Helloooo!

I was bowled over by Good Neighbours by Sarah Langan a fascinating smart thriller offering us a tale of human cruelty and hope and sharp observations on how prejudice easily makes people believe lies. I am delighted that Sarah kindly provided this guest post that I think works as a great way of thoughtfully exploring how media helps create this kind of world.

Sometimes you see something, and you can’t unsee it. It’s like that the line from that dumb-looking movie, 8mm, that I never saw: “You can’t change the devil. The Devil changes you.” Except, in this instance, the stuff I wish I’d never seen wasn’t powerful or honest enough to corrupt me. It just made me kind of mad, that somebody had this very confused vision, about how the world works, and then he sold that vision to lots of people. So, here goes:

1)      “Pulp Fiction” (1994): You know what I don’t need to see? A guy who really wants to make it with a chick, but he can’t because she belongs to the boss! But then he gets his way, anyway, because she overdoses, so he has to stab her in the heart with a big needle. You know what I don’t need to see? Everybody in the theater nervously laughing, because they’re not sure what just happened, and they feel a little violated, but they need to exert control over the situation, by pretending they liked it.

2)      “Who’s the Boss,” a television series from the 1980s, back when Alyssa Milano graced the covers of all the teen magazines. The premise was this: A very successful advertising executive hires a housekeeper, and lets him and his daughter live in her house. But everybody’s like: Wait a second! He’s a guy but he’s domestic! She’s a lady but she has a job and she pays his salary! I can’t fathom this! Who’s the boss, here???

3)      “American Sniper” I have family in the military. My dad was a marine. So my criticism of this is not that. It’s: the guy is the best sniper in the world, but while he’s killing people, he’s on the horn with his needy wife back home, because he can always take time for his lady.  This is supposed to depict him as heroic? To me, that’s not heroic. It’s dishonest. It’s a reduction that we all want to believe, because we want to honor our soldiers. But lying about their pain by making them seem superhuman is not honoring their experience.

4)      Seven: This was another big, 90s hit, that made me want to move to Canada. Spoiler: you know what’s in the box? It’s Brad Pitt’s wife’s head, murdered by the seven deadly sins serial killer Kevin Spacey, because he coveted Pitt’s family life. It’s not chardonnay, it’s a boxed head! Presumably, Gwyneth Paltrow was murdered to get it, and so was her unborn child. It’s always fun when the one lady in a movie, a side character to begin with, is killed off-screen, and we realize her whole value, from the perspective of the film, was as the bearer of a uterus. Poor Brad Pitt!!!!!

5)      Requiem for a Dream: As with the film Traffic, it appears that the worst thing that can happen to a white woman, is that she falls so low that she trades sex for drugs. This is worse than, say, being dead. We white women need protection, because when tarnished, we break. No one ever wants to play with us again. I’d argue that the worst thing is not getting whored out, but, rather, not knowing your street value, and agreeing to a two-some with another woman, using this super creepy double-dildo between the two of you, for a salary that probably amounts to a day’s worth of heroin. I mean, lady, take five minutes, comb your hair, and call an escort service. You’ll make out like a bandit. But I think the subtext here, is that lots of men would like to do Jennifer Connolly. Even some directors. I get it, Darren Aronfsky.