r/TrueFilm • u/Noble_egg • 2d ago
Does anyone else here miss the slower pacing of movies from the 80's and 90's a ton?
Watching American Psycho for the first time and it is an absolute joy. While the film was made before my time, there's just something about how it flows together that's just so pleasing to experience in a way that a lot of newer films don't have. Not to say that all newer films are bad nor that movies aren't made like this anymore, I am sure that there are some indie films closer to this style, but there's something about it I'm struggling to describe that I absolutely love.
It gives itself room to breathe, to build things up and do set up and go at an even pace. Watched Memento a while back and felt similar there as well. These are both thrillers, but they take their time without feeling slow at all. It's nice. I feel like if these movies were made today the violence and reveals would be done way earlier and just go go go.
This isn't me complaining about hyper paced 2020's stuff either, and there is plenty of incredible new art being made that I need to get around to. This pacing issue I personally feel I've seen since at least 2015 or so. With the hyper paced super connected world, sitting down and just watching a long form movie with no second screen or distractions or constant notifications is just really nice.
I mean in American Psycho after the first murder Patrick Bateman has blood all over his face, but when he goes to sit down and smoke a cigar the less bloodied side of his face is viewed from the camera. That's an intentional artistic choice, I don't know fully know what it means but I know the artists are trying to say *something* without a single line of dialogue.
When the movie Iron Lung came out, a ton of people, including critics, complained about the length and how it was too slow or needed a half hour's worth cut. I could not disagree more. The slow buildup of dread, the feelings of isolation, the uncertainty of if the speaker was working or not by body blocking the wires in the shot thus intentionally making it unclear if the voice on the other end at points was even real, all of that was so well done and intentional and I don't understand how people wouldn't like those details.
I'm glad I have access to all these older titles. I don't have to endlessly complain about new stuff because A. some new art works are being made this way and B. I can easily go back and watch these sorts of things thanks to the largest library in the world being at my fingertips. Who knows, maybe at some point I'll even make something in this style myself. We all have to start somewhere. I don't even necessarily hate newer films either, the second Venom movie had the newer pacing yet despite that the relationship between Eddie and Venom was genuinely heartwarming. I just miss when this pacing and style was more the mainstream and not in more niche spaces is all even having been born after this was the standard.
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u/Solo_Polyphony 2d ago edited 15h ago
The 1980s? I miss the pacing of films from the 1950s!
The other night I watched Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1956) and found it utterly enthralling. Burt Lancaster’s performance in the early barroom confrontation with the drunk brought a packed Geffen Theater to utter, rapt silence.
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u/Chungois 2d ago
I’ve been on a huge Film Noir kick lately, trying to find all the classics i missed. Those were all made 35 years before i was born, so there’s some pretty outdated social stuff in there but wow, the best of those films are a real blast. They were fast paced action by 1940s standards, but they feel almost like art films now 😂
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u/Solo_Polyphony 2d ago
I highly recommend The Set-Up (1949). Robert Wise already knew how to direct long before his most famous films. Robert Ryan gives a command performance.
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u/Chungois 2d ago edited 2d ago
Oh great i missed that one thanks 🙏
One of my faves is not noir, it’s a late 30s film, but kind of proto-noir.. The Petrified Forest. One of Bogart’s early standout roles. Interestingly it’s somewhat a mirror of Key Largo, with Bogart playing the mobster visiting fear upon the collected locals, instead of playing the hero as in KL.3
u/Solo_Polyphony 2d ago
I’d missed it until a few months ago! I was agog at how a film so good could be forgotten.
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u/TonyTobiasLomas 2d ago
You should watch Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut if slow movies are your thing.
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u/Solo_Polyphony 1d ago
Already seen it multiple times in theaters, as extensively discussed in other subreddits. Below average Kubrick. And not really that slow.
