Leonardo Dicaprio Wants You To Know That ‘Movies Still Matter'

I often joke that I’m not saving money for my kids to go to college because who knows what colleges will even look like in fourteen years. If they remain the same, I certainly won’t be the first parent in history to fear the future only for everything to stay (relatively) the same. Regardless, it’s not just advanced education that is changing rapidly; many things that I grew up with are going the way of the Dodo, and they mostly involve the entertainment industry.

I don’t know how I’ll be watching movies in a little over a decade. That’s one of my biggest fears. Yes, it’s pretty low on the list of priorities in the grand scheme of things, but dammit, I love movies, and my copious DVDs and Blu-Rays, and sitting in a movie theater as dazzling images dance onscreen. However, a lot of that is being devalued in favor of “content.” Streaming services want you to press one button and then sit back as an algorithm feeds you exactly what it thinks you want.

What’s worse is that it’s working. People rally against movie theaters, often not because of the movies themselves, but because they will be forced to be around others (I get that people can be annoying at theaters; that doesn’t make the entire system worthless). Netflix is churning out nonsense that’s meant to be half-viewed while folding your laundry. Kids will actively avoid or talk down about movies simply because they are what they are. It’s bleak!

Still, there are glimmers of hope. People are still out there making good, challenging cinema and hyping up the idea that it needs to be seen in a theater. One of my favorite examples from this year is One Battle After Another, an incredible piece of filmmaking from Paul Thomas Anderson that starred Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie deftly tackles modern politics and looks incredible while doing so.

DiCaprio sent a message to the International Film Awards to accept a prize for achievement. He took the time to explain why he thinks movies are still so important. “My father used to take me to the movies at the Vista Theater in Los Angeles. I lived four blocks away and it’s now home to one of the last VistaVision projectors on earth,” he explained. “It was my neighborhood theater, it was where I first felt the power of cinema, and sitting in that dark room with my father, watching something bigger than myself, I realized how deeply movies can affect all of us.” Same, Leo.

He continued, noting that One Battle After Another was shot on VistaVision, “not out of nostalgia, but out of a belief, a belief in scale and texture, and in the idea that movies are still meant to be experienced together in a theater. Right now, that belief matters more than ever. Original films are harder to make and harder to protect, but movies still matter. Not content, but cinema. Stories made by people meant to be shared in a dark room in a communal experience.”

He’s right, dagnabbit! So many current advances in technology keep us separate. Generative AI is a perfect example. Going to a theater and enjoying something with a group of people whom you may never even speak a word to is special. Ideally, it doesn’t go away, and I can keep sharing it with my kids like DiCaprio’s dad did with him.