Charlie Kaufman criticizes Hollywood for putting out “garbage” as “seductive, cynical sales pitches”

Last Updated on August 24, 2023

Whether or not you may find that they were successful in the messages they wanted to convey, many people are taking away the message from the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer that audiences are craving non-franchise-able, standalone films. However, it can be argued that the films still had an upper hand in having recognizable names at their disposal, being either based on true events or existing properties. Could their successes be a cynical sale? In a flash of interesting timing, right after comments made by Zachary Levi criticizing Hollywood had been reported, the writer of high-concept films such as Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche, New York, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman has also called out Hollywood for the lack in quality in films. ScreenRant reports that the writer joined Levi in criticizing the quality of movies released by studios, even also referring to them as “garbage.”

According to Deadline, Kaufman would address an audience during a masterclass at the Sarajevo Film Festival, “At this point, the only thing that makes money is garbage. It’s just fascinating. It makes a fortune, and that’s the bottom line. It’s very seductive to the studios but also to the people who engage and become the makers of that garbage, especially if they’re lauded for the garbage because they don’t have to look inward or think long about what they’re doing.

“[Audiences] They don’t seem to see past the cynical sales pitch. Even though the sales pitch is presented in a way that suggests they are being fed something of value, they’re not.”

The diet is so corrupted and has been for so long. It’s like if you eat sh*t all your life, you want sh*t. If you eat processed food, you crave it. And you wouldn’t if you hadn’t been fed it all your life. That’s what the movie machine does and I find it really offensive. It makes me angry.

[The difference between actual art and Hollywood studio fare is the] “difference between truth and bullsh*t.

If the agenda is to sell a product and if that product is the movie or something within the movie, it can’t be art.”

Earlier, it was reported that Zachary Levi blamed studios for not caring about the quality and that audiences should vote on not accepting “garbage.”