"It’s just that Poor Things insists that the nothing it has to say is something, and a progressive something like that." TRUUUUUUUUUUE
I've been recovering from my viewing by reading negative reviews. I really don't understand how this movie got the status it did. There's something uniquely terrible about a movie which "criticizes sexism" and then shows you Emma Stone in every position possible with the added 'born yesterday' trope for predatory spice.
It feels like that sex education scene in the brothel is just a microcosm of the whole movie. The father brings the boys in, and we're expected to just ignore the fucked up nature of what's happening, and then at the end she gives them a little wink, just so they know she knows exactly what this is all actually about. It's all pretense.
Just like the movie! Just say the right words- the most blatant possible 'but wahmen' lines will do, and then the audience will be appeased (or rather will believe everyone else is appeased) and you can do whatever fucked up shit you like and they secretly want you to do to them.
Just like the dog has to die at the start of John Wick. Or the daughter has to be kidnapped, or somebody raped or killed or something, because then we can get to the good part where John Wick cuts that guy's dick off with a paper cutter without worrying if we're bad people.
Unfortunately the area in the venn diagram between 'degenerates' and 'people who won't admit this to themselves' is quite large.
Here's my favorite review excerpt so far:
"Everything goes down easily: Even in her primitive early state, Bella grunts a certain truth to power, and in case we’re not sure about her blossoming social and political radicalism, she’s aligned with a pair of acerbic, perceptic Black characters (Jerrod Carmichael and Suzy Bemba) whose sole function is to reinforce and cheerlead her evolution." - Adam Nayman
That Nayman quote is spot-on, IMO! Though you and I do diverge here somewhat. I don't think it's sexist that Emma was naked or fucking, and I'm always suspicious of the concept of "degeneracy". But I think you're touching on something that I can agree with, which is that what passes for anti-sexism, or even just the humanization of women characters, in "feminist" movies is usually just lip service for more of the same. The long cinematic history of only being permitted to depict bad, negative, violent, or degenerate things—provided that they're moralized against—hasn't gone anywhere!
"It’s just that Poor Things insists that the nothing it has to say is something, and a progressive something like that." TRUUUUUUUUUUE
I've been recovering from my viewing by reading negative reviews. I really don't understand how this movie got the status it did. There's something uniquely terrible about a movie which "criticizes sexism" and then shows you Emma Stone in every position possible with the added 'born yesterday' trope for predatory spice.
It feels like that sex education scene in the brothel is just a microcosm of the whole movie. The father brings the boys in, and we're expected to just ignore the fucked up nature of what's happening, and then at the end she gives them a little wink, just so they know she knows exactly what this is all actually about. It's all pretense.
Just like the movie! Just say the right words- the most blatant possible 'but wahmen' lines will do, and then the audience will be appeased (or rather will believe everyone else is appeased) and you can do whatever fucked up shit you like and they secretly want you to do to them.
Just like the dog has to die at the start of John Wick. Or the daughter has to be kidnapped, or somebody raped or killed or something, because then we can get to the good part where John Wick cuts that guy's dick off with a paper cutter without worrying if we're bad people.
Unfortunately the area in the venn diagram between 'degenerates' and 'people who won't admit this to themselves' is quite large.
Here's my favorite review excerpt so far:
"Everything goes down easily: Even in her primitive early state, Bella grunts a certain truth to power, and in case we’re not sure about her blossoming social and political radicalism, she’s aligned with a pair of acerbic, perceptic Black characters (Jerrod Carmichael and Suzy Bemba) whose sole function is to reinforce and cheerlead her evolution." - Adam Nayman
That Nayman quote is spot-on, IMO! Though you and I do diverge here somewhat. I don't think it's sexist that Emma was naked or fucking, and I'm always suspicious of the concept of "degeneracy". But I think you're touching on something that I can agree with, which is that what passes for anti-sexism, or even just the humanization of women characters, in "feminist" movies is usually just lip service for more of the same. The long cinematic history of only being permitted to depict bad, negative, violent, or degenerate things—provided that they're moralized against—hasn't gone anywhere!
the book was awful in largely the same ways and I cannot understand why it was so celebrated
interesting! thanks for the context, i'm curious about the similarities and differences.
yeah great but bit of inconsistency in the language re: sex work
?