"Indie film isn't dead, it just grew up"
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“Indie film isn’t dead, it just grew up” is Kevin Smith doing what he’s always done best: turning an industry mood swing into a punchline with a bruise underneath. It’s a rebuttal to the periodic obituary writers who treat independent cinema like a vanished species, last seen at Sundance in the ’90s wearing flannel and shooting on grainy film stock. Smith’s real point isn’t that indie survived unchanged; it’s that the definition matured, professionalized, and got complicated.
The subtext is almost parental. “Grew up” implies responsibilities: budgets with real oversight, distribution strategies, streaming deals, marketing expectations, IP considerations. The romance of the scrappy outsider still exists, but it now shares space with spreadsheets, platform algorithms, and the reality that “independent” often means “financed outside studios” rather than “auteur-driven and broke.” Smith, who rode the DIY mythos of Clerks into the mainstream and later navigated studio franchises and direct-to-fan models, is uniquely positioned to say this without sounding like a scold. He’s lived the arc.
The intent is also defensive in a way that’s culturally savvy. Fans mourn indie film as if authenticity has been gentrified; Smith reframes that grief as nostalgia for a youthful phase, not a death certificate. It’s a reminder that scenes don’t disappear so much as evolve: the rebellion gets institutionalized, the tools get cheaper, the gatekeepers change shape, and the artists who last learn to negotiate adulthood without losing their voice.
The subtext is almost parental. “Grew up” implies responsibilities: budgets with real oversight, distribution strategies, streaming deals, marketing expectations, IP considerations. The romance of the scrappy outsider still exists, but it now shares space with spreadsheets, platform algorithms, and the reality that “independent” often means “financed outside studios” rather than “auteur-driven and broke.” Smith, who rode the DIY mythos of Clerks into the mainstream and later navigated studio franchises and direct-to-fan models, is uniquely positioned to say this without sounding like a scold. He’s lived the arc.
The intent is also defensive in a way that’s culturally savvy. Fans mourn indie film as if authenticity has been gentrified; Smith reframes that grief as nostalgia for a youthful phase, not a death certificate. It’s a reminder that scenes don’t disappear so much as evolve: the rebellion gets institutionalized, the tools get cheaper, the gatekeepers change shape, and the artists who last learn to negotiate adulthood without losing their voice.
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| Topic | Movie |
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