Two news stories in recent weeks have crystalized something fascinating about the way things are going with American movies.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that the sorts of highbrow films that have traditionally competed for awards attention have, this year, nearly all bombed at the box office.
Movies like “Tár,” “The Fabelmans,” “Armageddon Time,” and “She Said” have all posted lackluster numbers.
No, this isn’t another “go woke, go broke” story; most movies have no particular political content.
“Tár,” in fact, has some unlikely right-wing fans, albeit based on their reactions to one particular out-of-context clip.
It appears that in the post-pandemic era, the movies that are succeeding at the box office are primarily superhero films, other blockbusters, and horror movies.
For everything else, per one box office analyst quoted in the Times story, “people have grown comfortable watching these movies at home.”
While many parts of the economy, like tourism and hotels, have essentially snapped back to the pre-pandemic normal, that doesn’t appear to have happened with moviegoing.
In Comes Donald Trump
There was another story, from The Ankler, back in November: Apple at some point purchased the rights to “Confidence Man,” the recent bestselling biography of former president Donald Trump by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman- but that Apple had decided not to move forward with developing the project as a movie or TV show. Haberman’s book was a bestseller, debuting in the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list, even though it came after a couple of dozen books, written from various perspectives, about the Trump presidency.
Now, it’s true that large swathes of the political landscape are extremely weird about Maggie Haberman in particular. Fans of Trump tend to consider her a propagandist against Trump, but for some reason, a lot of liberals are anti-Haberman as well, believing her to be some sort of propagandist in favor of Trump, I guess because she grants him frequent on-the-record interviews. That Haberman has broken literally hundreds of stories about the former president’s misdeeds — and that the book itself painted a damning picture of Trump committing various bad acts and possible crimes over the course of 40 years — is apparently of no concern.
In reaction to the news of Apple not moving forward with the project, The Ankler reported that “contemporary political topics increasingly have become radioactive in Hollywood’s current climate.”
Why No Movie?
Throughout Trump’s presidency, I often assumed we would get multiple feature films about the Trump era, whether about inner turmoil at the White House, the strange scene around the Trump Hotel and Trump’s sycophants, dramatic stories about the witnesses in his first impeachment, or perhaps an “All the President’s Men”-style look at journalists investigating the president.
There have been, after all, a couple of dozen movies, including a few great ones, about the life and presidency of Richard Nixon, and I figured that would happen with Trump too, especially since he was a huge character and surrounded by other ones.
But so far, Hollywood has come up with just about nothing.
The closest thing was “The Comey Rule,” the 2020 miniseries on Showtime that positioned former FBI director James Comey (Jeff Daniels) as the hero and Trump (Brendan Gleeson) as the villain; it was based on Comey’s memoir. And there have been many, many documentaries about various aspects of the Trump presidency.
It just seems like the era when a major filmmaker could make a big, important movie about recent history and a recent presidency are in the past.
It’s also very possible that “Trump fatigue,” which stands a very real chance of denying the ex-president his shot at a return to the presidency, also means that no one wants to see a movie about him either.
And of course, polarization is a big factor as well. Trump fans would likely see such a film as evil decadent Hollywood running down their hero, while different anti-Trump factions would likely see the film as either cringey, or not tough enough on their political nemesis.
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There is a chance that Trump movies could arrive decades after the fact, once there’s more hindsight, and maybe at a time when what’s in vogue in Hollywood has realigned once again.
After all, Oliver Stone’s “Nixon” arrived more than 20 years after Nixon left office, and Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” 20 years after that.
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
