saw itty bitty titty committee last night at the closing show of the seattle queer, oops i mean lesbian and gay film festival. many mixed feelings still rolling around in my head. it was entertaining and full of hot folks and some good sex scenes (though after seeing shortbus the bar has been set pretty high for good sex scenes in non-porn, feature-length films). also super problematic. my hesitancy about ranting on about how fucked up this movie was (which i would have done in a second without blinking an eye a year or two ago) comes from my thoughts around context, perspective and complexity.
first here's the trailer:
so the plot is that Anna, this 18-year-old "latina baby-dyke" (as she's dubbed in the press about the movie), works as a receptionist at a plastic surgery clinic. one day after work she catches a obnoxiously button-nosed tiny blonde (as she's dubbed by me) spraying feminist graffiti on the front of her office. Anna, the ignorant baby-dyke is radicalized and educated by a cadre of radical white queers. see what i mean? here's some breakdown...
racist/white supremacist - although the main character is a QWOC (queer woman of color), all the other main folks are white (or pass as white). we do see one instance of Anna dealing with racism but it's coming from another woman of color ("does she speak English?") - nice diversion. and this "radical" group is taking all these legal risks in a way that only privileged white kids can - with abandon and ignore-ance of racial profiling and the violent role that police play in so many communities of color. lots more i could say but i wanna move on to
ageist - this is a huge theme of the film. the subtitle is "every generation needs a new revolution." the main characters are all 18-25 and the one who's not (the partner of button-nose blonde) is made to look super old(er than she really is). you can tell that her wrinkles are exaggerated with make-up and she and her mainstream non-profit running friends are some of the enemies in the film. now don't get me wrong, i hate the non-profit-industrial-complex as much as the next guy but to draw this brightline between the radical (young, hot, angry queers) and the liberal (old, ugly, conformist, pant-suit-wearing lesbians) doesn't really do any of us any good (see the title of this post).
tongue-in-cheek radical politics - so yay there's all this radical name- and quote-dropping throughout the film but it's so surface and cliche. i feel like the directors were like ok we wanna appeal to a wide(r) range of folks so we're gonna throw in all this "radical" stuff for the young folks to keep it hip but really we're gonna be making fun of their passion and anger and cast it as a silly phase of youth. blarg, am i making sense (to folks who've seen it at least)?
hmm, my rant could go on and on and on but here's what i hinted at above...yes, it's fucked up, yes there's a lot of oppression justified and perpetuated and some represented, and (not but) this shit is everywhere. that doesn't justify the gross stuff in the movie, it contextualizes it. on the same note, saying "oppression is everywhere" should never shut down folks' legit criticism and feelings. and i don't really wanna get on a high horse and preach about how fucked up this movie was. (hehe, may be too late for that huh?) it just feels pointless and presumptuous of me. i'd rather have conversations about the complexity of this movie than immediately write it off.
so, go see it if you can. ask me questions (whether or not you've seen it). share your thoughts. this would also make for an interesting inter-generational discussion group.
Soniferous Aether
1 day ago
1 comment:
okay. so like i said the night we watched the movie, there are a couple things one has to take into account: 1) this movie was made by jamie babbit (of 'but im a cheerleader' fame) and i feel like a lot of the somewhat superficial handling of things is totally genre-based. there is always a bit of tongue-in-cheek going on with her, and it may just be a little harder when its your own group that she is going after (albeit lovingly). and this is not to say that this makes it okay to not deal with the oppression stuff, cuz you are right, that was pretty irresponsible, but there are very few feature length movies that do deal with it, its just maybe we expect more from queer film makers cuz at least they are aware of some stuff...i dunno. 2) again, in the post-everything world, where the cycle of whats underground, whats hip, whats passe, and whats open season for making fun of is so much quicker as to be almost simultaneous, we have a movie that is showing a wider audience some of what is our experience as young activist queer folks in a way that is showing whats cool and at the same time making it slightly campy and ridiculous and a little too slick and a little too 'cool'. so, not only is the film maker showing this to us, then making fun of it a bit, but is also taking it deadly seriously to a point where we as audience members have to make fun of it in order to maintain some form of distance. and all of this is the hardest when you feel that the group of people being portrayed are very close to your own community. the movie still got me excited (in a couple different ways) and im highly amused with it, even if it does hurt sometimes cuz it cuts so close to the quick. but yeah, i hear you.
and i dunno, i myself felt almost too old to watch that movie, and that felt funny, tho im firmly outside of that 18-25 range, so maybe you are right.
oh yeah. and the fake wrinkles on the partners face totally annoyed me.
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