DRAMA
The drama genre is genuinely the most popular genre for the academy and critics, while normal audiences would much rather watched films that are action and adventure or thrillers, I consider drama to be the holy grail of cinema as a whole.
Content:
dramatic films generally are made to either convey a message or show a point of view that you would have never thought of seeing. They are mainly made to show human emotion and our vulnerabilities. It’s in the word drama that these films are more dramatic than others. Normally these are the films that many would consider “Oscar bait” which many are, but dramas do take a lot of heart and emotion to make. Majority of dramas are even biographical films such as Lincoln (2012) and Malcolm X (1992), these are made again to show the human struggle and problems we face as humans. These films are by far the most realistic in the cinema sphere, they are more grounded and true to life.
Production techniques:
Dramas are heavily reliant and the actual quality and caliber of the actors in said movies and the experience and quality of the director. Lighting, sound, and location are very important to dramas, some of the best dramatic movies made have the most soul moving soundtracks and scores. Films such as Interstellar (2014) and Joker (2019) have scored to really convey loneliness and isolation. In dramas music and sound tend to be central characters to the story and in some films are part of the actual plot.
Genre marketing:
Dramas are normally marketed towards audiences that are wanting to take a film seriously, I would say dramas are made for people who want to actually learn something from a film. Sadly films such as superhero movies and big franchise movies are depleting the presence of these movies on a major scale. In fact many directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese have attempted to take a stand against such movies with Scorcese even stating “they’re like amusement parks”. Back to the marketing, these films don’t normally have such big budgets compared to these franchise films so their marketing budget is slim. These films can range from a PG rating to a R rating.
Film example #1: HER (Spike Jonze,2013)
The film her is centered around our protagonist Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), a broken hearted, lonely man who yearns for love again. He then meets this AI named Samantha and he falls in love with her essentially fulfilling his void left behind by the divorce of his wife. This film embodies the drama genera due to the emotions shown and situations dealt with. It is inevitable that we will experience heart break in our lives and the viewer empathizes heavily with Theodore and seeing him grief his marriage. Seeing a man at his lowest point is beautiful thing in a strange way because we get to experience and feel sympathy for him.
This film deals with many emotions such as grief, sadness, anger, happiness, and understanding in huge burst of emotions in scenes. If you have not yet seen this film it is highly recommended for literally everyone.
Film example #2: Taxi driver (Martin Scorcese, 1976)
This film centers around a socially awkward psychopath Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) and his struggle to formulate relationships and his grim view of the world and the people around him. His views of the world eventually reach a boiling point when a women rejects him and he sets out to assassinate a politician. This film along with Joker (2019) take a deep dive into mental illness and makes the audience ask what could we do to help people like this. It gives you insight into the radical way of thinking that many mentality I’ll people have. The film also deals with toxic masculinity and how the media interprets things. Also the idea of having an unreliable narrator in Travis, really makes the audience questions every little bit of information he gives to us further enhancing the viewing experience.
Other examples:
