I Wouldn't Pay a Dollar to See That

In this week’s Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King tells us what’s wrong with Hollywood:

Many of this year’s best movies were really depressing.

(No free link, so I’m not linking at all.)

King goes on to list what he thinks were the best movies (pre-Christmas releases) of 2005. In order:

The Jacket
The Devil’s Rejects
Cinderella Man
The Constant Gardener
War of the Worlds
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck
Downfall
Capote
The Squid and the Whale

Of these ten movies, King admits right up front that five of them were “bummers.”

Of the ten that weren’t bummers, we have:

The tale of a psychologically-wrecked Gulf War vet.
Yet another boxing movie.
An action-thriller whose destructive Martian invaders were, in the opinion of the screenwriter, meant to symbolize American foreign policy.
A contemporary Los Angeles drama showing us how everybody is racist.
A ’50s period piece showing us how all our politicians are fascist.

Remember, those are the “happy” five-best of the year.

Admittedly, there are some good movies on the list. In fact, most of them are quite good for any year. “Downfall” blew me away when I watched it on DVD, as did “Crash” and “The Devil’s Rejects.” I haven’t yet seen “Capote” or “The Squid and the Whale,” but I’m dying to see both, even though they’re “bummers.”

Yet here’s what King has to say about them:

Capote is also Part 1 of What’s Wrong With the Movies this Year: a great film about a brilliant, repulsive, manipulative, coldhearted bastard whose progress as we watch as scientists might watch microbes mounted on laboratory slide. Murderers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock are ultimately more sympathetic.

[snip]

The Squid and the Whale – What’s Wrong With the Movies This Year, Part 2. About another writer, this one an ego-driven monster who demonizes and nearly breaks his children’s hearts and minds. It will never play the nabes in the heartland. It is