Blowing the Whole Thing Up

Manohla Dargis asks whether we ought to blow the whole system up. Hat tip, Chuck.

Although this idea seems to be working with post-Katrina New Orleans public schools, is it a wise idea for the movie industry?

Like anything, the DYI ethos is should neither be completely neglected nor fetishized. Facts are facts - I watch nothing on Youtube. Nothing. The biggest "benefactor" from online streaming is television, although the benefit is largely from audience and not from a monetary standpoint (yet). I've gotten into 30 Rock, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Jersey Shore all through the internet.

On the other hand, blogs are almost my exclusive new source today. To the extent I read newspapers, I read them more like blogs, selecting certain specific articles vs. the old school way of reading the sports, then the front page, then the calendar.

Can you honestly cite Mumblecore as a revolution? Let's be serious for a moment...is Mumblecore even known outside the film geek culture? Has it influenced cinema? Is Paranormal Activity a new phenomenon or just the latest example of cheap horror films that find a large audience, much in the way the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Blair Witch Project did before?

Content is still king. It's the message, not the medium. Blogs are successful because they provide good reading and analysis and because newspapers stopped doing it. DIY cinema will succeed when the quality surpasses what Hollywood produces. Pulp Fiction revolutionized cinema because it knocked the socks off the audience and was incredible well written, well crafted and fresh.

Dargis seems to long for the blow up moment...but it is happening to her business - the newspapers - before it happens to the cinema.