We’re Approaching a Major Turning Point in Trump-Era Pop Culture.
Critics and audiences alike can be suspicious of art that looks like it wants to have an effect. We like to be unsettled but we also want our politics to be confirmed; some of us disdain “preaching to the choir” but like being in the choir; we want to discover resonance but prefer it to be well-enough concealed so that we can give ourselves credit for ferreting it out; we want artists to be clever but not to try to be clever. On some level, we’d have more fun coming upon Blade Runner 2049 or the new film version of Stephen King’s It or the next cycle of Stranger Things or Westworld and saying “Whoa, I didn’t think it would be so timely!” than we would seeing something that intends to be timely and leaves us nothing to say but “Yep.”
Which is almost certainly unfair. There’s nothing manipulative or cheesy about making art that wants to speak to the moment. Intentional resonance isn’t cheating; it’s the goal of topicality. The next wave of Trump-era art, will probably be about the world we’re in, not about the world too few of us saw coming.