Honest question: When was the last time you saw a film that was not just entertaining, there are a lot of those, but that made you think you were witnessing a brilliant piece of art?
There are some interesting arthouse films, Crimes of the Future had promise for example (though the more I think about it the more I think it disappoints relative to Videodrome, the Fly, etc.). I was impressed with Dune, but because it is an adaptation of a novel you cannot really attribute all its artistic merit to the filmmakers---and it was a little slow; there are respects in which Lynch's movie was better.
I certainly feel as if I am seeing fewer and fewer thought provoking films come out as time goes on. TENET was pretty good though it was less emotionally engaging than either Inception or Momento.
Am I alone in thinking entertainment is less mentally stimulating than it had been?
The two theories I have heard regarding this change, and they are not mutually exclusive, are 1) that the Chinese market has been placing pressure on US filmmakers to produce simpler narratives that are less thought provoking because Chinese audiences, having consumed propagandistic nonsense for generations, are not sophisticated consumers of film and cannot tolerate ambiguity (and the more ambiguous the message in the film, the more likely a censor is to take offense) and 2) that some of this talent has been tempted by the possibilities of long form television. 3) I would also add that the creation of "universes" like the MCU have made filmmakers less willing to experiment with new concepts.
Of these various factors, I am most inclined to blame China and the existence of the MCU.
The last movie I saw was The Joker. That was pretty intense. It came out in Fall of 2019. I still have the ticket stub on my fridge -- Sat Oct 12. Then the Maskovid ended Western Civilization, so all movies since then are basically irrelevant.