Jessica Lange Says Today's Best Films Are Not American: ‘We’re Living in a Corporate’ Hollywood

Do you agree with Jessica Lange?

The iconic actress, who just turned 75, is calling out modern Hollywood films for not valuing the “creative process.” She’s telling Vulture that nowadays “artistic impulse” is squashed by the “corporate profit motive,” and that “there should be a law against” studio tax write-offs such as what Warner Bros has done with “Batgirl” and, possibly, “Coyote vs Acme.”

We’re living in a corporate world and it certainly has rolled over into the film industry […] So much of the industry now is not about the creative process. Obviously, this is not across the board, but there are many instances where I feel like the artistic impulse is overwhelmed by the corporate profit motive.

Lange goes on to add that it’s come to the point where international films are much bolder than American ones. She prefers them, and says American cinema is in a total rut at the moment:

You look at some of the best films of the past year — what do they have in common? They’re not from America […] My favorite was ‘Anatomy of a Fall.’ How often do we get to see a film like that, where the ambiguity of things is never sewn up?

In the old days, there was a kind of synergy between the actors and the filmmakers [in American filmmaking]. The director would stand next to the camera, and there was almost an alchemy, this transformation of energy between the director and you in front of the camera while you were playing the scene. … You got this sense that the director was there with you in every moment — almost as if he were willing your performance. It was a beautiful way to work.

Lange had previously stated, in 2023, that she planned to retire due to a lack of “wonderful films by really great filmmakers, wonderful stories, great characters.”

I can’t really say I disagree with her. The current decade in movies might be the worst one, in terms of quality, that Hollywood has ever experienced. It doesn’t help that it’s been marred by the pandemic. Productions got shut down. Movies got delayed. Studios became allergic to creative balsiness. Then the strikes occurred, and that only added to the turbulent state the industry was already in.

You basically have A24 and Neon holding the throne in terms of arthouse filmmaking in the U.S. — although A24 now wants to branch out more into mainstream and IP filmmaking. Foreign cinema seems to be doing a tad better, but it’s also shapeshifted because of pandemic.

With that said, there are more films being released than in any previous time. There is so much “content” that it becomes damn-near overwhelming to make your way through it. Clearly, great films still exist, and there are plenty of diamonds in the rough to be found. You just have to be adventurous enough to look for them.