Across the arts, creators are grappling with a cultural shift towards what theorists term “metamodernism.” Film is proving uniquely suited to capture this oscillation between modern and postmodern sensibilities. As society embraces individualism yet longs for authentic connection, and new generations face anxiety alongside hope, metamodern filmmaking balances earnest drama with cynical irony.
Audiences and auteurs alike feel tentative enthusiasm tempered by detached melancholy. By employing pastiche, meta-narratives, and subversion while retaining emotional catharsis, metamodern films reflect the uncertainties of our time.
Defining the Metamodern
Metamodernism incorporates both modernist and postmodernist cultural logics. According to professors Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker who coined the term, metamodernism emerges when “the postmodern culture of relativism, irony, and pastiche” is overtaken by “a romantic longing for Truth, sincerity, and beauty.”
So while postmodernism reacted to modernist earnestness with detached irony and deconstruction, the metamodern mindset preserves sincerity while acknowledging subjectivity. Vermeulen suggests metamodernism is “constituted by the tension of seemingly binary oppositions.”
As society has moved beyond outright rejection of grand narratives, first-person perspective and emotional resonance have fresh appeal. Similar to the software design term “post-skeuomorphic,” whereby visual metaphors represent digital concepts, metamodernism overlays self-aware artifice onto authentic aspirations.
A Pendulum Swing Between Earnestness and Irony
Representing the cultural rise of metamodernism, contemporary filmmakers subvert mainstream conventions while retaining emotional power.
For example, while the classic Western “High Noon” told a straightforward story of heroic duty, the postmodern deconstruction “No Country For Old Men” examines the failings of the heroic narrative itself. The villain represents advancing chaos, against which virtue proves naively powerless.
In contrast, metamodern works like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” employ parody and meta-commentary for poignancy. Heartfelt family drama pierces through the multiverse sci-fi spectacle. This film typifies metamodernism by using postmodern techniques to enhance modernist emotional resonance. The protagonist’s exhaustion with postmodern life grants triumphant relief to earnest connection by the final scene.
Metamodernism As Cultural Reflection
Metamodern films that balance cynicism with idealism may reflect society’s re-embrace of optimistic narratives post-9/11, while acknowledging lingering doubts. Having grown up saturated in media, young creators repurpose postmodern irony for emotional ends today.
Much as the New Sincerity literary movement reacted to postmodern detachment, metamodernismVulnerable TV comedies like “Fleabag” and “Ramy” employ fourth wall-breaks and flashes of absurdity to heighten intimacy with characters.newline
In her 2017 paper “Popular Culture and the Politics of Irony,” professor Anneke Smelik notes: “There are signs that since 9/11 there has also been a return to the ideals of modernity… neighborhoods have become close-knit communities again and politicians talk about shared beliefs and values.”
Yet creators raised on ambient media washed in cynicism cannot return to modernist naivety easily. Smelik suggests current works feel “muted, humble, self-critical, ambivalent and hesitant.” Thus metamodernism integrates doubt yet aspires for hope.
Emerging Examples Across Formats
Beyond film, metamodernism broadly applies to youth-oriented and digital entertainment. For example, complex adult dramedies like “Atlanta”, video essays, TikTok micro-films, and indie games like “Undertale” subvert expectations for emotional impact.
Not all categorizations align; a rare big-budget spectacle franchise innovating within its genre through metamodern techniques is The Matrix Resurrections. By literalizing a meta-critique of stagnant legacy sequels, it pulls off earnest advocacy for mental health help—seeking couched within iconic science fiction metaphor.
Indeed, acclaimed video creators and critics have described such works using comparable labels like The Polygon Brain Trust’s “Post-Postmodernism”, ScreenPrism’s Genre Fusion of “MainstreamRealism”, and Thomas Flight’s cascade from Modern to “Hypermodern.” All point to reinvigorated emotive media keeping self-critical perspectives intact.
Audiences latched onto postmodern irony for decades, from David Foster Wallace to Tim & Eric to Ryan Reynolds. But in the 2020s, this detached irony risks fatigue. Metamodern filmmaking may herald sincerity’s comeback with wisdom accrued.
Oscillating Towards An Uncertain Future
As scholars have noted, the cultural dominance of any given aesthetic suffers inevitable backlash and displacement by emergent movements. Metamodern techniques risk cliche ordisplacement just as earnest modernists rebelled against Victorian inhibitions.
Might alpha generation creators target metamodernism’s flitting between grand narratives and self-parody as whiplash? Perhaps realism makes a comeback instead. As economic precarity limits artistic risk-taking or byte-sized videos outpace long-form, could Hollywood return to formulaic crowd pleasers?
Only time will tell whether metamodernism proves a fleeting cultural moment or an epochal paradigm shift. For now, oscillating wildly between sincerity and irony remains our reality. Ultimately audiences desire enduring resonance, not emotional whiplash or remix culture for its own sake. Balance feels wise given life’s uncertainties.
By employing a both/and allergy to either/or binaries while retaining earnest emotion, metamodern filmmaking and art mirrors society’s tentative hopes. With layers of self-aware artifice guarding against naïve immersion, clear-eyed empathy and humanism regain appeal.