Why Aren't Movies Fun Today?

Playfulness, connection and flow. According to author Catherine Price in her book The Power of Fun, those are the three elements that make up real fun. Real fun, as opposed to fake fun like scrolling in your phone, is a delightful and often spontaneous confluence of play, a connection with others, and an easygoing Zen-like state of unforced joy.

Playfulness, connection and flow—it’s a good guide to why movies today aren’t that much fun. Few have these three elements. According to Collider, the five best comedies of 2023 are: The Holdovers, Poor Things, Asteroid City, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Barbie. These are all good movies—but are they fun? Compare them to the comedies of the 1980s—Beverly Hills Cop, Back to School, Ruthless People, Stripes, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Little Shop of Horrors. Barbie is a sociology lecture compared to, say, Ghostbusters. Airplane!, A Fish Called Wanda, The Blues Brothers? Fun, fun, fun. Eddie Murphy in the 80s was fun incarnate. Film critic Anne Hornaday once said of Steve Martin, “It’s a delight to watch him chase after a cab.” Can you say the same about Amy Schumer? Ferris Bueller is an entire movie about playfulness, connection and flow.

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