From a film theory standpoint, a delineator of a postmodern movie is the exhuming of cherished icons from the past, usually reframing them through a cynical lens. Postmoderns do this trenchantly, which masks the thinly veiled despair that underlies the whole process of recycling and desacralizing. The societal ache of our world today is confusion. It’s agonizing because we are essentially rational beings.