Thoughts on a movie
Jun. 20th, 2009 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetWent to see My Life In Ruins today! Regrettably, it was no longer in the half-hour-away theater, so we had to drive an hour (and cross the Mississippi 9_9a) to see it. Mom and I both quite enjoyed it ♥ Also, two tickets, two soft drinks, one bag of popcorn, and one bag of Reese's Pieces only cost about thirteen bucks. Really not a bad price for a movie, these days.
Unfortunately, as I'd been warned on LJ (and thank you for the heads-up), there was a bit of homophobia in it :/ I want to brush it off as "not that bad, really," but in the end, homophobia is homophobia, so I guess it'd be up to the individual to decide. Here's the (spoilery) details, if you're interested:
See, Tour Guide A is out to get Tour Guide B (our main character) to quit, probably mostly through making all of her tourists as miserable as possible. So what he does is, he gives American Frat Boy Tourist a shirt that he claims says "I love Greece" but, in reality, says "Enter at rear (wink wink, nudge nudge, check out these 'wrestling' naked dudes on the back here)".
Later in the tour, AFBTourist is wearing the shirt, and being flirted with by a couple of handsome young men. Tour Guide B is alerted to the situation, notices what the shirt says (and it's translated for us as well at this point), and goes over to talk to AFBTourist. She discreetly informs him what the shirt says or implies, he freaks out a little, and shoves Tour Guide A into the swimming pool - at which point Gay Greek Guys A and B decide, Hey, it must be an orgy! And dive in after him. (Tour Guide A assumed to be into dudes, I think, because AFBTourist was the one who pushed him in. Or something.) End homophobic side-story of sorts.
I hate to say it, but I'm inclined to cut her some slack on this. The film whose script she wrote prior to this was Connie and Carla, which was definitely on the more pro-gay side, if a little appropriative. It's probably also because I sympathize with AFBTourist to a degree, since I read his freakout as less "Ew, it's gay people!" and more "Oh God, I thought we were having an innocent drinking contest, but they thought it was something else!" Which does have an element of, "Oh God, they think I'm gay [like they are]!" in it, but in this context I think that could be meant either well or poorly. Prior to this, AFBTourist had also been pretty open about looking to find a girlfriend in Greece, but the one instance we saw him trying to flirt was really more embarrassing than creepy/squicky, IMO.
All that said, Your Mileage May Vary. I'm reasonably under-exposed to GLBTQIAA tropes in movies and television, especially on the Western side of things, since I tend to stick to programs aimed at kids/young adults (mostly cartoons) and Anime. (The kids shows do have a disturbing tendency for transphobia, I'm sorry to say u_u Homophobia as well, though it tends to be more through the erasure/invisibility of non-straight characters than outright or subtle gay-bashing.)
Anywho, for the most part, it was entertaining and enjoyable. Also, if I never date someone who only knows how to talk about breakfast, it'll be too soon.
Unfortunately, as I'd been warned on LJ (and thank you for the heads-up), there was a bit of homophobia in it :/ I want to brush it off as "not that bad, really," but in the end, homophobia is homophobia, so I guess it'd be up to the individual to decide. Here's the (spoilery) details, if you're interested:
See, Tour Guide A is out to get Tour Guide B (our main character) to quit, probably mostly through making all of her tourists as miserable as possible. So what he does is, he gives American Frat Boy Tourist a shirt that he claims says "I love Greece" but, in reality, says "Enter at rear (wink wink, nudge nudge, check out these 'wrestling' naked dudes on the back here)".
Later in the tour, AFBTourist is wearing the shirt, and being flirted with by a couple of handsome young men. Tour Guide B is alerted to the situation, notices what the shirt says (and it's translated for us as well at this point), and goes over to talk to AFBTourist. She discreetly informs him what the shirt says or implies, he freaks out a little, and shoves Tour Guide A into the swimming pool - at which point Gay Greek Guys A and B decide, Hey, it must be an orgy! And dive in after him. (Tour Guide A assumed to be into dudes, I think, because AFBTourist was the one who pushed him in. Or something.) End homophobic side-story of sorts.
I hate to say it, but I'm inclined to cut her some slack on this. The film whose script she wrote prior to this was Connie and Carla, which was definitely on the more pro-gay side, if a little appropriative. It's probably also because I sympathize with AFBTourist to a degree, since I read his freakout as less "Ew, it's gay people!" and more "Oh God, I thought we were having an innocent drinking contest, but they thought it was something else!" Which does have an element of, "Oh God, they think I'm gay [like they are]!" in it, but in this context I think that could be meant either well or poorly. Prior to this, AFBTourist had also been pretty open about looking to find a girlfriend in Greece, but the one instance we saw him trying to flirt was really more embarrassing than creepy/squicky, IMO.
All that said, Your Mileage May Vary. I'm reasonably under-exposed to GLBTQIAA tropes in movies and television, especially on the Western side of things, since I tend to stick to programs aimed at kids/young adults (mostly cartoons) and Anime. (The kids shows do have a disturbing tendency for transphobia, I'm sorry to say u_u Homophobia as well, though it tends to be more through the erasure/invisibility of non-straight characters than outright or subtle gay-bashing.)
Anywho, for the most part, it was entertaining and enjoyable. Also, if I never date someone who only knows how to talk about breakfast, it'll be too soon.
