La Voz de Galicia – March 22, 2026 →
I read last week an article in The New York Times about the anxiety caused by many of the films currently on the awards circuit, among them “Marty Supreme” or “One Battle After Another.” The author, Zach Schonfeld, wrote that: “America is in fight-or-flight mode, with a thousand threats and crises materializing every day. Now we’re seeking out that feeling as entertainment, too”. But I have been going through a period where I haven’t been able to watch many of those films precisely for the opposite reason, because the world is already upside down, and I already have enough anxiety as it is to keep watching violent and harsh things in the moments when I choose to disconnect through a film. The reality that Schonfeld refers to has the opposite effect on me, as I tend to avoid that kind of entertainment; but every day it is harder to find films that do not dwell on violence, especially when it is not necessary for the narrative they are trying to tell. That is why I was pleased (despite the respect I have for the great Oliver Laxe) that Joachim Trier’s film “Sentimental Value” won an Oscar, as it projects a different kind of cinema, slower and more sensory, in which we can come to build our own story within the story being told to us.
Something similar happened to me with “Blue Moon”, Richard Linklater’s film about the lyricist Lorenz Hart, a beautiful tribute to all those geniuses who were never able to make peace with themselves, but who nevertheless gave us so much beauty… I find myself missing more and more those films that give us the opportunity to reflect and learn a little more about the human condition, without the unjustified violence that is overwhelming cinema (and the world) right now.
