3 pieces
The rom-com was commercially dead for a decade. It returned in 2023-25 and the return was not coincidence. An essay on what the surrounding cinema had become, and why audiences wanted this back.
Hollywood's opening-weekend-dominant distribution model was built for a specific marketplace that no longer exists. An essay on what has broken, which films are succeeding despite it, and what a replacement would look like.
Letterboxd's aggregate star rating is now the first thing most viewers see about a film, and it is quietly replacing the job criticism used to do. An argument against treating aggregation as judgement.