Nothing Wrong With Period Films

Matthew Yglesias came out with one of the worst takes I’ve seen on social media in recent weeks by essentially bashing period—and in one instance, futuristic—films.

There is nothing wrong with directors choosing to make a period film nor should there be. If someone wants to make a film set in the 1960s or whenever, I say let them! Plus, setting films in the 1960s and early 1970s opens up a film to awesome music for soundtracks. Hey, I wouldn’t have picked up a CD or learned to play the guitar without The Beatles Anthology on ABC! There’s no requirement forcing filmmakers to make characters use social media whenever they are on screen during a film. And even in present-day films, characters should only be on social media when it serves the narrative. If I wanted to watch someone frequently playing on social media, I could just stay home or walk down the sidewalk!

I’m still dumbfounded by this take. Even approaching this as both a critic and filmmaker, I could not imagine wanting to gatekeep someone from making a film just because it doesn’t have smartphones. This doesn’t even begin to take into account the amount of licensing and permission involved when it comes to featuring logos being used on screen. To put it simply, I do not care what year that a film takes place. I just care that it’s a well-crafted film. I care that it makes me laugh if it’s being targeted as a comedy. Those are the sort of things I care about.