Silver screen signposting

Ambiguity is no longer a priority for media

By ABHINAYA KASAGANI — akasagani@ucdavis.edu

Recently, while scrolling through my Letterboxd reviews for the month (I know, I’m sorry), I began to track the frequency with which I criticized most films for being half-baked or vague. For most of these, it felt as if the writers and directors had set out to accomplish something else, and then had completely abandoned it by the end. Most reactions suggested that this was largely the expected quality of film produced by independent filmmakers and studios — for instance, A24 films, well before their release, are immediately pigeonholed as unnecessarily obtuse. 

It seems that, given the present state of the world, it has become necessary to reimagine better alternatives to our present day and find solutions that are collectively agreed upon. Instead of aiming for vagueness, films have begun aiming for explicit instances of current global tensions — whether that be social, economic or political — in order to prompt serious discussions.

This shift is interesting because, for the longest time, ambiguous endings have dominated the conversation — as seen in “Anora” and “The Substance,” for example. The rise of independent cinema was synonymous with the rise of unresolved endings. Ideas of modernism and postmodernism rejected closure and neatly tied endings so as not to blindly cater to the ideas of truth — suggesting that there was something lowbrow about circular narratives like these. Previously, being evasive in this way was perceived as a trait of “serious” cinema, while optimism just felt lazy, naive and commercial. In allowing the audience to come to conclusions for themselves, literature and media were able to not only sell but also provoke thought. 

Presently, however, there has been a noticeable shift toward resolution — or “hopecore” — across literature and media (think “Project Hail Mary”). Despite irresolution having previously been the name of the game (the line that separated Hollywood from indie dramas), current media and literature have begun to accommodate more explicitly hopeful messaging, allowing its viewers closure and catharsis. For example, Hallmark has always sold, but has never quite achieved the same social status as true cinema. While this doesn’t necessarily imply the presence of endless hopefulness, these films now include instances of emotional repair and themes of possibility. 

This is primarily because audiences nowadays seem less interested in ambiguity — despite originally claiming that explicitness was fundamentally incompatible with highbrow art and media — instead choosing narratives that explicitly state their intentions. Viewers also appear exhausted with the crypticism we have opted for during a period largely influenced by political or economic instability, climate crises and distrust. When our experience is filtered through such incoherence, we attempt to make sense of our world by recreating what we know. Our priorities when storytelling and meaning-making have shifted to accommodate our present moment; the failure of ambiguity lies in how it presently defines our everyday existence.

Ambiguity also limits the extent to which reform is possible. As a society that has become less vulnerable and sincere, often shying away from gestures of intimacy or care, this reorients us. When we are constantly lied to by authority figures and experts, themes of despair in independent cinema mirror our current moment and acknowledge our distrust; we are moving away from catering to cryptic narratives, renegotiating whether or not ambiguity is valuable.

While ambiguity once suggested mobility, allowing viewers to come to their own conclusions, we are now opting for more pointed meaning-making; the rise of hopecore is no longer thought of as escapism (or as a commercial tactic), but as a response to our collective fatigue. By refusing to adapt to our usual cynicism, writers and producers are giving way to catharsis — and, subsequently, hope. While it is partially laughable that this shift has become almost radical in our present moment, we are not abandoning or replacing complexity, but rather recognizing how such messaging — hopecore — readies audiences to conceive of newer imaginative possibilities for our world and effectively make sense of our present-day realities.

Written by: Abhinaya Kasagani— akasagani@ucdavis.edu

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