Increasing Art House Popularity Heats Up Miami Film Scene

Wynwood Wall, an ongoing outdoor mural project
in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood.

This comes from the "I Have To Take Their Word For It" Department. The Miami Herald, in a breathlessly splashy article in today's online edition, trumpeted a surge in the Miami area's movie art house scene. Herald staffer Rene Rodriguez pointed to a number of positive signs that presumably signalled happy art days are here again:
1.  A new, user-friendly movie theater in the art-conscious Wynwood neighborhood.
2.  Art-house directors, such as John Sayles and Wim Wenders, are having their movies shown in Miami venues.
3.  The movie house owners have sensibly realized they need to attract and build audiences in a Netflix era which fosters degradation of the movie-going experience.

While the stridency of the article's tone should be viewed skeptically, the article does remind one that more and more useful artistic initiatives occur outside the NY-LA axis. It's simply cheaper and easier to take risks and try fresh ideas outside the supposed cultural capitals of the United States. Sad to say, there's little new or exciting emerging from New York, unless you consider $175 theater tickets to stupid Broadway musicals, museum "blockbuster" shows aimed more at canonization and hagiography rather than stimulation and challenge, and dull, self-satisfied movie presentations to reflect greatness. Miami's new direction, whatever its flaws, is the right idea.