Why do they not make movies like the old days? It’s a refrain we hear time and again, be it among critic groups, awards voters, or vocal Letterboxd users looking for a fight. The broad sentiment can go back to the silent stars of yesteryear, reminiscing about an era before the pictures got small, but these days it’s more generally associated with the type of winsome, adult-skewing, and proudly middlebrow dramas that were a dime an Oscar-winning dozen during the ‘80s, ‘90s, and somewhere into the mid-2000s—all while IP tentpoles encroached ever further across the movie release calendar.

Kids who grew up in those decades remember it fondly, and those who were adults at the time hold on to it even tighter since they were the ones making ‘em. James L. Brooks is one such moviemaker, and he has

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