One of the many things that struck me at the peak of COVID (aside from at least one bout of the thing itself) was how unwilling mainstream cinema was to grapple with it. The pandemic was an inconvenience, a frustrating aside, one that didn’t align with the stories Hollywood wanted to tell. The few films that did mention it were explicitly About Covid, and exceptions to the rule. Which is strange when you consider how many films made during WWII that were not been explicitly about WWII still accepted WWII as a fact of modern life. Maybe because there was no TV, no physical media, and few rep theatres, films only really existed in the moment, so felt more obliged to reflect current events. Worrying about the longevity of a film was, in those days, as sensical as worrying about the longevity of a theatre production.
Maybe we’re shifting back to that WWII mindset. In, worryingly, more ways than one. Instead of cordoning off our escapist fantasies from the threat of societal, political, environmental, technological breakdown, cinema may have finally waved the white flag. You simply can’t ignore all this stuff any longer.
