Camp review- A Little Bit of Good and a WHOLE LOT that's not.
I want to tell y'all something. Sometimes (not often), I wish that I hadn't started educating myself on feminism/anti-oppression issues a couple of years ago. Also, sometimes (not often), I watch/read something that leaves me thinking "that could have been SO GOOD! If only
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And I guess my POV is that, even if the problematic readings weren't ~intended~, as such, the fact that certain aspects of the films plot still do play into those tropes is...troubling. And worth looking at.
Most of your points are really good. I just want to mention one thing re: colour-blind casting. And this is a "my opinion" sort of thing, so keep that in mind.
My perspective on colour-blind casting is basically that it's important, but as a tool to ensure actors of colour get roles they wouldn't be looked at for normally. That is to say, I feel like it's meant to rectify the fact that--given no specific directions to the contrary--people tend to skew white in casting. So I feel like casting a white woman in one of the (relatively scarce) leading roles written for a PoC is kind of...I don't know. Not really true to the spirit in which colour-blind casting came about?
And I do agree that Camp is actually a lot better than quite a few movies I've seen. I think I mentioned the diversity somewhere in my review, although the WALL OF TEXT makes it hard for me to tell and I'm too lazy to reread. I guess though, that I feel like certain plot points read differently when applied to PoC than they do when applied to white folk, because of the cultural history and so forth.
It is possible that I'm stretching it on the Jezebel point. The connection's pretty tenuous.
Guh. My thoughts are all over the place. I guess, if I had to boil it down to its essence, it would be this: intent matters. That's definitely true. And I definitely think Camp has its heart in the right place. But execution also matters, and there's some stuff in the film that is definitely cringeworthy. And that's worth unpacking.
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