It may have been a big year at the box office, but there's a lot that Hollywood could be doing better.
1. Break the Bromance Habit
The bromance genre has evolved from a celebration of male quirks and foibles to a cry of rage by upper-middle-class suburban men straining against the shackles of their own affluence. As re-invented in its post-Hangover incarnation, the male buddy film has become the most poisonous genre on the streets today, giving the well-heeled and angry room to take out their unhappiness on all beneath them. And in 2012, only one — Ted — broke through to massive audiences.
Fortunately, there's another breed of comedy waiting in the wings. Female-driven comedies in the post-Bridesmaids era, have never been stronger. Our favorite of this year, the hilariously unhinged Pitch Perfect, could be a harbinger of things to come.
2. Lose the "G" Word
2012 was the year of the Girl. Girls, Two Broke Girls, The New Girl. Everywhere you looked there were young women celebrating their deferred adulthood. On the one hand, the burst of female-oriented shows is a good for the world. On the other hand, until there are half as many shows on the airwaves with the word "woman" in the title as "girl" (there are currently none), it's hard to be sure what ceiling has been broken.
3. Hire Some Female Directors
Two years back, Kathryn Bigelow became the first female director in Oscar history to win the Best Picture trophy and it was declared that, at last, Hollywood was ready to allow women to head up films. Well, not so fast. Two years later, in 2012, if one looks at the 50 highest grossing films of this year, not a single one was directed by a lone female. (The Pixar film Brave was co-directed by a mixed-gender team.)
In any other business, there would be Congressional hearings looking into what the heck is going on there. Now that it has been proven conclusively that people will, amazingly, see female-driven films (Twilight, Hunger Games, Bridesmaids ), excluding half the nation from the director's seat is not exactly a formula for drawing more of these "new audiences" in.
4. No Reboots Without Just Cause
Since Christopher Nolan reimagined the moribund Batman series in a darker, more realistic and intimate light, everyone and his brother has been dragging half-dead franchises out of the attic and reimagining them in a darker, more realistic and intimate light. But outside of the Nolan Batmen and the Daniel Craig Bonds, the reboots have proven more cosmetic than genuine rethinking of the characters. The bottom of the barrel came this year with the new incarnation of Spiderman, which retread very familiar ground while adding nothing more than new costumes and new faces.
