Children of Men etc....
I don't want to go upsetting anyone here, but I have a few things to say about everyone's favorite poli-dystopia. Let me start by saying that, honestly, I really enjoyed it. It was *very* well-made and completely swept me up, emotionally. It had a lot of chutzpah (in the best way) for creating a dystopia in the very-near future that any wanker liberal would find disturbing, and linking it to our RL 'current political situation.' I really appreciated the prominent positioning of "HOMELAND SECURITY" over the gates of the camp/ghetto where one might expect to see say, "arbeit macht frei" and various other similar stuff.
But. I had problems with the movie both big and small. I expected as much - it's a fucking mainstream movie getting Oscar-talk. But while the small things piss me off a lot, the big things really depress me because this movie is actually a vehicle for relevent political thinking and it completely failed to do what i wish it had done... oh the lost potential! So here goes.
On the smaller side of things:
Q: why does kee have to take off her shirt entirely to show that she's pregnant?
I think for this one I have some answers:
1) so the audience will understand her as both a 'little bit fearless and animalistic' while also driving home the subverted manger theme as she stands, shirtless in a barn bearing a miracle baby?
2)so she can stand shirtless, half-covering herself up and timidly say "I'm scared, theo," just in case any of the viewers didn't already understand that this black woman was going to be rescued by the white man protagonist for no apparent reason? Oh and
3)because, it makes for an inexplicable funny where Theo thinks she's taking off her clothes for him? bah?
Q: why - OH GOD WHY - did I have to see Julianne Moore playing an activist/terrorist (and yeah, just when you think the movie is critiquing/mocking the conflation of the two - it decides it's going to rely on that conflation to drive home it's totally ambiguous POINT). Seeing her pushing her qualitay baby around the west village is more than enough - now I have to see her rough-n-tumbling around with guns and stuff trying to talk tough, weird political rhetoric? I can't take it! I was actually kind of glad when she (SPOILER OMITTED).
Q: Why did Michael Caine's character have to be a HIPPIE? Why couldn't he just be a wise old liberal? It made it SO MUCH HARDER for me to be all "awww, he's feeding them and helping them on their way!," cuz he was all gandolfed out! ahhhhhhhhh
Ok now onto the bigger stuff.
It's Complicated!
Coined by Constintina to describe the well-meaning-liberal-political-but-without-analysis genre best caracterized by CRASH and TRAFFIC, I hesitate to fully lump C.O.M. in with that drek, but it at least borrows heavily from the positiong-taking immunity It's Complicated filmmakers seem to grant themselves. blech. In short, if the world is a mess and you can't trust the government or the activist-terrorists but you have to rescue a miracle baby -- IT'S COMPLICATED!
C.O.M. doesn't even begin to suggest that there is a possibility of collective belief in justice and work for change. the only examples we're shown of resistance are out-of-control activists wrapped up in sectarian violence. the only glimmer of hope comes from individual sacrifice and individual triumph. There's this 'trust no one' message (well, unless you're a black woman pregnant with the first child in 18 years, in which case you should trust Clive Owen) that turns all of the victims of the incredible violence we're shown into tragic, but inevitable backdrop for the hero's journey.
Any movie that takes you an emotional rollercoaster of highly realistic battle and painful-to-watch violence but concludes with a completely indivdualistic message really pisses me off.
How could this have been prevented? irrelevent to the film.
Is it wrong to deport immigrants? yes, probably, but SO not the point!
Who should we root for? Clive Owen!
It's hard. I think Clive Owen was really great in the film - he took a character that I would normally be really annoyed by (jaded former activist who goes through a transformation triggered by nothing in particular and decides his mission in life will be to get Kee to safety with her baby) and made him sympathetic. Really. Or at least, not annoying. Plus he's relatively attractive. (Though being Julianne Moore's ex is NOT attractive).
I think the violence was done incredibly well but it scares me that people have such intense watching experiences and their energy gets returned to apathy by the film's suggestion that any analysis broader than "save the baby! baby's are miracles!" is futile.
blah. enough for now.
But. I had problems with the movie both big and small. I expected as much - it's a fucking mainstream movie getting Oscar-talk. But while the small things piss me off a lot, the big things really depress me because this movie is actually a vehicle for relevent political thinking and it completely failed to do what i wish it had done... oh the lost potential! So here goes.
On the smaller side of things:
Q: why does kee have to take off her shirt entirely to show that she's pregnant?
I think for this one I have some answers:
1) so the audience will understand her as both a 'little bit fearless and animalistic' while also driving home the subverted manger theme as she stands, shirtless in a barn bearing a miracle baby?
2)so she can stand shirtless, half-covering herself up and timidly say "I'm scared, theo," just in case any of the viewers didn't already understand that this black woman was going to be rescued by the white man protagonist for no apparent reason? Oh and
3)because, it makes for an inexplicable funny where Theo thinks she's taking off her clothes for him? bah?
Q: why - OH GOD WHY - did I have to see Julianne Moore playing an activist/terrorist (and yeah, just when you think the movie is critiquing/mocking the conflation of the two - it decides it's going to rely on that conflation to drive home it's totally ambiguous POINT). Seeing her pushing her qualitay baby around the west village is more than enough - now I have to see her rough-n-tumbling around with guns and stuff trying to talk tough, weird political rhetoric? I can't take it! I was actually kind of glad when she (SPOILER OMITTED).
Q: Why did Michael Caine's character have to be a HIPPIE? Why couldn't he just be a wise old liberal? It made it SO MUCH HARDER for me to be all "awww, he's feeding them and helping them on their way!," cuz he was all gandolfed out! ahhhhhhhhh
Ok now onto the bigger stuff.
It's Complicated!
Coined by Constintina to describe the well-meaning-liberal-political-but-without-analysis genre best caracterized by CRASH and TRAFFIC, I hesitate to fully lump C.O.M. in with that drek, but it at least borrows heavily from the positiong-taking immunity It's Complicated filmmakers seem to grant themselves. blech. In short, if the world is a mess and you can't trust the government or the activist-terrorists but you have to rescue a miracle baby -- IT'S COMPLICATED!
C.O.M. doesn't even begin to suggest that there is a possibility of collective belief in justice and work for change. the only examples we're shown of resistance are out-of-control activists wrapped up in sectarian violence. the only glimmer of hope comes from individual sacrifice and individual triumph. There's this 'trust no one' message (well, unless you're a black woman pregnant with the first child in 18 years, in which case you should trust Clive Owen) that turns all of the victims of the incredible violence we're shown into tragic, but inevitable backdrop for the hero's journey.
Any movie that takes you an emotional rollercoaster of highly realistic battle and painful-to-watch violence but concludes with a completely indivdualistic message really pisses me off.
How could this have been prevented? irrelevent to the film.
Is it wrong to deport immigrants? yes, probably, but SO not the point!
Who should we root for? Clive Owen!
It's hard. I think Clive Owen was really great in the film - he took a character that I would normally be really annoyed by (jaded former activist who goes through a transformation triggered by nothing in particular and decides his mission in life will be to get Kee to safety with her baby) and made him sympathetic. Really. Or at least, not annoying. Plus he's relatively attractive. (Though being Julianne Moore's ex is NOT attractive).
I think the violence was done incredibly well but it scares me that people have such intense watching experiences and their energy gets returned to apathy by the film's suggestion that any analysis broader than "save the baby! baby's are miracles!" is futile.
blah. enough for now.