There is no medium that hasn’t been touched by Hollywood’s current focus on superheroes, and while you can begrudge studio suits for making it a big part of the core of their business, you can’t say it hasn’t been successful. And while an increasing number of high profile directors and actors are taking to the genre, there are also those who want nothing to do with anything involve spandex and capes, and you can count John Michael McDonagh as one of them. The writer/director is known for his caustic comedies like “The Guard” and “Calvary,” and the upcoming “War On Everyone,” and he certainly doesn’t hold his tongue in interviews.
Sitting down with Loaded, the filmmaker was asked about comic book movies, and he didn’t hold back, declaring that most of them are airplane movies, at best.
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“I no longer watch comic book movies in cinemas, I got tired of them. I like to be on a plane and watch them on a really small screen while I am drinking, just to give them the level of attention they deserve,” McDonagh said.
“Comic book films are kids movies. Let’s just come out and say it, they are kids movies. They are made for people who are basically kids. Or for people who don’t want to think too much and just want spectacle and that’s okay but let’s not pretend they are not kids’ movies, they are,” the director continued, though he did have at least one exception to the rule. “Something like ‘Deadpool‘ has at least taken that setup and gone somewhere else with it. So that’s fine, I like that, but I don’t care about those films. Most people do them for the money.”
And if Marvel were to come knocking on McDonagh’s door, he likely wouldn’t take the gig anyway, because all the technical requirements just have no interest for him.
“Well, just on a basic level, I just have little patience for CGI and special effects anyway, so [as a director] I would just get bored on a set with loads of green screen,” he explained. “If I am directing two actors over there now with just a single camera, it takes a lot of effort to suspend your disbelief anyway. If you just have a green screen behind them and it’s meant to be New York being destroyed, I would just be totally lost with it all.”
But don’t think that McDonagh only has his knives out for blockbusters. The filmmaker, whose latest “War On Everyone” is loaded with insults about (as the title makes clear) everyone, takes prestige films to task too, for playing it too safe, and not being willing to present flawed characters. And McDonagh would rather push the envelope than try and spare someone’s feelings.
“How do you know you’ve gone too far until you’ve gone to far? If you start reining it in, it becomes self-censorship. It becomes a bland, vanilla type movie, and there are too many of them coming out of America and everywhere else. European cinema, arthouse cinema, has it’s own middle-of-the-road, bland morality as well. Let’s not pretend it’s cutting edge when it’s not,” he told The Independent.
“It feels like when BBC or Channel 4 make a movie the racist is always a skinhead with a Millwall shirt who beats his wife and kicks his dog. That’s not what racism is,” he added.
It’s certainly a compelling point. Sometimes that most harmful forms of racism (or sexism or homophobia etc.) are hidden in plain view, but cinema often offers a broader portrayal of prejudice. Let us know what you think about McDonagh’s thoughts below. “War On Everyone” will open in the U.S. via Saban Films, but no date has been set just yet.