I'm bad at titles, just read the post.

I've been waiting to blog for forever, so I'm a little unduly excited about making a post. I've had this idea for awhile.

I've noticed a recent trend in movies, so I want to know what you guys make of it. There's been a lot of true or based-on-truth historical movies lately. Not just artsy 'films', I mean high-profile cinema movies. Look on the list of movies nominated for Academy Awards tomorrow- Changeling. Defiance. Milk. Frost/Nixon. You've got to admit that's a little unusual. Even movies not nominated for awards, like Valkyrie, fit the category.

It's long been said that art imitates life. Cinema is a form of art, so what do these movies imitate? Certainly not current events, as it's already been noted. So it must be something more subtle that is striking such a chord with audiences. What's so appealing about these movies?

It's definitely not the mood. Changeling is about a kidnapped kid, Frost/Nixon about a lying President, and the end of Valkyrie is reminiscent of the end of Titanic- you know the (metaphorical) ship is going to sink and that the good guy's going to die.

I personally think it's because we're so dissatisfied with the present. It doesn't matter to us as a collective consumer audience if the past is just as or more depressing. We're unhappy with a bad economy, lying stock brokers, yo-yoing gas prices, and the electric car that can’t come fast enough. So we turn to people with important but often drastically different problems. You’re gay and you’re running for senate; you’re eluding the Nazis. Very few people in the general population can personally relate to these problems. But we like them because they’re real and they’re indirectly relevant.

What do you guys think?