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Earthling7228320321 t1_j6l8r2z wrote

What a weird place we are in the culture wars. People are the bad guys now for not watching things they don't like. I'm having a deja vu of all those newspapers that claimed millennials were killing industries by not living the way they were supposed to according to coked up industry analysts from the 80s.

I mean the first thing they cite here is a movie about a transphobic gay guy. Big fat shock that nobody wanted to watch it. The anti gay people don't like the gayness and the pro gay people don't like the transphobia. Hey let's make a movie that nobody will like and then blame woke culture when it bombs, that's how to do ratings now, right? Pretty sure the reason it's bombing has nothing to do with the director being Hispanic. It sounds like a movie someone based off a trolls feed on Twitter. Then they go on to mention some movie about pedophiles where none of the child actors were properly prepared or supported for what they would encounter on set, whatever that means. Oh sure, who would ever find that big brain production controversial.

This is why AI generated movies are gonna explode in the future. People aren't even trying to make good movies anymore. At this point why not just crunch all the masterpieces into a data set so the mindless drivel we churn out is at least watchable.

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neverendingchalupas t1_j6lf2c4 wrote

>...the bad guys now for not watching things they don't like.

What does that have to do with the selection process? Films should be chosen based on their strength, is it good art or is it shit. I want to see good films, I dont care about the narrative the selection committee of a film festival is trying to push. The film should stand on its own merit.

Have you been to a film festival and had to sit through endless series of fucking terrible films. And then found out later through the discussion panel they were chosen specifically because of the filmmakers background. What happened to just picking films based on the work?

After awhile you begin to not go to film festivals and just watch only the things you want to watch online. Now it seems the only people who show up to film festivals are the filmmakers and their friends.

If the movie about the 'transphobic gay guy' is good, people are going to watch it, they are watching all the other bullshit, if its good they will probably even pay attention while its playing. It would be at a film festival not at your local theater or streaming on netflix.

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Earthling7228320321 t1_j6miq66 wrote

I have never been to a film festival. I mostly watch sci fi, science documentaries and cartoons.

So really I guess my take on this stuff isn't relevant anyway lol

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Irichcrusader t1_j6mbc5l wrote

>I mean the first thing they cite here is a movie about a transphobic gay guy. Big fat shock that nobody wanted to watch it.

Haven't seen the movie myself, but based on what the article said about it, this character starts out initially as transphobic. By the sounds of it, the movie is an attempt to explore this idea of transphobia in the gay community, it's not necessarily endorsing it but asking the audience to reflect on it and, perhaps, come to terms with a difficult subject that not many people like to talk about. That's what any great work of art should aim to do, challenge the viewer by giving them a new perspective on something or bringing an important topic to their attention.

Let's take American History X as an example. It's a movie about a literal neo-nazi, showing his journey into hate and how any human heart can be corrupted by excessive anger and the need for easy answers. It then show's his journey out of that and his attempt to make things right. It's perhaps one of the most provocative and hard-hitting movies ever made, as it makes a viewer question whether there is anything in their own heart that is holding them back or making their life harder than it needs to be. Now, if someone doesn't want to watch this movie simply because of a gut-reaction to it's subject line, then that is their choice, but I also think they're being really foolish. They're judging the film without knowing anything about it, thinking it's endorsing neo-nazi beliefs when in actuality its demolishing them.

If we only ever made "safe" movies where no one's world views are ever questioned and no difficult or complex topics are ever tackled, then this would a very sterile world.

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Earthling7228320321 t1_j6mh1ze wrote

Yeah that sounds great and all but in the real world bigots don't just magically change into better people. I mean if that's the movie people wanna watch that's fine. But clearly its not many people.

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Irichcrusader t1_j6nortu wrote

American History X isn't aimed at the worst sorts of bigots, from what I've heard a lot of them completely miss the point of it. Instead, it's aimed at non-extremist people who might find themselves slipping into hatred of some kind, be it against a minority for racist reasons, or a whole nation or culture due to nationalist reasons. Hate is something that only gets worse the more you feed it and that's what you see with Derick's character. He doesn't change until he finally comes to the realization that his hate has consumed him and destroyed his life and that of his family for no gain whatsoever. That's the central message of the movie, and you don't need to be a KKK member to get some value out of that message.

Similarly, I don't expect that the documentary Jihad Rehab will ever magically make a terrorist see the error of his ways, or that the movie Walking Up Dead will make a committed transphobe gay person see how wrong they've been. That's ok. But perhaps both films can ignite discussion among those who never knew of these issues or make them reflect on some of their own failings. Of course, no one has to watch these if they don't want to, but I find it a bit absurd if someone says they won't see it because they don't agree with the views of the protagonist.

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