The future sounds scary.

It’s no slight toward Hugo or The Artist, but those two nostalgic, backwards-looking films being granted the most Oscar nominations this year is the latest sign of Hollywood living in a state of fear. With technology run amok and in the hands of the masses, where can the industry turn for security? Milking the 3-D fad until the diminishing financial returns completely disappear is a temporary salve, but retreating into the past, an earlier more comfortable age when no one had a voice–not the actors on the screen nor the audience–isn’t just a self-absorbed salute, it’s a delusion. For all its liberal politics, Hollywood is a very conservative industry, one that will cannibalize itself until its gums bleed. As we know from the collapse of the studio system, bold ideas will only be allowed to guide the staggering monolith once no other option is left.

Turning back the clock.