Sunday, October 5, 2014

The millennials

Mia Wasikowska in the movie 'Tracks'

I've been following a group of actors and actresses who represent the Millennial generation. These are kids who came of age in the 2000's (Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Jake Johnson). Many of them don't have big studio contracts (if those even exist anymore) so they appear mostly in independent films (Breathe in, Drinking Buddies, Safety Not Guaranteed). Independent films rarely make it to 'wide release' in the U.S. Sometimes they go directly to DVD ..which leads me to my question: if the actors and actresses in these films represent the Millennial generation ..why don't they make it to 'wide release' more often? I have a theory. I think it has something to do with the narrative-expectation of this generation. They're the target audience for film distributors (between the ages of 16 and 30) and they're the one's who determine which films go from 'limited' to 'wide release' (the industry looks at their twitter posts from theaters during the first week). I don't believe Independent films always follow the 'video game' narrative they we're raised with.

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