Haywire
Through a series of events I honestly don't fully understand, I ended up with tickets to a screening of Haywire, about which the only thing I knew was that it contained Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, and Antonio Banderas. (Also Michael Douglas, but does anyone care about that?) Anyway, this seemed like the sort of thing fandom might be interested in, so obviously it was my duty to investigate.
I didn't google it first, so I could approach it unspoiled, and this was totally the wrong approach. I heard people leaving ahead of me saying "If I'd paid for that, I'd be wanting my money back!" and I think they, like I, went in expecting a different movie.
Here is what (totally not spoilery) you should know before you go, to have a chance to appreciate it. This is a martial arts movie, not a blockbuster. Gina Carano, the star, is doing her own stunts, and watching an athlete perform is one of the main appeals. If you go in expecting something like "The Bourne Identity" you will be pretty disappointed. The camera is at times handheld, and filmed claustrophobically close, and looks at times like a low budget webisode (with some fabulous location scouting.) There is very little fast-cutting, and instead it's a lot of long shots to emphasize that you aren't seeing stunt-work: the result reads as extremely low budget, although my knowledge of film-making is up there with my knowledge of nuclear weapons making.
Michael Fassbender, as is apparently his general career template, plays a creep. In fact, everyone who is not Gina Carano, the star, is playing a creep. (Except I guess Channing Tatum, whose character has a few moments.)
To enjoy this film, watch it for Carano, and to see an action movie made starring a woman. Soderbergh has obviously made the decision to treat her gender as secondary. Carano is an attractive woman, in a way that the mainstream is certainly prepared to appreciate, and Soderbergh could have popped her in a bikini and done this film as a case study in the male gaze, and he doesn't.
The one thing that is done differently than the same film starring a man is that there isn't the last quarter fascination with the brutalized body of the hero, for the obvious reason, I think, that a battered woman on screen is a heavily loaded image with a lot of disturbing meaning in our culture. Instead, Carano acquires some cuts and bruises, and at one point a limp, but keeps going.
Carano is a joy to watch, as an athlete. None of those ludicrous Sarah Michelle Geller spaghetti-armed punches; when Carano strangles a man with her thighs, this seems utterly plausible, and not ridiculous pandering.
Fandom may be interested in watching Gina Carano strangle Michael Fassbender with her thighs, and hearing Fassbender say, in an Irish accent, "I've never done a woman before." You'd have to be a fan of Fassbender, though.
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I didn't google it first, so I could approach it unspoiled, and this was totally the wrong approach. I heard people leaving ahead of me saying "If I'd paid for that, I'd be wanting my money back!" and I think they, like I, went in expecting a different movie.
Here is what (totally not spoilery) you should know before you go, to have a chance to appreciate it. This is a martial arts movie, not a blockbuster. Gina Carano, the star, is doing her own stunts, and watching an athlete perform is one of the main appeals. If you go in expecting something like "The Bourne Identity" you will be pretty disappointed. The camera is at times handheld, and filmed claustrophobically close, and looks at times like a low budget webisode (with some fabulous location scouting.) There is very little fast-cutting, and instead it's a lot of long shots to emphasize that you aren't seeing stunt-work: the result reads as extremely low budget, although my knowledge of film-making is up there with my knowledge of nuclear weapons making.
Michael Fassbender, as is apparently his general career template, plays a creep. In fact, everyone who is not Gina Carano, the star, is playing a creep. (Except I guess Channing Tatum, whose character has a few moments.)
To enjoy this film, watch it for Carano, and to see an action movie made starring a woman. Soderbergh has obviously made the decision to treat her gender as secondary. Carano is an attractive woman, in a way that the mainstream is certainly prepared to appreciate, and Soderbergh could have popped her in a bikini and done this film as a case study in the male gaze, and he doesn't.
The one thing that is done differently than the same film starring a man is that there isn't the last quarter fascination with the brutalized body of the hero, for the obvious reason, I think, that a battered woman on screen is a heavily loaded image with a lot of disturbing meaning in our culture. Instead, Carano acquires some cuts and bruises, and at one point a limp, but keeps going.
Carano is a joy to watch, as an athlete. None of those ludicrous Sarah Michelle Geller spaghetti-armed punches; when Carano strangles a man with her thighs, this seems utterly plausible, and not ridiculous pandering.
Fandom may be interested in watching Gina Carano strangle Michael Fassbender with her thighs, and hearing Fassbender say, in an Irish accent, "I've never done a woman before." You'd have to be a fan of Fassbender, though.
This post also on dreamwidth (
comments)