- Everett Collection
Many critics have called 2015 a strong creative year for Hollywood. Yet some of its most prestigious productions have titles that almost sound like placeholders for a later time when filmmakers come up with their movie's actual name.
"Concussion"[1] is about concussions. "Steve Jobs,"[2] "Trumbo"[3]< /a> and "Joy"[4] are the stories of real people named Steve Jobs, Trumbo and Joy, while "Carol"[5] is the story of a fictional woman named Carol. And you'll never guess where much of "Brooklyn"[6] takes place.
We saw this zero-frills approach for mainstream offerings like "Spy"[7] and "Everest,"[8] and for highbrow indies like "Grandma,"[9] "The Lady in the Van"[10] and "The Stanford Prison Experiment."[11] If this piece were a 2015 movie, it might well be called "Film Titles."
Maybe it's the need for a concise title that's readable on the Fandango app. Perhaps a simple name that's easily translated equals more sales in international markets. Maybe bare-bones titles show up more readily on Google searches. And there's always the possibility that filmmakers are making straight artistic choices about less being more.
Whatever the reason, it feels like we've been heading this way for a while, especially when it comes to comedies.
The Tina Fey-Amy Poehler party picture "Sisters"[12] is just the latest in a string of comedies in recent years that deliver exactly what they promise in two words, max. You don't need to think long to get the basic gist of what's going on with "Neighbors," "Chef," "Sex Tape," "Identity Thief," "The Dictator," "Horrible Bosses," "Bad Teacher" or "Tower Heist."
A few filmmakers did dare to throw titular curveballs at their audiences in 2015. Latin didn't stop Alex Garland's sci-fi thriller "Ex Machina"[13] from making plenty of year-end best-of lists (though calling the movie "Against the Machine" would have given us yet another meat-and-potatoes title). Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq"[14] implies a connection between the most violent parts of Chicago and Iraq.
Rare were moviegoers who understood the meaning of the title of Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "The Revenant"[15] without looking it up. And Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson went a step further with their new stop-motion drama "Anomalisa."[16] The title is a nickname invented for a character named Lisa who is, yes, an anomaly.
Neither does a classic movie require that descriptive a title in the opening credits. "Stagecoach," "Annie Hall," "Taxi Driver" and "The Apartment" all made the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 100 greatest American movies[17].
But for every success like "The Graduate" (No. 7 on AFI's list), there's at least one bomb like "Snakes on a Plane," perhaps the gold standard of titles that could double as pitches.
If there's any doubt about whether studios get more creative with their titles in 2016, look no further than Jan. 22.
That's the release date for an R-rated Robert De Niro-Zac Efron comedy. The trailer features De Niro's character[18] at a spring break bash screaming, "Party 'til you're pregnant!"
The name of the movie? "Dirty Grandpa."
For the latest entertainment news Follow @WSJSpeakeasy[19]
References
- ^ "Concussion" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Steve Jobs," (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Trumbo" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Joy" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Carol" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Brooklyn" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Spy" (blogs.wsj.com)
- ^ "Everest," (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Grandma," (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "The Lady in the Van" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "The Stanford Prison Experiment." (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Sisters" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Ex Machina" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Chi-Raq" (blogs.wsj.com)
- ^ "The Revenant" (www.wsj.com)
- ^ "Anomalisa." (www.wsj.com)
- ^ 100 greatest American movies (www.afi.com)
- ^ trailer features De Niro's character (www.youtube.com)
- ^ Follow @WSJSpeakeasy (twitter.com)
