It sounds like you're talking about US movies only. There's a whole world of cinema out here. 'modern US cinema' =/= modern cinema. every US film =/= every film. Sounds obvious, but (to take one example) the majority of "Best films of the year" lists I come across online actually have only US movies, and seem oblivious that movies are made in any other country, let alone most of the good ones. 'Grown-up films' of the world, not just the USA, are thankfully not in such a sorry state as you describe. Well, the marketers/advertisers/etc that made people in the US think that 'movies' = 'US movies' did a great job.