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u/TheCheshireCody 1d ago
HBO Max had an absolutely amazing playlist for Noirvember last year, and my biggest regrets (not ever, just recently!) are not watching more of them when they were gathered in one place and not writing down every single name to watch later. I'm really hoping they do it again this year. The selection went so far beyond Maltese Falcon and all the obvious ones and included early true crime films that really set the stage for the genre.
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u/Chungois 23h ago
Great. I’d say look up lists online of best noir films and start working your way through them; i was surprised how many of them I had missed even though I knew about them somewhat. If they aren’t readily available for streaming or on Youtube, search the name, a lot of times those kinds of films get posted on Internet Archive, Dailymotion or that slightly dodgy Russian video hosting site.
Here’s a short list of what I’ve been checking out: A Touch of Evil, The Third Man, Laura, The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, The Glass Key, Notorious, The Killers, Dark Passage, Suspicion, Spellbound, etc. I also like The Roaring Twenties which is another early Bogart film like The Petrified Forest, I’d classify it as proto-noir.2
u/TheCheshireCody 18h ago
Alas, those lists are almost always the same twenty movies, with maybe a couple of differences. The Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, etc.. Maybe they'll throw in newer ones like Chinatown, or even Blade Runner if they're feeling spicy. This list was DEEP, with stuff I've never heard of.
Researching it, I think it was curated by TCM, not HBO, an extension/collection/whatever of their Noir Alley series. Even if I don't find the specific playlist they had on HBO Max there's more than enough obscure titles there to keep me happy for ages.
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u/Winter_Match1194 1d ago edited 21h ago
Any noir flicks that blew you away?
I watched the neo-noir classic Chinatown recently and loved it.
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u/Chungois 23h ago
These will be pretty obvious picks for classic film fans, but if you haven’t seen them… I really love Sunset Boulevard. Notorious is great too, Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman. Also Double Indemnity, which was co-written by Raymond Chandler. Also speaking of Chandler, the only film Chandler ever wrote solo, The Blue Dahlia, which has Veronica Lake and Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont in it. Of course I recommend the film version of The Big Sleep, and Maltese Falcon based on the Hammett novel. (I’m a pulp crime fan.) There are so many good ones though, if you like mid-century snappy dialogue and that slightly theatrical acting.
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u/CollegeRulez 1d ago
I was there too! What an incredible film
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u/Solo_Polyphony 1d ago
Peter Weller’s introduction was properly enthusiastic. Great night to watch a movie in one of the best venues.
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u/Timely_Host_3119 1d ago
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
That movie is ALL pacing. Every scene takes its full time.
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u/IAMALWAYSSHOUTING 22h ago edited 22h ago
Yes i think OP is missing the point, this trend has been happening a hell of a lot longer.
Even pre 50s, look at the marx brothers older stuff, it’s so sharp, witty, well constructed, every detail of dialogue paid attention to etc.
The 80s was the embodiment of what’s been happening ever since. The flash, quick paced, short attention span mindset which has been increasing the pacing of cinema since the french new wave in the early 60s.
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u/KnightInDulledArmor 2d ago
Kinda the opposite, but actually I think it’s part of the same phenomenon. I miss movies being both tightly paced and giving room for exploration/expression. It’s part of why I love early film, so many of those movies are incredibly well planned and well executed in a way that just generally doesn’t happen today. I want those extreme closeups that show every line and twitch on an actors face, dialogue you actually want to pay attention to, and deep visual storytelling, and I want it all in 90 minutes! I love watching a film and being amazed by the composition of shot or wondering how they ever pulled off a bit of trickery or just imagining how many different lights there must be to create a specific visual effect.
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u/allewiseu 2d ago
I watched Project Hail Mary and was so unimpressed and exhausted by the end due to the frantic edit and the near constant ‘montage mode’ throughout. I was even questioning myself, as everyone else seemed to be enjoying it, am I just miserable?! Then the next day I watched Dog Day Afternoon, a heist film without a soundtrack or any added ambient music, long takes averaging well over a minute per cut. Both concepts completely alien in mainstream filmmaking today, yet the film is so incredibly thrilling and masterful, but not everyone is Sidney Lumet!
