2017: A Change in Hollywood

2017 might feel like an important year for many people. Throughout the country, history was made with protests for rights, the uprising of sexual assault victims coming forward, and the political division in the country. While 2017 may feel important to many, Hollywood had its year of change and help start conversations throughout the country.

This year’s Oscars was the start of it. The Academy listened to the voices of those who wanted more diversity in the nominations, since both 2015 and 2016 main nominees were all white. This lead to Mahershala Ali becoming the first Muslim to win an acting category and both Netflix and Amazon winning Oscars, showing that the big studios are now in competition with streaming services.

But the most important moment of that night was “Moonlight” winning the best picture category. Everyone, including myself, predicted that “La La Land” would win the best picture, and for a minute it did until people working behind the scenes ran up to correct the producers of “La La Land” that “Moonlight” actually won. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope and read “La La Land” as the winner.

This is important because “Moonlight” is the first film ever to win the best picture category that has an all black cast. The movie also didn’t feature any A-list stars, which proves that it’s now the smaller films that can win this trophy. It was A24’s first movie as a production company and their first win in the best picture category. This night was a game changer for many of the smaller films. I said that night was an important night in Hollywood, but I wouldn’t have guessed this entire year would be important.

That was only the beginning for small budget films.

Jordan Peele made his directing debut with “Get Out.” Peele has proved that he can be taken seriously and isn’t just a comedic actor. The movie also features non A-list stars such as Daniel Kaluuya, who is now someone to be on the lookout when it comes to being featured in a role. “Get Out” also made $254 million on $4.5 million budget. This movie was released in February and is still being talked about today. There’s chatter of it even having a chance of winning the best picture category in the next Academy Awards.

There’s also some chatter for Patrick Stewart to get a supporting actor nomination for his role in “Logan,” which is also an important movie for Hollywood.  “Logan” did two things.

First thing is that this movie proves it’s possible for a comic book movie to have an R-rating. Yes “Deadpool” may have been the first one to do so, but “Logan” shows that a comic book movie can have a smaller story, but make it more powerful with good storytelling and characters. If studios decide to let the filmmakers make an actual movie without having to follow certain procedures to make it tie into eight other movies, then that changes the scope. If the marketing is done well, the storytellers have more freedom, and if it’s rated R not for just the sake of vulgar and violence, people will see the movie.

“Logan” also did something that hardly any other comic book movie has done. Closure. The last time we saw a comic book movie do this was “The Dark Knight Rises.” It’s something that other studios should pay attention to. Studios don’t need to drag out everything, even if they keep making money. Do service for your characters. Let them have an actual story and arch. Don’t make it a never ending story.

Even though “Logan” did some important things for Hollywood, it’s not the most important comic book movie of the year. That’s “Wonder Woman.”

“Wonder Woman” is the first comic book film with a female lead. It’s the highest grossing comic book movie domestically with $412 million. Patty Jenkins is the first female director ever to direct a live-action film with a budget over $100 million. It was good movie as well, it gave some people hope for the DCEU, including myself (film review). It’s an uplifting story that shows Wonder Woman is a unique character. People like me look forward to what happens to this character now, along with Gal Gadot’s career. Even though her character made a debut last year in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” she is one of the biggest stars being talked about today, along with director Patty Jenkins, who was on the shortlist of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

Warner Bros. has high hopes for this character and will now be competing not with five other studios, but with four. Disney bought Fox Studios assets and this might change media forever. We don’t know how this will turn out yet, but some people are excited for the fact that X – Men and Avengers can be on the screen together. According to The Atlantic, Disney would control as much of 40 percent of the U.S. movie business. This might even lead to less movies being made, and who knows, maybe Disney will eventually buy another studio.

Yet, the most important thing that’s happened in Hollywood changed the country. It started with New York Times and The New Yorker publishing articles on Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment and abuse for decades. This was only the beginning though. Later, stories dropped that involved people such as Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Dustin Hoffman, John Lasseter, and much more. These stories have lead to consequences. Weinstein lost his company, Louis CK’s film, “I Love You Daddy”, was pulled a week before its release, along with Netflix not letting him do another comedy special, and Spacey also got fired from Netflix’s “House of Cards” and was replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World” even after they were done filming all of Spacey’s scenes.

What’s concerning is if the industry will actually make changes, or if the industry  will treat this as “it’s just a few people it’s no big deal.” But this made the trend #MeToo rise on Twitter and show that it’s happening in other industries, not just Hollywood. These stories show that many bad men have gotten away with gross abuse for far too long. Remember though, this has happened for decades. It’s not just happening now. Now that we have recognized the problem, it’s on us to fix this.

Looking back at the beginning of 2017, I was hopeful for what this industry has to offer. There have been improvements and important moments in history for Hollywood, but this is just the beginning. Creatively, there will be more opportunities for story tellers and actors to do what they want. We’re getting more diverse and special films that we wouldn’t have been able to see 10 years ago. People are aware of the problems in this industry, and we’re now getting changes. Many of this shouldn’t have been a problem at all, but it’s good that things are starting to head in the right direction. Who knows how 2018 will be, but I’m hopeful that more important moments will occur.