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This movie brought back a lot of unwanted memories. The drive to support some artifacts of culture based not on their own merit, but on the ideological agenda they represent is too strong a reminder about the vulnerability of the cause :-/ Like, back in ~1995, when Russian language still dominated on Ukrainian television, a soap opera called Dynasty was the first TV series that got dubbed in Ukrainian. Everybody watched it, even people who didn't watch movies at all, much less soap operas; you had to watch it, you had to like it - if you didn't, you were unpatriotic and, quite possibly, made baby Jesus cry. We had to support it, because supporting it meant supporting the ideology we stood for.
That is pretty much the case with I Love You Phillip Morris. It's a romantic comedy (dramedy?) about a conman finding true love in prison and going through a number of incidents (portrayed in a light, comic tone) to reunite with his boyfriend. Obviously, as it undermines the pervasive narrative about teh tortured gays (TM), one is supposed to support it if one supports gay rights. Having watched it, I'm feeling sort of underwhelmed. The movie definitely has its strong moments: shooting the most dramatic scenes in the most light-hearted way underlines the tragedy instead of underscoring it; the unreliable narrator tricks (/strives to trick) not only the other characters, but the viewers as well; etc. But it also has its fair share problems (warning: this is not my favourite genre, and so I'm probably not able to appreciate its finer points, as my exposure to it is sporadic at best). The movie seems to have no real substance: for a story about a relationship, the relationship seems to be too one-dimensional and lacking internal conflicts; for a story about performativity, it's not meta enough. The authors' preferred method of creating the atmosphere of absurdity (fast-forwarding through the events) only strengthens the impression that this is not a real story, but a hasty outline.
TLDR: while beggars cannot be choosers, I'm too tired of mediocre stories I'm exposed to because there are just not enough variety of stories representing certain non-mainstream narratives. That's what I've been doing for most of my life, and I'd like that to change.
That is pretty much the case with I Love You Phillip Morris. It's a romantic comedy (dramedy?) about a conman finding true love in prison and going through a number of incidents (portrayed in a light, comic tone) to reunite with his boyfriend. Obviously, as it undermines the pervasive narrative about teh tortured gays (TM), one is supposed to support it if one supports gay rights. Having watched it, I'm feeling sort of underwhelmed. The movie definitely has its strong moments: shooting the most dramatic scenes in the most light-hearted way underlines the tragedy instead of underscoring it; the unreliable narrator tricks (/strives to trick) not only the other characters, but the viewers as well; etc. But it also has its fair share problems (warning: this is not my favourite genre, and so I'm probably not able to appreciate its finer points, as my exposure to it is sporadic at best). The movie seems to have no real substance: for a story about a relationship, the relationship seems to be too one-dimensional and lacking internal conflicts; for a story about performativity, it's not meta enough. The authors' preferred method of creating the atmosphere of absurdity (fast-forwarding through the events) only strengthens the impression that this is not a real story, but a hasty outline.
TLDR: while beggars cannot be choosers, I'm too tired of mediocre stories I'm exposed to because there are just not enough variety of stories representing certain non-mainstream narratives. That's what I've been doing for most of my life, and I'd like that to change.
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