Brilliant OTT in a decade of low-key cinema 

The best screen achievements of the decade came from unlikely places

The ‘best’ in any year with regard to film does not imply noteworthy work any longer, even at the global level. There has been a decline in the quality of cinema and very few contemporary films, including those shown at international film festivals, deserve a place in film history, even if one searches the entire decade for them.

to rank with the best in the categories of Indian and Kannada cinema, Hollywood, world cinema, and India-specific and world OTT television. Television is included since Netflix and Amazon Prime are offering shows of a quality that often exceeds The reasons are not easy to find. One reason could be the political climate and the worldwide check on what may be said or shown, often in the name of ‘political correctness’. The following is a list of film and television productions that are good enough to rank with the best in the categories of Indian and Kannada cinema, Hollywood, world cinema, and India-specific and world OTT television. Television is included since Netflix and Amazon Prime are offering shows of a quality that often exceeds cinema and one sees OTT going from strength to strength, since it bypasses public exhibition in theatres, a stumbling block for filmmakers. OTT offers young filmmakers an opportunity to be original and experimental, something that cinema rarely does.

Hollywood

Where are the greats?

Hollywood has been in decline in the past decade and there is a proliferation of superhero films or animation.

Even the former greats have not produced cinema of much significance — Martin Scorsese, Joel and Ethan Coen, Woody Allen — or, at least work comparable with their best. The director I regard more highly is Todd Haynes, who is not well-known,

although he made a masterpiece ‘Safe’ (1995), which few people may have seen or fully understood. His ‘Carol’ (2015), about the exercise of interpersonal power in lesbian relationships, though not as provocative as ‘Safe’, is nonetheless brilliantly made, featuring Cate Blanchett, in perhaps her best role.

Source: Brilliant OTT in a decade of low-key cinema | Deccan Herald