There are plenty of Americans producing interesting films, but the blockbusters that get the big budgets and the promotion are just going for the biggest possible audience, so they don't take risks.

But the downward spiral is impressive: I feel popular movies in the past felt less like copies of each others than now. It's not just not taking risk: like coca cola they found the perfect formula and arent going to change it. And if they try, they d have insane addicts asking them to bring back the original formula.

Imagine big studios saying now they'll stop marvel movies, there d be a riot. I remember when the Inception + Shutter Island miracle happened and was reading Hollywood execs were flabbergasted and trying to formalize it so they could churn copies every few months.

There s nothing to do: they are private entreprises and they fit an addictive hole. Would be like trying to forbid beer because it s not as intellectual as cognac. I just feel like for some reason smaller markets do films differently because they just cant compete: Im French and live in Hong Kong, in both, local big budget blockbusters flop spectacularly because they feel too much like Ersatz (the CGI is years behind, the love story is under developed, the explosions are not well timed, the enemy is not as manichean, whatever), while smarter movies make us all proud "heh americans couldnt shit one like that, we're so special" :D

I don't know. I've watched plenty of anime and plenty of it is garbage. Ghibli is an outlier. Possibly the worst Ghibli movie was Earthsea and even that is merely average and only bad when compared to the rest of their catalogue.

Other cultures have their thing too. Bollywood has dancing in everything which still doesn't make sense to me after watch a bunch of Bollywood movies. Korea has their K-Dramas. Every one is the same.

Many of the cliches about other movie industries were actually imported from early Hollywood. The large eyes in most anime is what happened when the Japanese adopted the style from the early Disney movies. Early Bollywood movie style was just imported from early Hollywood musicals - musicals were much more common in the 1930s. Now all the industries have diverged over time, and they look very quirky when compared to each other. But the common source of all these styles is Hollywood itself.

I'm not familiar with who stole what from who and I generally don't care. But all these cultures have taken whatever it is and made it their own. Big eyed stuff is now synonymous with Japan. People breaking out in dance is a Bollywood trope. Some of this stuff circles back around eventually.

I'm only pointing out they are also pandering to their own fan bases and it can be just as formulaic as Hollywood. No need to put things on a pedestal.

For quality anime beyond Ghibli, try Satoshi Kon.

I would say there are some exceptions, like Shape Of Water.

shape of water was good for it's ethereal scenery and underlying storyline, but for the 2018 oscars, i thought 3 billboards got robbed for best picture. that was the last year i paid any attention to the oscars (especially considering the thoroughly mundane green book won the following year). hollywood has nothing interesting to offer anymore.