Posted on 07/20/2015 8:38:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
Politics is downstream from culture. Until we reclaim the culture, it will be difficult to reclaim political power.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the LA Weeklys review of Trainwreck. It may shock readers to know that this is not only a very funny movie, but espouses Conservative values. The LA Weekly review, however, asks Trainwreck has laughs, but at what cost? One would expect that the review would tackle any harmful, unethical or immoral themes in the film.
It does, but in classic Liberal Bizarro-World fashion, it reverses which values are harmful.
(Some mild spoilers follow, although if youve ever seen a Judd Apatow movie, they are hardly spoilers.)
The movie revolves around Amy (Amy Schumer), a woman who literally sleeps around New York. The films opening scene delivers the films counter-message: at age 9, Amys father tells her monogamy isnt realistic, and that hes getting divorced. Amy grows up determined to avoid intimacy and monogamy. She sleeps with multiple partners, engaging in joyless sex, and never stays the night. She also drinks too much, and often wakes up with no idea where she is or how she got there; gets high on a regular basis; and doesnt value her own contributions at the magazine she works at. Only when she meets Dr. Aaron Conners (Bill Hader) does she fall in love, realizes her actions affect others, finds confidence in her work, and quits her promiscuous and hedonistic lifestyle.
The moral of this story is clear: people are going to feel better about themselves by being in a committed and monogamous relationship than they will if they sleep around.
Not only is the moral factually-based, as there are mountains of academic studies to support it, but its a far more satisfying conclusion for the audience. Its also good storytelling. Characters who change over the course of a story are far more interesting and likeable than those who dont.
The LA Weekly review is disappointing, if not surprising. Film reviews have generally been the papers strong point, with a pedigree that includes Manhola Dargis and A.O. Scott. Alas, Stephanie Zachareks review offers up a core misguided notion of Liberalism.
She points to Amys behavior as being problematic because, Amy tackles her sex life with grim determination, and her lack of engagement -- emotional or sexual -- exposes a sneaky and unpleasant thread of conservatism: the movie wants us to buy the idea that sex really is best with your One True Love, and anything outside of that is just a cheap substitute."
So we are to infer that a lifetime of sleeping around is actually best for people in general? For women? That "true feminism" means a woman must sleep with multiple partners, have no remorse over it, and feel great about it? That sex really is best with multiple partners and that having a One True Love is the cheap substitute?
This contradicts human evolution, and if you will, the way of things. Zacharek even admits, while ironically missing her own point, that Amy is at times so badly behaved toward a man she supposedly loves that its hard to be on her side. Exactly! It is hard to be on her side, because she disrespects herself, and therefore the audience, which is supposed to identify with her.
Ill tell you what a true feminist movie would have been, and had Zacharek stuck only to this point, shed be on to something.
A true feminist movie is about one thing: a woman making her own choices, and living life as she sees fit. That may mean being Christian, a stay-at-home mother, and raising three kids.
Alternatively, Apatow and Schumer could have made a more daring film in which a woman can be in complete control of her own choices, enjoy lots of sex, and simply select a promiscuous lifestyle. The film could show how that woman could still be happy and content. It would be the exception rather than the rule. However, it would be a perfectly valid story, finding merit with both Liberal and Libertarian audiences, for life is about the choices we make, free from government or societal interference, that make us content.
Such a movie can not only exist, it can exist without insulting Conservative values. Indeed, it is Manhola Dargis in her own review, who says, Ms. Schumer is at her strongest when she insists that women arent distressed damsels but — as they toddle, walk and race in the highest of heels, the tightest of skirts, the sexiest, mightiest of poses — the absolute agents of their lives and desires.
Zacharek starts down this path, but then needlessly bashes Conservative values the values of many Americans who no longer go to the movies for the reasons Ive just written about.
I’m still not going to see it.
I have no interest in seeing it either.
Why not? Care to elaborate?
They made a TV series about women free to sleep around with whomever they wanted. It was called “Sex in the City,” and every female lead character on it was a miserable, depressed, wretched drunk whose goal in life was to meet Mr. Big and get married after discovering that achieving ownership of 2,000 pairs of shoes wasn’t exactly fulfilling.
I thought she was funny doing stand up, a little crass but funny.
This movie on the other hand is terrible. The movie relies on being crass; there is no real humor in it. Worst two hours of my life recently.
Interesting.
Thanks.
The writer seems to believe that conservatism is about “being the absolute agent of your life and desires.” That seems awfully juvenile to me.
Because most movies produced today tend to suck.
“Politics is downstream from culture.”
Is it? Politics began dictating culture most recently in the 1960s, culminating so far in the leftist grip of media, education, and the supremacy of federal government over the states. If politics claims to be culture’s child, I’d ask for a DNA test. There’s a marxist in the woodpile, and that’s not derived from American culture.
“Because most movies produced today tend to suck.”
Pretty much all of them along with most of the popular music.
No plans to watch this movie, even in a year when it’s on free TV.
same here
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