Most movies are rubbish: Sheridan

Film director Jim Sheridan has described most modern movies as “crap” and has accused the big studios of abandoning serious filmmaking.

Speaking at the launch of the Digital Biscuit initiative in the Science Gallery, Sheridan said the Hollywood studio system is producing films that dispense with narrative, the three act structure and proper storylines.

“That’s gone. I go to the movies and I’m asking myself, ‘Is there a story here? I don’t see it'. The popcorn movies - I just don't get them a lot of the time.”

He cited the example of Tim Burton’s making of Alice in Wonderland as a film which was visually stunning, but had no story.

“The movie system is breaking down. They [the studios] definitely aren’t making serious movies,” he said.

“It is not like it used to be. It is impossible to go the normal route. You are not with the main studios any more. They are not making these movies.”

He said the problems of modern filmmaking were summed up an article by New Yorker film critic David Denby, who said many films nowadays are "effects- and scare-driven”.

The veteran director is currently looking to make a film of his life growing up in inner-city Dublin. He said he would like to direct some of his daughters' scripts, especially one by his daughter Tess about an incident in 2001 involving an anthrax scare at a school in Blackrock.

Digital Biscuit takes place between January 24th and 26th at the Science Gallery. It will feature the latest digital technology for use by filmmakers and is free to the public.