Ray Richmond: No one wants to live in the moment at the movies anymore

“Barbie” is an unusual film to become a breakout hit and cultural touchstone for a lot of reasons, but not that you may not have thought of is that it’s set more or less during the present day. It’s based in the land of toys and make-believe, of course, but it’s nonetheless purported to be happening today. This makes it an anomaly on the big screen these days, when nearly everything seems to be about the past (both recent and distant).

Consider the top eight films being handicapped at Gold Derby for the Academy Award for Best Picture in the combined odds. Of those, only “Barbie” (currently in fourth place with 9/1 odds) isn’t fully focused on some version of yesterday.

Here are the others:

• “Oppenheimer”: Set in the 1940s during wartime.
• “Killers of the Flower Moon”: Set in 1920s Oklahoma.
• “Poor Things”: Set in the 19th century.
• “The Holdovers”: Set in 1970 at a New England boarding school.
• “Maestro”: The Leonard Bernstein biopic spans the 1940s through around 1990.
• “Past Lives”: Spans the first decades of this century.
• “The Color Purple”: Spans the years 1910 to 1940.

As far as I can tell, “American Fiction” and “Anatomy of a Fall” are more or less set today. But then there are some other serious Oscar contenders like “The Zone of Interest,” “Saltburn,” “Air,” “Napoleon,” “Rustin,” “Nyad,” “The Boys in the Boat,” “Freud’s Last Session” and “Ferrari,” all of whom are set in prior times. The same was true last year, when “Everything Everywhere All at Once” – which was set kind of all over the place – took the Best Picture crown while competing against “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis” and “The Fabelmans” – period pieces all.

What is it about yesteryear that so attracts us? What is it about historical dramas (even if we define history as a decade or two ago) that draw us in?

I’ve given this a lot of thought, so bear with me if I start to sound a bit like a sociologist or a shrink.

The first explanation is simply that it’s simply about escape. It’s easier to leave behind the troubles of a dark and complex world and the complicated lives most of us tend to lead if we focus on a different era that has no specific connection to our everyday lives. This is why biopics are such a reliable feature staple. They permit us to lose ourself in someone’s else’s arguably more fascinating existence.

Typically, films about the past also give us a view of life that’s less complicated and more straightforward than what we’re dealing with in the present. And as an audience, we revel in the universal themes of love, betrayal, redemption, innocence, justice, sacrifice and transformation. It’s easier for us to root for the hero and decry the villain when it’s in the context of a story using the past as a guide, transporting us through a narrative to a time when things seemed to make more sense. And if they make less sense, our righteous anger feels somehow cleansing.

Whenever I’m seeing a version of a real-life story, I sit there with the sense that I’m identifying with at least one person in the story – and that provides comfort. It also creates a feeling of being there like an emotional participant rather than a mere observer. When that’s the case, the popcorn somehow tastes better and the time races by much more quickly.

I also don’t think I’m alone in being inspired to immediately Google the history I’ve just witnessed unfolding onscreen. When the movie is about the present, there’s nothing to Google, nothing new to learn. I like to compare what I’ve just seen with what the reality was, such as after watching “Maestro” or “Oppenheimer” or especially “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Before “Killers,” I had no inkling of the horrible history it revealed. And even when the film is fictional, you still feel like you learn something.

That’s the thing. The past provides lessons that teach us stuff we can use in our daily lives. Even while escaping, I think that appeals to people taking in a movie. They like to exit a theater feeling like they gained knowledge about something, whether it be Bernstein or J. Robert Oppenheimer or or Napoleon Bonaparte or Diana Nyad or Bayard Rustin – or the members of the Osage Nation. It’s much harder to glean that same satisfaction from a story that’s set in 2023 or thereabouts.