Catering to the LCD

In a New York Times article dated December 26 entitled Hollywood Moves Away From Middlebrow Brooks Barnes writes about the "new" tendency in Hollywood to try and come up with more "original" material or hire directors with "quirkier sensibilities" as a result of the effect online social networks have had on the way movies are being marketed. It's funny how every few years one reads a line like "we can't settle for good - we have to be great" when it comes to moviemaking. It's as if as soon as one generation of "suits" learns that simple lesson, it is supplanted by another one that still needs to understand that constantly and consistently catering to the lowest common denominator results in a quick buck for a short while but does not a long terms strategy make. And so once again the suits are surprised that while "Sex and the City 2" flops, an original concept like "Inception" pays off. In the long run quality is the name of the game. That is a simple enough lesson to internalize and stick to. To quote Bob Marley (who adapted it from either Abraham Lincoln or PT Barnum): "you can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time".