Despite not making a good movie since the early Bush Administration, Martin DiBergi has a new movie on the horizon. Don’t worry, you won’t remember it in five days, let alone in five years. Because it’s the only way these people can get publicity for these kinds of movies anymore, DiBergi dropped a major bomb about recent Hollywood, “I simply don’t like comic book movies or Star Wars.”
A lot of directors have come out of the woodwork, saying the same thing. One reason is that there’s been a shortage of original films – as long as you gloss over recent releases like The Harder They Fall, Encanto, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Raya and the Last Dragon, 8-Bit Christmas, Licorice Pizza, Last Night in Soho, In the Heights, Power of the Dog – but who’s counting?
DiBergi’s disdain for big-budget superhero movies is a little more direct: “I just don’t like nerd s--t.”
Yes, Marvel and Star Wars movies have been a large staple of cinema over the last few years, just like how even back in the 1940’s studios flooded theaters with safe, proven franchise movies such as Andy Hardy, Blondie, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Lone Wolf, Boston Blackie, Charlie Chan, and the Universal Monster Movies, DiBergi notes one major difference: “Every sitcom going back to the 90’s used comics and Star Wars as a shortcut for loser. And if you go to any open mic, you can still hear fat, dumpy schlubs use that stuff as shortcut for loser. So, obviously, they must be the worst.”
For a little backstory on DiBergi’s background, he was nominated for an Oscar once. (And he brings it up like Al Bundy’s four touchdowns.) He directed an Oscar-nominated film about the brave white woman who stood up for Rosa Parks. He wrote a thought-provoking piece claiming that Oscar Wilde didn’t write his own plays because he was a vulgar peasant (also tacitly implying Wilde wasn’t hot enough). And he’s not a stranger to big-budget sci-fi films such as his space epic about Egyptians colonizing pyramids on Mars. (But that’s nothing like Star Wars and he wants you to remember that!)
Having made numerous Oscar-bait movies in the past, those aren’t exactly the movies that beta male frat boys typically watch. “But I still want them to think I’m cool,” DiBergi said.
Explaining the significance of his movie DiBergi said, “My movie is deep. There’s a 20-minute scene of a man wandering the desert and wondering about the meaning of life. And I don’t insult people’s intelligence with a bunch of stupid comic relief. And there’s a lot of r*pe. Seriously, why do people want to see Captain America? Why can’t parents take their kids to see MY movie?”
For what it’s worth, when asked why he even thought it was a good idea to ask a pretentious arthouse director what he thought about a genre of movies he has no relation to, the interview drew a blank.
Martin diBergi’s new movie comes out this Friday. While small, melodramatic Oscar-bait movies don’t exactly have a history of being big moneymakers, DiBergi fortunately already has his scapegoat for when it flops. However, since comic book movies haven’t been big contenders at the Oscars, he still has to come up with an excuse for when his movie underdelivers there too.
