Peter Bart: In Movies As In Politics, Young Protagonists Are Scarce These Days
deadline.comI never liked Tom Ripley but I keep meeting him. I’ve “met” Ripley in five films, and he’s now the protagonist of a somber eight-part Netflix series.
So filmmakers clearly find his character intriguing. Even though he has no character. That, in itself, reminds me that Hollywood is suffering the same problem as Washington: an absence of vital young protagonists.
Voters are confronted by an election that’s really a rerun, likely opened by a debate no one wants to witness. In filmmaking, the worldwide success of Oppenheimer told us that a complex story becomes more interesting if it’s also about someone interesting.
Yet movies with vibrant young protagonists seem to be losing their moment. Dan Lin, the new chief of film at Netflix, confides a desire — since rebutted by Ted Sarandos on Thursday’s Q1 earnings call — to steer away from mindless mega-budget action films like Red Notice with Chris Evans or The Gray Man with Ryan Gosling.
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