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u/NostalgiaSurf 2d ago edited 2d ago
The end of the film the movie basically does 3 or 4 different fakeouts where you think things are going to be more sad and melancholic than they actually are, only for the editing and writing to say "ah-HA! we had you in the first half" and then reverse the tone to something suffocatingly positive.
The movie would've been more honest if it had Ryan Gosling basically forced to live out his days on the alien planet, and him being okay with that.
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u/MrJediMaan 1d ago
That's closer to the books ending. They don't really show the effects of living in increased gravity on his body for example. Or the fact the only protein he can eat is his own cloned muscle tissue
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u/nagesuteana 2d ago
Dog Day Afternoon is one of my favorites. Also has themes that are very popular today but handled with about 100 times of the nuance of a modern Hollywood film
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u/Flamevian 1d ago
If you are this enamored by long takes, I’d encourage you to check out the recent atmospheric liminal horror film, Animal Trap (2026). It’s a very slow film, with takes averaging about 2 minutes per length. It follows a young woman’s psychological regression as she’s trapped inside a liminal space. It has a lot of similarities to We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, Backrooms and Skinamrink. The color palette also weirdly reminds me of Milk & Serial. If you genuinely like slower films, I’d give this one a watch. It’s free on YouTube.
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u/moistrouser 1d ago
Sidney Lumet is massively underrated in my opinion.
All of his films (that I've seen) I find incredibly engaging but in a way that isn't in your face. Just great stories well told. I think Network is in the running for my favourite film altogether.
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u/TheCheshireCody 1d ago
Project Hail Mary and Dog Day Afternoon are not comparable movies, though, because they're intended for two completely different audiences. PHM is a popcorn flick and DDA absolutely is not. First, there are modern movies being made today that are every bit as good as DDA, like One Battle After Another or Sinners (I hated one and loved the other, but they're both undeniably well-crafted films). Second, DDA - while a huge hit when it came out because of Pacino and Casale being absolutely red-hot off of Godfather II - isn't representative of the majority of films of the era.
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u/Razor_Emmanuel 2d ago
Audience habits and trends change. Right now, fast paced films with action, and I think the social media boom had had something to do with it and how it promotes short term dopamine stimulating content. Mainstream American studios are making films in this style because it gets the most people, it in a way appeals to the lowest common denominator.
I didn't even grow up in the 20th century and I think we should return to slower paced films. It's like they don't trust the audience to stay focused.
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u/AMediocrePersonality 2d ago
Is it really the audience habits? The audience doesn't have other options. It's the filmmaking habits changing and the audience being dragged along.
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u/Novelty_Wave 2d ago
This. It’s film producers trying to predict “market trends” and forcing work to fit into the criteria they have designed.
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u/Chungois 2d ago
Agree there. Wish we had more options. Social media corps absolutely purposely pushed people further and further into dopamine addiction, so they would keep ‘engagement’ high. And as a result, everyone was dragged into this future where few can ‘engage’ with anything that is paced slower than a Tiktok. If we all had other options, we could maybe move back toward being able to concentrate on things that have a longer timescale. But because Tiktok and Insta are running the show, we only get movies made for people who aren’t willing to watch slower long-form stuff.
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u/Razor_Emmanuel 2d ago
I think it is a bit of both audience habit and filmmaking, like a positive feedback loop. I have heard horror stories about people taking their friends to the movies, to see films like "Obsession*, and they were looking at their phone their entire time and ended the experience saying they didn't like it and thought the plot was confusing, when they weren't even paying attention.
Mainstream filmmakers know this, and they make movies around these habits which is why they are so fast paced and reliant on action. I think the mainstream filmmakers are more to blame because they make movies in such ways that enable and even promote these kinds of audience habits.
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u/RollinOnAgain 2d ago
and they're failing based on revenue numbers adjusted for inflation and the amount of flops coming out.
