Little gems can get lost

Apparently you can have too much of a mediocre thing.

One of the hottest topics in Hollywood right now is the glut of movies creating a logjam on the road to the multiplex.

The economy may be on the fritz, companies may be laying off workers, but Hollywood film production is up nearly 50 percent from a decade ago.

This despite the fact that fewer films than ever are genuine successes at the box office.

Why should you care?

You shouldn’t, unless you’re one of those oddballs who think film is an art form. If you belong to that minority of aesthetes who regard movies as more than a cash cow or a backdrop for adolescent mating rituals, you might want to pay attention.

Having too many movies is bad for good movies. Deserving films are more likely to get lost in the crunch, their merits drowned out in the cacophony of Hollywood’s hype machine.

Just finding a screen for a film that doesn’t have “monster” written all over it is a chore. Increasingly, little films of quality aren’t even playing at local theaters and instead are finding their way into our livings rooms via DVD. (Two such titles are “The Hammer” and “Honeydripper,” coming to home video next week. See the review of “The Hammer” on Page 32. A review of “Honeydripper” will run in FYI Tuesday.)

Kansas Citians have it better than most. We’ve been blessed in this town with an abundance of art screens far out of proportion to our size. The Tivoli, Glenwood Arts, Rio and Screenland Crossroads are pretty much devoted to the film less traveled — the offbeat, esoteric and challenging. Even the big-chain Cinemark Palace usually has an auditorium reserved for art or independent titles.

Small towns almost never get to see good little movies. And some big towns like St. Louis and Denver don’t have anything like the art film scene we enjoy here. Movies that enjoyed long runs locally — “Sweet Land” or “Off the Map,” to name a couple of indie titles that threatened never to go away — never played in many markets much larger than KC.

So give thanks to the movie gods.

For several years this situation has been ameliorated by DVD sales. Films could be counted on to make up for weak (or nonexistent) theatrical runs in the home entertainment market.

Except that DVD sales have stagnated as well. Which means some of these little flicks that thought they could earn a profit in the home entertainment market probably won’t.

In the future we may find ourselves devoting more time to seeking movies that matter. If they don’t play in theaters they probably won’t be reviewed and certainly won’t be able to dish up the sort of ad campaign that will allow them to compete in a market dominated by special effects films and raunchy comedy.

I’m not going to yell that the sky is falling. Real artists always will find a way to keep making art.

The question is whether we’ll find a way to see it.