 2010.
A Decade Under the Influence has generally received very positive reviews.
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