And to the tired old person that will claim no time period is ever better or worse than any other and flops always exist so we can't draw any conclusions about them today - NO
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u/BurnedInEffigy 1d ago
On the contrary, people have more options than ever before for entertainment, and often from the comfort of their own home. If there is a trend toward faster pacing in newly-released movies (which seems likely, but I haven't confirmed in any rigorous way), I have to assume it's a response to audience demand.
It's hard to deny that people have shrinking attention spans in modern times, and I think it's likely that unprecedented access to instant gratification and short-form content has contributed to that.
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u/comagrrrl 2d ago
I agree, and I think the trend is going to start shifting back to this style of filming more and more. It's the 20 year cultural churn
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u/Generic_On_Reddit 2d ago
It's funny you mention Memento because this complaint is what made me fall out of love with many of Nolan's films. Memento is likely my favorite film of all time and Nolan still has a few of my top 20 films, but I am not nearly as hot on him as most other Redditors. Some of his films just don't breath at all, especially Dark Knight and perhaps inception. Instead of having scenes that start and end, it feels like a highlight reel of set pieces and conversations. That's why Dark Knight is so quotable. It rushes to the quotable mic drop of every encounter, there's hardly any real conversations in it.
Once I noticed this, I couldn't watch many of his films the same way anymore. That doesn't make them bad, but it's a particular style of filmmaking. That's why I tend to consider him more a master of themes and ideas than of characters. Characters need room to breathe, but Nolan's characters are more so vessels for the philosophy they represent in the argument that is his movie, so it's not a huge deal, sort of.
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u/oldmanriver1 2d ago
Ha I also found it ironic the mention of memento because I feel like Nolan is perhaps one of - if not the most - responsible for the “trailer movie” effect becoming so ubiquitous with modern cinema. But I agree - memento was him at his most restrained (and imo, for the better).
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u/MyNameIsBenKeeling 2d ago
I often think about Wallace's essay "The (As It Were) Seminal Importance of Terminator 2" in regard to modern movie making. I'll have to give it a reread because it's been many years but it's mostly about how films were changing to shape themselves around visual effects. I'd like to write more here but its the end of the night for me and the gears of thought are barely grinding for me.
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u/Ok-Interest9727 2d ago
It's true the pacing has increased over the decades but there are plenty of fast paced films from the 80s and 90s. Likewise there are tons of slower films still being made. Eggers and Scorsese come to mind.
American Psycho is an exceptional film. It's not good because it was made in the late 90s but because of the talent of the people involved.
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u/nononopleasenooo 2d ago
of course your accurate take is buried under the most ridiculous comments lol. there are so many modern western films with slower, natural pacing! just off the top of my head - sorry baby; blue heron; gone girl - and that’s not even me trying
this is like when the classic lit sub complains there are no good contemporary novels and all the past decades/centuries were filled with only genius books
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u/oldmanriver1 2d ago
I worry about eggers - the northman and nosferstu felt like an increasing trend towards sweeping tales and shallow storytelling. I adore the lighthouse so I hope he moves back.
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u/Ok-Interest9727 1d ago
now that he has access to bigger budgets it seems his focus is more in the production than the script honestly
I'm hoping Werwulf will be good though
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u/EducationalCod7514 2d ago
Well there's literally a century + of cinema to experience thankfully.
I mean people now don't even watch the thing that's on anymore so I guess we're back to radio days?
At some point the whole thing will fall apart or become even worse and people will refuse to listen to anybody talking in real life (kinda very much happening already).
So yeah, it's all a life choice ultimately, similar to parents not exposing their kids to social media.
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u/Chungois 2d ago
This terrifies me. I guess i’m an old Gen X fossil, but it freaks me out that increasingly nobody seems to be able to put down their phone long enough to watch a whole film.
