system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Has acting in movies gotten better throughout the years, or is there some sort of "recency bias"?

I am currently watching the first Terminator and for the thirty minutes I've been watching, the acting through multiple parts have just been awful.

Not only that but when looking at even older movies, the acting just seems, unnatural.

 Why?

Has acting lessons gotten better through the years?

If so, why?

Will acting continue to get better?
I remember getting into an argument with a roommate about it and saying "you can't act better than making someone believe you're not acting".

So do we have a skewed perspective on acting based solely upon experience with movies and such?
gpt
First, there are "trends" in acting, because successful acting is ultimately about an interaction with audience expectations. Back when the stage was still the centerpiece of acting, actors were trained to be far more theatrical and audiences expected that.  More natural performances weren't always the standard everyone looked for. And, sometimes they still aren't---just look at a movie like, say, The Rundown. The acting there is great, but very few people in that film are going for emotional realism in all their scenes, if any. 

And, second, there is something of a recency bias because people change.  What might seem like a reasonable emotional response to someone from 1940 might read false to us today, because they way we interact with others and express emotion has changed. 

And, all that said, Terminator is hardly known for its spectacular acting. There are plenty of films, much older than Terminator, where most people would argue the acting holds up pretty well.