Cinema seems to have a great divide in our culture right now; you have the artsy, overly pretentious film and then you have the heavily dumbed-down, popcorn film. My issue is this: what happened to the films in-between?

You remember them. Those movies that were well crafted, well-acted but kept you awake the entire 90 minutes because they were interesting. Movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Alien, The Godfather, Star Wars, or The Wizard of Oz. Films that were technical and creative achievements that captivated moviegoers.

Film schools have become a breeding ground for more abstract, almost Europhile, types of film. I respect that. But I also realize that abstract films are just that: abstract. People don’t want it shoved down their throats. Critics love them, us regular people don’t. Most of us have no interest in breaking down hidden subtexts or analyzing the use of lighting of a given scene. We just want to enjoy ourselves.

Then you have the other extreme: the studios. Film is a business and there’s money to be made and they’ll do their darnest to maximize a film’s appeal. Pretty faces, a popular rap artist doing the soundtrack, bright colors, big explosions, celebrity cameos. But where is the soul? In all the effort to broaden the films’ demographic, it loses any sort of identity.

Both Star Wars and The Godfather were fortunate enough to have directors that fought against the studio cheapening their work and, in the end, became commercial and critical success from doing so.

So what’s the problem, then?

The problem is not whether it’s flashy or subdued. My taste in film ranges from one extreme to the other. I got Almost Famous on one hand, and then Bram Stoker’s Dracula on the other. Polar opposites to each other! It’s all about the audience’s connection.

I can tell you with great certainty that most of the films I’ve seen this past year have left me with no sense of ownership. They didn’t feel like they belonged to me on any emotional level. And if they did, it was because it was either a sequel or an adaptation of a previous body of work where I could build a sense of ownership over time. You can only do so many remakes (Halloween and Friday the 13th), sequels (what number Saw film are we on now?), or adaptations (Twilight and A Christmas Carol) before you lose interest entirely.

Is there hope? I think so. I’ve heard good things about a couple different films that might suggest a return to middle ground. Will we see any major changes? Probably not. Not as long as we have people making Meet the Spartans a #1 hit at the box office.