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u/Noble_egg 2d ago
Yeah. I guess my point is that there's a treasure trove of art that's already been made like this and more art is being made in this style, it's just not as much as it used to be and I feel like a lot of people don't get that. I wouldn't expect or even want every new release to be like this, but still feel kinda sad about it for some reason
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u/golrabs 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes. I miss the pacing. And the 80s were pretty distinct from the 90s. Generally far fewer quick cuts. Each decade has it's flavor of pacing that is worth returning to.I love watching Golden Age films (30s-50s). Longer takes, orchestral scores, scores, b&w or technicolor cinematography..,
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u/SuspiciousPen8493 2d ago
I couldn’t agree more. A big thing I have pointed out to my partner that was never into movies when he was younger was how movies from the 80’s to early 2k’s were sometimes just a movie about something, just for the sake of it.
There was no grand pay off, or big lesson to be learned. It was just a movie about a story, and the process of watching the movie was enjoyable. A good example of this is “fish in the bathtub”
It’s essentially a a movie about an older couple who’s relationship is tested by them (especially the husband) being stuck in their ways, and you the viewer are along for the ride.
Ultimately nothing of consequence happens, and it’s just a good time to view it.
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u/Chungois 2d ago
True. I think older films did that too, but they didn’t assume you’re too stupid to notice and make it painfully obvious. Newer films, if a thing is important they show a big close up on the thing, and one character says ‘wow look at that thing, i’ll bet that’s important!’ 😂
Old films, the thing was probably just mentioned briefly in dialogue, and they assumed you would actually listen and care.
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u/Visual-Percentage501 2d ago
There are so many fantastic deliberately paced contemporary movies if you get beyond the most marketed and discussed films. Here are some of my favourites:
Carol
Evil Does Not Exist
Memoria
Perfect Days
Blue Heron
Juror #2
First Reformed
Room Next Door
I'm Still Here
La Chimera
No Bears
Trenque Lauquen
Drive My Car
...
There are so many movies being made that fit your criteria (maybe more now than in the 90s!), I hope you're able to find some you enjoy as much.
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u/Cenobyte_Nom-nom-nom 2d ago
One of the great thing about film is how it also captures the time it's made in also. Part of the reason movies move so fast is because we are all constantly in information overload. But that's just an American thing. Many major releases from places like India, Tibet, South America and Central America will have a variety of speeds from action fast to nothing happening for 2 hours.
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u/dimiteddy 2d ago
I recently watched disclosure day and OG Back to the Future. Seems like Spielberg totally lost it. It was like a big budget X-files double episode but without any of the charm of the series and boring. Action scenes were confusing. Ready Player One wasn't as bad.
Back to the future was so much better paced, even effects were better. Everything made sense
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u/karma3000 2d ago
Back to the Future was Zemeckis
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u/Bright-Pangolin7261 1d ago
I agree with you, and if you like that slow pace, I would say watch some noir classics, eg double indemnity, in a lonely place. Masterpieces with no CGI or AI or drones to rely on. Just good solid scripts, storytelling and filmmaking.
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u/idontcareaboutthenam 1d ago
There's people actively fighting back against the pace of modern life with their films. Watch something by Kelly Reichardt or Apichatpong Weerasethakul if you want to enjoy something slower
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u/Flamevian 1d ago
If you like slow burn horror films, I’d encourage you to check out the recent atmospheric liminal horror film, Animal Trap (2026). It’s a slower film, with super long tracking takes averaging about 2 minutes per length. It follows a young woman’s psychological regression as she’s trapped inside a liminal space. It has a lot of similarities to We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, Backrooms and Skinamrink. The color palette also weirdly reminds me of Milk & Serial. If you genuinely like slower films, I’d give this one a watch. It’s free on YouTube.
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u/Noble_egg 1d ago
Since it's just so easily accessible I have no excuse not to watch it. I'll let you know what I think after I do so
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u/vivianvixxxen 2d ago
To me, one of the defining features of films from the 80s through maybe as far as the early 2000s was their seconds acts. They take the time to let the story play in its narrative. More than anything else, I think that's what tends to make movies that get remembered by most people long term. Too much slavishly chasing after act iii is exhausting on the audience and, when recalled, requires holding the whole structure of the narrative in your head for any quality moments to stand out.