It’s a well-known fact that Hollywood enjoys making films that extol the virtues of the industry, the magic of film, and the enthusiasm with which moviegoers ought to view them. Films about the making of movies, such as Best Picture winners The Artist and Argo, are frequently honored at the Oscars. The self-congratulatory nature of filmmaking is unparalleled in any other artistic medium. But what if there were a few movies that acknowledged how dysfunctional Hollywood actually is?
Even though some of them may be a little looser in terms of how directly they call out the industry, there are a select few movies that help to highlight the meat grinder world of Hollywood and all its hypocrisy. Even the most sincere artists can be corrupted by the temptation of fame and fortune, so being aware of what is actually happening in this industry we call entertainment can be a tremendous advantage. Here is a list of films that, to use the term “anti-hollywood,” do just that.
Adaptation
Adaptation is Charlie Kaufman’s dissertation on how difficult it is to write a movie, offering a much more subtle commentary on what it’s like to work in the industry. The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean was the source material for the movie Adaptation, which Kaufman based on his struggles to complete and subsequent writer’s block. In addition to fictionalized accounts of Kaufman’s own life and elements that have nothing to do with anything, his film includes elements that were adapted from the book. It’s difficult to not understand where Kaufman is heading with his writing because the movie is continuously cognizant of itself and what it represents in the context of its business.
Barton Fink
The Coen Brothers, who also directed and wrote Barton Fink, are Hollywood satirists who explore the allure of fame and the cost of playing with the big dogs. A prominent New York playwright accepts the offer when given the chance to write movies in Hollywood. However, he discovers that working within the system is much more challenging and different than he had anticipated. The movie really drives home the theme found in the majority of the movies on this list—the ever-present fear of artistic bankruptcy in the face of fame and success. Barton Fink offers a different perspective on how Hollywood can ruin someone with good intentions and considerable talent, but it doesn’t matter in the end.
Good Night and Good Luck
The anti-Hollywood picture directed by George Clooney is a very different kind of work. The anti-communist commission in the 1950s and how U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy started the effort to hunt out all communist sympathizers in Hollywood are the two side stories that Good Night and Good Luck concentrates on, according to The Guardian. McCarthy is exposed for the public scaremongering by CBS reporter Edward Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly, who decide to take a position and fight McCarthy. Even while it isn’t focused on Hollywood specifically, it does highlight a period of the city’s history that had a significant impact on how it operated and the kinds of art that were permitted to be produced. It’s difficult to quantify how much McCarthy changed as a result of his acts because they have affected media in such profound and pervasive ways.
Maps to the Stars
However, David Cronenberg’s 2014 film Maps to the Stars is a very atypical blend for the Canadian director. His late-period work is a really interesting combination of thoughts on violence and a recent return to body horror contemplation. A young star and a failed actress struggle to regain their former popularity while also trying to eat into the celebrity of others around them in the Hollywood parody Maps to the Stars. The film’s commentary feels particularly scathing and anti-conventional because it comes from an industry veteran and de facto outsider. Even though Cronenberg is best renowned for his horrifyingly repulsive horror films, his anti-Hollywood satire is among the greatest.
Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive, a movie that was originally intended to be a television pilot and was directed and written by David Lynch, centers on an aspiring actress (Naomi Watts) who becomes friends with a woman who is amnesic (Laura Harring), as well as the increasingly bizarre events that occur all around them. Although it includes vignettes and cutaways that draw attention to other Hollywood transgressions, the movie primarily serves as a satire on how Hollywood eats up and spits out young, attractive women. Themes and issues related to identity, alternative universes, dreams, and surrealist imagery are also strongly explored in Lynch’s film. Even if Lynch maintains it’s a poison-coated valentine, it’s one of the hardest poison arrows ever aimed into Hollywood’s heart.
Sunset Boulevard
In 1950, Billy Wilder’s industry black comedy drove a stake right through the center of Hollywood. In Sunset Boulevard, a screenwriter and a fading movie star who is adamant about getting back to her former glory forge a perilous and complicated relationship. It is a rather pessimistic view of how Hollywood indiscriminately gobbles up young stars and spits them out, often with addictions and unpaid bills to boot. This is especially true considering that the movie was published just after the studio system and in the midst of the Hayes Code. It’s a remarkably depressing movie, but one that rightly criticizes Hollywood for exploiting the predicaments of its characters for ominous situational comedy.
The Bad and the Beautiful
The photograph by Vincente Minelli You might not be aware of The Bad and the Beautiful, but you should be in this situation. A writer, a movie star, and a director are among the individuals he wronged during his career as the story of a gruff, ambitious Hollywood producer (Kirk Douglas) rises and falls through their eyes. He is a self-centered, ambitious man who mercilessly exploits everyone on his path to success in Hollywood, leaving him alone at the top by the end of the movie. The majority of The Bad and The Beautiful is told in flashback, which after a certain point allows a specific kind of knowingly ironic tone to take over and elevate the already excellent material.
The Player
The Player, a classic Hollywood satire by Robert Altman, is one of the list’s most blunt and caustic entries. A struggling studio executive must ask himself some important questions when a writer whose screenplay he rejected starts sending him death threats. For example, which writer could it be? The satirical potency of The Player lies in the fact that he has rejected so many that he is unable to think of a single instance. Although Altman has always been skilled at capturing empathy, he manages to do so even more effectively when it comes to the characters in this movie who lack humanity. Each person is criticized as Altman exploits their propensity for excess in order to make people laugh, jaded and clouded by the fame and luxury of being at the pinnacle of Hollywood.
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