2018-2022 Films: List Avoiding Ideological Narratives

Cinema 2018-2022: The list seeking to dodge the ideological narrative

Recent cinema indoctrinates viewers. That is the starting thesis, and those who propose it do not ask for an essay: they ask for titles. The request is specific — films released between 2018 and 2022 that are not boring — and comes with five already watched on the table: 1917 (2019), The Northman (2022), Joker (2019), Old Henry (2021) and Parasite (2019). From there, the conversation jumped to something bigger: whether cinema of the last decade has stopped telling stories to sell a worldview. The answer was, as almost always, much more varied than the starting point.

Which films from 2018 to 2022 are recommended?

The accumulating lists have a family resemblance. Nobody (2021), Wrath of Man (2021), The Gentlemen, Ford v Ferrari, Ad Astra, Tenet, The Lighthouse, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Minamata, The Little Things or Red Rocket form a recognizable hard core. To these are added European and genre bets: Quo Vadis, Aida?, Riders of Justice, Another Round, Uncut Gems, Mandy, Dogman, St. Pauli Monster and the French Barbecue (2021). The complete catalog, with year and title-by-title justification, is much longer than any summary.

The pattern is clear: auteur action, revenge thriller, historical cinema and medium-budget European production. Also emerging are the latest works by Ridley Scott — House of Gucci and The Last Duel — cited as examples of studio cinema that has not yielded to political correctness. And in science fiction, two humble ones: Prospect (2018) and the Russian Sputnik (2020).

The anecdote that breaks the serious tone comes from a video channel where two young viewers discover The Quiet Man for the first time. The scene where John Wayne drags Maureen O'Hara across the Irish countryside with a stick causes them a stupor that is commented on more for what it portrays of another era than for the film itself.

Why is current cinema considered ideologized?

It is the question that sustains all disagreement, and the answers do not coincide. Some argue that Dune (2021) responds to a cast and archetypes chosen by identity criteria, and recommend going to the 1984 version; on the opposite side, that same title is defended as a reasonably faithful adaptation. The label is distributed depending on where each person places the limit.

Others shift the problem from the message to the craft. The latest Spider-Man installments are saved, they say, by the nostalgic appeal of old characters, not by the script. The Tomorrow War — available on streaming platforms — is dismissed directly as bad: inconsistencies and plot holes that only special effects cover up. This diagnosis competes with the previous one and nuances it: not everything that displeases is propaganda; sometimes it is simple laziness.

Refuge in pre-2000 cinema

Facing the recent catalog, the most repeated alternative is not a film: it is an era. "The best cinema and music have already been created," summarizes one stance, which considers good everything filmed before the turn of the century. Some fix the death of cinema in 1989 and others delay it until 2001, with Mulholland Drive as the death certificate of classic Hollywood.

Film noir of the fifties functions as a testing ground for this criterion, and here too there is division: for some, the genre is overrated except for exceptions like Gilda; for others, Gilda is not even film noir and the true canon is in The Maltese Falcon, in Humphrey Bogart, in Dana Andrews or in James Cagney. The list of classics recommended without discussion includes Al Pacino titles from the late eighties and nineties: Heat, Carlito's Way, Frankie and Johnny, Scent of a Woman and Donnie Brasco.

The recipe extends to educating the taste of younger people. Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, The A-Team, Knight Rider or MacGyver continue to work as entry points, according to those who test them at home with eleven-year-old children.

From blockbuster to series: how the search deviates

Not everything that appears fulfills the commission. Top Gun: Maverick (2022) remains in the limbo of those who prefer to wait to see it outside the theater. And some proposals were not even films: a recommendation turned out to be a series, and the link had to be requested to check it. The same happens in the field of miniseries, where Chernobyl slips among the most cited titles while 1899 or Willow await verdicts.

The wardrobe is completed with dystopian classics, such as Soylent Green, and with the new Japanese Godzilla, of which it is said that with four pence budget exposes much more expensive productions. This type of comparison — little money, solid result — is, in the end, the argument most repeated throughout the discussion.

With these pieces, the balance is uncomfortable for all stances. Each compilation ends up recommending what was already recommended twenty years ago, and the filter is applied depending on where each person places the border: in the cast, in the script or in the release date. The only stable thing is the method: discard, note down and keep looking.

Looking ahead to the next summer cycle, it is predictable that the question will be asked again in the same way and that the answers will resemble these. It is also likely that the conversation will once again drift towards series, towards classic cinema or towards the usual list, because the supply of novelties that satisfies the filter does not seem to have expanded. We will have to see if within a year the catalog grows or simply reorders.