Why does it seem that way to you? I have not quite noticed that.
I think when you are younger, there are movies that profoundly affect you. When you get older, and you have seen a lot of movies, its rarer to get the same kind of feelings. But that's just a part of growing up, it isn't a problem of censorship. I wonder even if, upon re-watching now, you'd think Fight Club is really the pinnacle of edginess and a profound art you attribute to it now, or if maybe you were just young when you watched it. And I also wonder if there are some great, profound works being made now that, for whatever reason, you have simply missed or felt the need not to see. Is "American History X" really leagues above "How To Blow up a Pipeline" in terms of "uncomfortable and ugly topics"? What about "Beau is Afraid"? Is that one censored by the modern zeitgeist? What about the films of Yorgos Lanthimos, Ruben Östlund, Harmony Korine, or Nicolas Winding Refn? Trying honestly, its hard for me to pinpoint what in particular you might think is censored these days. People are definitely still making good, uncomfortable movies.
Edit with a few more directors making really great, messed up things at the moment: Julia Ducournau, Gaspar Noé, Rick Alverson, Boots Riley. Have you watched any Cronenberg lately? Lars von Trier? Haneke? What about recent Verhoeven films?? What about Paul Schrader? Bong Joon-ho?
If these people are being censored, well, they are still definitely making some Art within those restrictions.
Movies have gotten worse, without question. Big budget movies now are consistently cliché ridden rehashes of proven IP because studio execs don't want to take any chances. This behavior really took over in the early aughts, and you can look at the top 10 movies for each year to see the slide from ~2004-2010.
I think blockbusters got too expensive to make (relative to economic conditions) so now the money men don't want to take any chances when funding a movie. Everything needs to be designed by committee and run through a hundred focus groups; this kind of process can never produce true art, only soulless LCD slop. But it maximizes the chance of a movie not being a commercial flop, and that's what's important to the movie industry right now. This is the same reason we barely get anything besides remakes, reboots, adaptations and "cinematic universes". The movie industry in recent years is very averse to risk.
People who reject qualitative artistic appraisal of movies will reject that any such trend exists, and will say that everything is fine by the empirical metric of box office returns. They're missing the point; the reason movies are being made like this is because it's the least risky way to make a movie. Of course box office returns are going to look good, that's the point.
I don't know what the "Top 10 Movies" are.. Is this just, like, box office sales? How could one even judge one set of ten movies against another?
If the problem is simply, "I have to look too hard to find good things," or "ugh, they are making another Minions movie," then, congratulations, you are a hipster. But that's not really a problem, you just have good taste!
I do agree that lack of risk-taking and sameness are affecting the music and movie industries. But it’s entirely possible movies “feel” worse because… there’s more of them. Maybe Sturgeon's law is at work, and the more movies we make, the more shit we get.
It's not wrong if you don't care about art, or the legacy of the time. They're aiming for repeatable mediocrity, which is more profitable, but 50 years down the line nobody will remember the profitable trash, but they'll remember the art that was made before it.
But that is how it has always worked. Movies in the past just seem better because you only remember the good ones. I would argue it was even more egregious in the past because under the studio system they used to quickly crank out huge numbers of formulaic movies that no one really though about after they had a theatrical run.
Not sure I subscribe to your definition of art. Making a movie that has a hundred million people watching it when it is released is art in my view. Most "art" even from the 1970s is utterly forgotten by now, for example, while certain blockbusters endured.
There is certainly a lot of truth to this. The first time you see some basic plot twist, it seems profound. This applies to life philosophy too, the first time you here about nihilism, stoicism, Buddhism, etc, they all seem profound. Later, you begin to view them as part of a pattern you are already familiar with.
Later in life, it's far rarer to find a quote or concept that actually changes your life view at least a little bit.
I think it's the profit motive that has ruined this medium. Most movies are just investment vehicles for the studios -- it's telling that when they're mentioned in the news, it's rarely the plot / storyline, but almost always the budget and ticket sales that are talked about.
Seems like most of the big blockbusters are extremely formulaic -- the studios take what made money before, and rehash it over and over again until it stops making money. A really good example of that was one of the silly superhero movies - the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Somehow, a fresh take on the tired genre made it to production, and audiences reacted enthusiastically, because it was somewhat new -- and what followed? Two carbon-copy sequels that didn't work nearly as well as the first one.
Of course that's within the constraints of big-budget studios that make movies as a high-return investment vehicles. Where else could you throw a hundred million dollars and get a 200% return?
I'm sure art films still exist, independent films still exist. People still make movies because they have something to say, and that's the medium they want to speak through. Maybe the way to encourage that is to fund more art schools and subsidize independent filmmakers.
Certainly mainstream cinema is not so great for challenging and interesting movies, but there are plenty of great international and "independent" movies being made. As well as quite a number of interesting and challenging TV projects.
I've got someone in my family that surfaces this stuff for me which is lucky. Since I don't go out of my way to dig it up.
Last movie I saw in theaters was The Revenant in 2015, and before that ... maybe the first Hobbit? Agreed that current movies suck, mostly Marvel crap and rehashes ... Local to me we have: Taylor swift movie, a new Saw movie, a new Exorcist movie, a new Paw Patrol movie. Lame.
If you came of age around 1999 you may have unusually high standards. Besides Fight Club that year also had Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Boys Don't Cry, Three Kings, Go, and American Beauty.
On top of that were big name sequels Star Wars: The Phantom MenaceAustin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Toy Story 2, the TV adaption South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and the well marketed low-budget horror The Blair Witch Project.
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Somehow didn't manage to fit Office Space in that list. It would probably be near to the top of many other years lists, but 1999 was just silly.
Movies like that are often only canonized as "good" in retrospect, after there's been time for them to marinate in the wider culture and have some consensus form around their significance and general quality. Around the time of American History X, your local theater probably would have been showing Antz, Rush Hour, The Rugrats Movie, and There's Something About Mary.
> It seems these movies would no longer be "allowed" to be made
It may seem that way but I doubt it. I have faith in and trust artists, writers and film-makers to think outside the box. It's their job, and passion to do that. There will always be "safe", bland movies and TV among the good stuff.
Movies like American History X, Fight Club, or What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
It seems these movies would no longer be "allowed" to be made, or perhaps the modern zeitgeist censors them away.
I just want to celebrate and encourage bona fide art and see more of it in the world.
And I would gladly pay for my family to access this higher quality art.