Studios Can't Resist Commercialising Character-Drama Movies

2019 is revealing the dangerous new trend of studios and filmmakers ruining their solid, character-drama movies by commercialising them with popular music and cheap, genre gimmicks to appeal to the masses

Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding in 'Last Christmas' (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

by Jack Linsdell

With all the positives this year has seen for movies, like the resurgence of the action and horror genres back to their cinematic roots, it's also brought to light a dangerous new trend of "commercialising" sturdy character-dramas with cheap genre gimmicks and the irrelevant inclusions of popular music to appeal to a "mass audience". 

The films in question are two romantic-comedies released by Universal Pictures this year, namely the Richard Curtis/Danny Boyle Beatles-themed summer release Yesterday and the (opening this week) Paul Feig/Emma Thompson Christmas-themed movie Last Christmas. First, before I go any further, this article is not criticising Universal Pictures per-say as I like them as a studio (as much as any other), it just so happens that they were the distributor to both movies, which does have some irony in it, I'll admit. But, both Yesterday and Last Christmas are actually extremely similar both in terms of the artistic choices perused and the mistakes made. As you can tell from the titles, both films share their names with a famous Beatles song and a popular George Michael/Wham! track respectively. This is because both films prominently feature those artists music, but less as a plot device and more of a commercial hook to get audiences to see both movies in the cinema. 

Yesterday was sold in the marketing as a musical rom-com from the mind of Richard Curtis, based around the well-loved songs of the Beatles. That's okay, if only that had been what the film actually was. Spoiler, it wasn't. The Beatles music was the centre of the film's core hook, namely that struggling singer Jack Malik was the only to remember the Beatles, so launched a successful career by claiming their music as his own. The plot is solid on paper, except in execution, Curtis and co. didn't write a musical where the songs actually become relevant to the narrative. The songs (apart from creating the overall premise) have no impact on the plot, i.e. remove the specific songs from the film and the plot remains intact, which isn't what a musical is. Instead, they come across as a glorified cash-in, only to appeal to those musical or Beatles fans, and leaves you feeling cheated. Considering this was a $26 million budgeted movie where $10 million of it went to securing the licensing of their music, it's a mighty waste and shame that they didn't create a proper musical (think The Greatest Showman or even Rocketman) to explore that premise. 

Yesterday (it's no secret I was majorly disappointed with it) was mostly liked by general audiences because the marketing did achieve it's aim by appealing to the masses, although those in the critical/film circles weren't too impressed. Despite it's many flaws and failings, Yesterday was at it's best when it was acting as a character-drama, where Jack's manager Ellie (played by the fantastic Lily James) was trying to tell him she loved him and he was ignorant to it, as well as some excellent dramatic explorations around what defines success. However, there wasn't enough of it, and I can only think if Curtis had written it without the music numbers (which weren't) there would have been time to explore what serious character-led drama he was hinting at. Either option would have worked, making a full-out, entertaining musical with The Beatles music, or a serious, character-drama exploring the themes of love, life and success. Both, didn't work. I don't know if the studio pushed for the music to be so heavily included in the film, or if the marketing was misleading, but either way, a serious character-drama was commercialised with unnecessary gimmicks and popular music to just "get butts into cinema seats".

Last Christmas suffers a similar yet slightly different mistake too. It's a serious character-drama about a women suffering with depression and the hardships of life, but it seems that the filmmakers and/or studio were too afraid the masses wouldn't bite. So, instead, we have a forced romantic-comedy storyline shoehorned in to make it appear in the marketing as the new Love Actually, as well as the music of Wham!/George Michael (including some unreleased tracks) to cash-in on the popularity of their songs. Instead of earning credibility as a well-written and emotionally-relevant drama about serious issues, Last Christmas comes off as three movies rolled into one which doesn't work. It's part serious drama, part rom-com, part Christmas musical. It doesn't work, and like Yesterday, is another fine example of how a fear that audiences won't react to a character-drama has led to commercialising and spoiling what would have been two decent movies. 

This is not like Warner Bros.' Blinded by the Light, which was a serious, period, character drama about a mixed-race family being marginalised in the 1970's Britain, which happened to feature some music of Bruce Springsteen. You may wonder why it's different, but in Blinded by the Light, our protagonist uses the inspiration of the lyrics of 'The Boss's' tracks to help him get through life and the music actually does move the plot forward and never takes away from the domestic drama which always comes first. Look, with less people going to movies just to go to the movies, I understand why studios and filmmakers are tempted to commericalise movies to make them "must see in cinemas" events. But, at the cost of damaging what could have been such compelling and effective dramas, I'm not sure it's worth it. Had Stephen Chobsky's utterly fantastic character-drama Wonder being given the commercial treatment and forced to have the music of Oasis in just to make it more appealing to the masses, the movie wouldn't be as grand as it is. 

So, if there's one lesson to learn, it's pick a lane when deciding what movie to make. Are you a for the masses musical featuring the music of popular artists/bands, in which the tracks move the plot forward (think Rocketman or Mamma Mia)? Or, are you a light, seasonal romantic-comedy that constitutes as easy viewing (think Love Actually)? Or...are you a serious drama, with compelling characters, deep moral exploration and an emotional rollercoaster (think Wonder)? Once you've chosen have faith in that and keep it in that lane. So, Hollywood. Don't commercialise serious movies with cheap gimmicks, and don't weigh down those commercial movies trying to be lightweight entertainment. Got it? Cool.