Shouldn't movies be about other themes than movie making?

[deleted]

Writers like to write about writing. Moviemakers make movies about moviemaking. Actors like to play actors. Stories are about other stories: it's an old thing, and I think it's very intriguing, complete opposite of 'lack of fantasy and creativity'. The main reason some of these movies suck is because it is so hard to do it properly.

Metafiction and -narrative is such a large and diverse subject that it is hard to even start explaining it. Self-reflective stories go much further than just Hollywood, they have been here, like, always. It might date back to Shakespeare or maybe even to ancient Greece.

I can hardly phrase my thoughts of it into a reasonable sentence, but I like what Ted Goranson of filmsfolded.com always uses: the term 'folding', where in this case the inner story (movie or play or whatever) is there to move us into the world of the characters experiencing it.

I haven't seen this one yet though, but Levinson has used this device many times before, notably with TV in 'Wag the Dog'.

And what could be said of movies about dry cleaning or floor wax removal or auto shops or car washes or biblical archaeologists or canned worms or toothpick milling or bowling leagues in the Bronx...or?

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

dude you are imagining things - maybe 1 out of 1,500 movies are about moviemaking