One thing it seems like it's harder for filmmakers to do now versus 30 or 40 years ago is assume their audience has a functional moral framework from which to view their film

📌

Isn’t that exciting? Throw out the default neoliberal worldview.

Accurate ASF. I recently binge-watched all 6 seasons of The Sopranos and I was impressed how well the show tackled thorny, divisive sociopolitical topics in a respectful but grounded way. I thought "Yeah, there's no way we're getting that level of nuance in today's climate…"

Entertainment can't even pass the very first threshold anymore, i.e., will the intended audience be capable of not throwing an inconsolable years-long internet vengeance tantrum if their entitled expectations/demands about what they wanted the product to be are not met. Barely worth trying anymore.

Damn you Postmodernism!

Can you imagine the title sequence of Taxi Driver nowadays

Really don't think this is true. Art has always been misunderstood or knowingly co-opted. Kubrick himself worked to have clockwork orange banned in the uk when it was accused of glorifying violence.

that, or that their viewers understand that having a character exhibit reprehensible behaviour is not an edorsement of said kind of behaviour lotttta people slept during that class apparently

this is why the dune part two ending, in which chani runs away, was Not Really a Good Change

Yes but a lot of people then and now took Gone With the Wind and its Lost Cause crap at face value.