Well, if nothing else, it seems as if the merits of this film will keep critics engaged for a while…
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So it looks like the people in the studio’s Marketing and Public Relations departments are working well too. One of my guilty pleasures is reading about military subjects (I really like planes, ships and tanks) and people here in my country haven’t even seen the film and have declared that it’s just woke propaganda. It hasn’t even debuted in theaters and everyone is already talking about it.
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-hmph- I feel old.
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Gen X is the new boomer.
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Well, I mean, that does make sense…
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Not everyone enjoyed the apolitical nature of the film…
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Not to be shallow, but where can I get those red glasses that Jesse Plemons is wearing?!
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Go see it. Any film starring Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons should already be on your short list. For me, a person who loves journalism and what it means in a healthy democracy this movie was a ringing endorsement of the unsung heroes gathering our news (though obviously not the propagandists at FOX).
I don’t see the American society falling apart like it portrays but I acknowledge that it’s within the realm of the possible. All hyperbole aside, the MAGA contingent believe that those of you punching your ballots for a Democrat this November are: Marxist, Communist, partial birth abortionists who drink the blood of babies and enslave children in sex dungeons beneath pizza parlors. Tr*mp calls you “vermin”. This is Hitler’s language that lead to kristallnacht and death camps thus the owners of all the assault rifles in America are already primed to view Democrats as targets, not humans.
Also without hyperbole, MAGA celebrates Putin’s genocide of Ukrainians because he’s “Christian” and villifies LGBTQ. They shoot their assault rifles at the gun range at Hillary Clinton targets ffs. I’m not convinced that November will be peaceful when Biden wins - or even that Biden will win. In fact, if Biden loses and Tr*mp begins his purge of the FBI and Homeland Security and the military’s highest ranking generals you may very well see a scenario where alliances form between states to counter his power, or at least I’d hope so. It might be a blood bath, but having an unopposed Orange Putin in the White House will be a far worse outcome for Democracy.
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I appreciate your skepticism of the movie but it’s also odd to have strong opinions on a film you’ve not seen.
To be fair, the lack of partisan politics in it had me predisposed to disliking it before I saw it. As I exited the theater I had an appreciation for the film’s lack of context and omission of tiresome exposition - it’s as if you’ve been dropped into a terrifying situation and not told what to think about it. That said, my takeaway is that it vaguely depicts a lying bellicose tyrant of a president refusing to leave office and the societal upheaval that followed. Not entirely an unlikely scenario.
On a related note, I’m now terrified that these will soon become a fashion dog whistle for the nihilists in our societies who’d relish societal collapse.
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Frankly, It’s good to be skeptical and I’m not sure why I should just accept that the film is going to be worthwhile to me, just because others believe it to be so. I’ve seen Garland’s other films, and for me, he’s got a mixed record. I wasn’t nearly as enamored of ex-machina was everyone else was. And his adaptation of annihilation was… fine, I guess?
Right now we’re also living in the midst of about a million and one on-going calamities involving mass violence, so I’m not sure that I really need someone objectifying violence and pretending like there is no politics behind said violence. So far, not much that I’ve heard has given me confidence that it’s not going to be him moralizing the rest of us, as if we can’t look at events and see them as wantonly and pointlessly destructive. The assumption is that most Americans are so desensitized to violence that we are unable to pull their heads out of their asses long enough to condemn it. That’s very much not what I’m seeing around me, though. Lots of us are condemning all the forms of political violence, whether aimed at ourselves, each other, from one country to another, etc. There are certainly those reveling in violence or treating it like entertainment, but that doesn’t mean that all of us are. Not even the majority are doing that, I don’t think.
If I’m gonna watch 2 hours of violence, then I want it to have some depth and meaning, other than “violence bad”… Maybe this film is that, I don’t know, but what I’ve seen so far isn’t leaving me with much hope of that. I doubt it’s gonna hit the same way as a film such as Come and See or Son of Saul, though.
No, it’s not. Not sure playing that out in a manner designed to de-politicize it helps. 
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Not these days, it isn’t.
Just look at any film with a female lead or a diverse cast of actors; plenty of of folks seem to have some really ‘strong feelings’ about any art that is even remotely inclusive.
Meanwhile this film very much seems like rage bait propaganda.
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That’s the feeling I get, too. And we’re being told how “important” this film is, with the director explicitly saying he’s going out of the way to not engage with the politics of the violence, but context matters.
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It is truly violent. If your opinion is that violent movies are to be eschewed, I respect that.
My no-go for normalized violence is UFC and MMA fights broadcast into restaurants and pubs. That’s not fictional, it’s real blood, disfigurement and sometimes death. Years ago I was at a pub that reopened with a dozen screens for sportsball tournaments. Except that night the screen near me featured a fight so violent that the loser shat himself - and there I was eating a salad and wondering where our societal moral decorum had vanished to.
I’ve a cousin who staunchly refuses to watch Clockwork Orange for your reasons and a dear friend who told me flatly to avoid Poor Things. Often cinematic arts have deep or veiled meaning for us to divine if only we can sit through the fictional traumas. But I can’t / won’t ever again let a fight be televised in my presence.
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That’s not what I said. If it’s going to be realistic violence, it should be purposeful. From what I’ve seen so far, I’m not sure that this is. Other than to say “violence bad”… well, yeah. We know that. I’d like a bit more than that, since most of us are acutely aware of that fact.
I mean… you could have left?
Except those aren’t my reasons. This is not about squeamishness with regards to violence. It’s about realistic POINTLESS violence in a film that has not real message to give us. Again, let’s contrast it with a film like Come and See, which very much drives home just how awful the violence is, but shows us who was committing that violence and why the sometimes must be opposed by violence. It’s not something to glory in or engage in pointlessly.
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the advertisment may give that impression, but in my opinion its far from it. its a study.
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yes, it is. at least I saw it.
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