beauty and the beast (2017)

Note: I watched this movie while on my flight back to Philly from Paris, and studies somewhere show that we are more likely to cry during movies on airplanes because we're in an in between state, at once leaving and going. I literally teared up almost every time Emma Watson started singing not because she is good at singing at all (her voice was autotuned to heck) but because she is literally the UK's sweetheart and goddess! Ugh!!!!!

stop being cute emma just stop

This movie did a great job of retelling the classic story while making the effort to make Belle, the bookworm protagonist, pretty awesome. I got super emotional during the entire "little town" music sequence - how can you not, when the song is about feeling like you are trapped within a certain order and dreaming of something more, you're not sure what it is exactly but you trust that it is out there, aka "there must be more than this provincial liiiiiiiiife!" I enjoyed the verses they added during which Belle derides the idea of being Gaston's "little wife" and runs to the hilltops - very Sound of Music. The storyline about Belle's mother was also a surprise tearjerker!

Of course, a big chunk of my emotional reaction came from the fact that I find so much joy in musicals and in the way music can illustrate and heighten certain emotions in the listener so much better than words can on their own. As a musical, the movie also allows me to suspend a little bit of disbelief as to the overall plot as I indulge in the romance of the music, without which I would have found it much harder to buy into the narrative. Sure, it's satisfying to see Belle escape from the little town that she feels stifled and threatened in, but she trades it in for a wealthy, handsome prince who only had to woo a lonely bookworm with his giant you know what. And by you know what I mean library full of books. It really wasn't that much of a struggle?? Yeah, this plot was never very good. My brother mentioned that he read that the story suggests that the act of loving itself can be positively transformative, that we become beautiful as a result of being loved and not the other way around. I like that, but somehow it didn't feel like the movie did enough to convince me of that particular narrative.

Overall this movie worked for what it was - Beauty and the Beast, slightly more feminist with several black people in the cast. Cute!

under the skin (2013)

The general feeling that this movie left me with was one of confusion and loneliness. I suppose that was what the story was about - of becoming someone in a world that is foreign, of realizing that power is perhaps a state of mind and, especially for someone who presents as a woman, can be lost in an instant. I thought Scarlett Johanssohn did an amazing job of portraying an alien figure in human skin, who gradually grows into the skin she (?) inhabits. My reading of the ending - in which she is assaulted and burned to death by the man in the woods - was that the alien, in interacting with all these humans in her time, had slowly begun to feel human herself, and gendered as well after she falls for that one nice man, but as soon as she began to embody this human woman fully and lies down to rest, she is molested by a man who had appeared to be nice to her, then molests her in her sleep, tries to rape her, and burns her to death after he is disgusted at her alienness underneath. This seemed to echo the violence committed in our own world against not only women but transgender people especially, by men in hateful reaction to feeling "tricked" and that their masculinity is threatened by their desire.

she know about wearin a fur fox skin

It is interesting to think about the progression of the main character's sexual interactions and the power she loses in parallel. In the beginning of the movie, she seduces unsuspecting men and, in a really cool and eerie sequence, traps them in suspension. They move toward her as she backs away, mirroring her undress, and do not even notice as they descend straight down into the abyss. So chilling! The music during these sequences was terrifying and I loved it. In this section, she has full control over her prey but in a way, exacts her violence in a most non-violent way. She never touches the men - they willingly walk down into the depths, and are broken down seemingly painlessly. After she runs away from her duties and is helped by the nice man, she seems to experience her first instance of human affection and desire. She jumps up right before (?) they have sex and curiously examines her genitals, as if in disbelief that they are there and to realize what they are for. The man never pressures her to do anything, so in this instance she seems to have yielded some of her sexual power over man by sharing desire with someone else, but nevertheless maintains the rightful autonomy any person should have. Everything changes in the third section, however, when the man in the woods tries to rape her. Here, she lost complete control over her body and sexuality, and only manages to escape from underneath him because he is shocked when he tears a piece of her skin, revealing an amorphous substance underneath. The fact that he kills her suggests an unfortunate truth of the world - that a woman who does not submit to the will of man faces great danger. Her death can be read in different ways - Is it justice for the men she killed? A twisted way for her to escape the suffering she experiences as a human woman? Her inevitable fate in taking on the skin of a woman? Tl;dr, alien goes from being sexually powerful to powerless and then goes out in flames. This shit is bonkers.

Interesting facts: Many of the scenes in which she talks to men on the street were filmed with hidden cameras! The disfigured man in the movie is played by Adam Pearson who has neurofibromatosis, and he actually advised them on how she should interact with him. In an op-ed he wrote on Daily Mail, he talked about the importance of positive representations of people with "disfigurements" - scars, burns, things people associate with villains - in popular culture, and to perhaps have real people with these conditions play them instead of having the disfigurement be a costume. He likens this to blackface - not sure how I feel about this so I would love to hear any thoughts. I would have to think some more about how I feel about the relationship between the protag and this character because there seems to be a lot going on. 

Overall the film did a great job of producing an unsettling tone with a classic high-pitched violin set against a low beating bass, mysterious shots with little dialogue and a lot of quiet, and Scarlet's fantastic performance. I can see why this film didn't do so well at the box office - it is very much a film better appreciated at home by someone who is ready to patiently consume something bizarre and beautiful. 

thelma & louise (1991)

The charm of this film came from simply watching how much fun the two title characters were having, both as a result of leaving behind the things and people that burden them and of defying the law and exacting a kind of violent justice on the men they encounter and are hurt by. Wiki says that this violence has been criticized as senseless and sensationalizing; however, to me their choice of men to exact revenge on made sense - the rapist for obvious reasons, the police officer who represents a criminal justice system that consistently fails victims of sexual assault, and the lewd truck driver who harasses them and is representative of a more seemingly benign (they initially thought he was being nice) but still very violent manifestation of rape culture. Watching them blow up his truck and expertly driving circles around him was especially satisfying. Also Thelma is so derpy and hilarious!

but first let them take a selfie

I thought the ending was really well done! The two friends deciding to commit suicide together could have easily been seen as a cheesy cop-out (no pun intended), but their decision made sense not because they had nothing to live for (they did - at least Louise loved someone), but perhaps because now that they have experienced the satisfaction of freedom and power, they sure aren't going to give it up. Their decision to end their lives together in the face of a squadron of police armed with machine guns is a big middle finger to the the institutions - of both of men and law enforcement - that have harmed them. Interestingly, the one cop who is sympathetic to the women and wants to help them is ignored by the rest of the police, as if the film is saying we know #notallmen but like #mostofthem?? Oppressive institutions exist beyond and despite the individual Good Guy, and even the most sincere promises are not enough to overcome a lifetime of hurt and mistrust.

A detail that I liked: Thelma or Louise looking up and meeting the gaze of someone (usually a man) who has been staring at her. This happened three times I think, where the camera cuts from her looking up and lingers for several seconds on the stranger's unchanging gaze, then cuts back to her reaction. I saw these sequences as an inversion of the male gaze, because you can feel her frustration or defiance, the complexity of her awareness that she is being watched. She is seen but she sees them right back.