Pretty sure the entire movie was a metaphor for the trans experience. The "it's never too late" is a common saying about transition. Also I felt like a lot of the dialog, the way it's spoken, and especially the way characters frequently don't look at each other in the eyes or into the camera as reflective of growing up on the autism spectrum.
The movie makes complete sense when viewed from the trans perspective. Pretty much everything that he takes issue with in the movie are things that speak heavily to the trans perspective and experience that cis people have a hard time understanding. As an example, he speaks of how we don't get much about their true selves (Tara and Isabel) but this is purposeful, I feel, because as a trans person you know that true self exists, but you recognize that who they are is likely going to be very different from who you are before transitioning and you don't ultimately know who you are going to be after you accept your true self and transition.
I literally can’t understand how you would see it without the trans allegory. It’s not hollow it’s focused on a specific set of emotions and vibes that I think every trans person will lock onto
like another commenter mentioned. the entire movie is pretty much about the trans experience. from Isabel's (owen) angle, its particularly about a common experience ( I went through it, but luckily stopped) of a trans girl who lives in fear. being so afraid even when not as aware, like not wanting to upset family & such, & just not standing up for oneself; like not going to see the show with tara afterwards (out of fear), being sad but quiet when the dad says "isnt that a girls show", being timid & non-confrontational, etc. but then even when she was a lot more aware, she was still afraid (like running away from tara on the field), either not wanting to accept it or just fear of what may come. this is a sadly common, but not often covered experience of some trans people, where they knowingly suppress their feelings & try to push through acting like they arent who they are. like Isabel, she went as far as having a family (sadly this happens too, usually as a means of suppression (it happens irl, personally i think its immoral, but thats a different discussion)), but if you noticed after saying she loves them, she looked kinda sad, like there's something still not right, or that she's putting on an act to seem alright. and then only after realizing that she really is dying, and wasted so many years of her life, did she break & realize how she's been living this fake "dream" life i actually did try to suppress my feelings for ~4yrs before i realized that "i was dying" and had to make a change also, the monotonous life where she worked at the movie theater & then at the arcade, not really living, just being a husk, is a very real experience. like since i was young (before i knew trans people existed, but had these feelings), i would think to myself things literally like "hopefully some day my life can actually start". as if i was in some sort of dream world or something that couldnt have counted because it was so horrid for me. essentially, i think this story particularly connects with trans people. like i know others who've had intense experiences during it, & I kinda ugly cried during it, the story felt so close to my experience that it struck certain particular experiences & feelings i've had
I ended up appreciating this more than I enjoyed it. Has lots of Cronenberg body horror vibes and Lynchian metaphors about duality, nightmares, etc., both of whom’s work I adore. The first half just really dragged for me. Even though I grew up in the 90s and had some similar experiences to these characters of feeling misunderstood by the world, I was just counting down the minutes waiting for the surreal aspects of the film. Maybe on a second watch I’ll pick up more from the first half now that I know where the story is going.
Completely incorrect assessment. It's a show about the trans experience and a cautionary tale about identity suppression. Not about media escapism or nostalgia.
The rigid dogma of interpreting queer cinema is infuriating. Like, if you are not echoing the exact prescribed platitude you are supposedly "incorrect." Imagine this: a piece of art so unique that different people come away from it feeling different things, and the work is big enough to contain more than one possible interpretation.
It’s because that’s what most people are doing they’re ignoring Owen’s suffocating character. HES DYING and everyone keeps wanting to ignore him and talk about tv shows and how being connected to tv shows is unhealthy when the whole point of the movie is that the REASON people get obsessed with tv shows is sometimes because they need to disassociate from a reality where they’re miserably suppressing who they are. It’s the realistic irony of it all.
![DDG & G Herbo - Nosey [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I9Ra0Zc2NlQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Pretty sure the entire movie was a metaphor for the trans experience. The "it's never too late" is a common saying about transition. Also I felt like a lot of the dialog, the way it's spoken, and especially the way characters frequently don't look at each other in the eyes or into the camera as reflective of growing up on the autism spectrum.
The movie makes complete sense when viewed from the trans perspective. Pretty much everything that he takes issue with in the movie are things that speak heavily to the trans perspective and experience that cis people have a hard time understanding.
As an example, he speaks of how we don't get much about their true selves (Tara and Isabel) but this is purposeful, I feel, because as a trans person you know that true self exists, but you recognize that who they are is likely going to be very different from who you are before transitioning and you don't ultimately know who you are going to be after you accept your true self and transition.
I literally can’t understand how you would see it without the trans allegory. It’s not hollow it’s focused on a specific set of emotions and vibes that I think every trans person will lock onto
@@badenviouscoder9155I'm shocked by how blind people are
I found this film masterful.
like another commenter mentioned. the entire movie is pretty much about the trans experience. from Isabel's (owen) angle, its particularly about a common experience ( I went through it, but luckily stopped) of a trans girl who lives in fear. being so afraid even when not as aware, like not wanting to upset family & such, & just not standing up for oneself; like not going to see the show with tara afterwards (out of fear), being sad but quiet when the dad says "isnt that a girls show", being timid & non-confrontational, etc. but then even when she was a lot more aware, she was still afraid (like running away from tara on the field), either not wanting to accept it or just fear of what may come. this is a sadly common, but not often covered experience of some trans people, where they knowingly suppress their feelings & try to push through acting like they arent who they are. like Isabel, she went as far as having a family (sadly this happens too, usually as a means of suppression (it happens irl, personally i think its immoral, but thats a different discussion)), but if you noticed after saying she loves them, she looked kinda sad, like there's something still not right, or that she's putting on an act to seem alright. and then only after realizing that she really is dying, and wasted so many years of her life, did she break & realize how she's been living this fake "dream" life
i actually did try to suppress my feelings for ~4yrs before i realized that "i was dying" and had to make a change
also, the monotonous life where she worked at the movie theater & then at the arcade, not really living, just being a husk, is a very real experience. like since i was young (before i knew trans people existed, but had these feelings), i would think to myself things literally like "hopefully some day my life can actually start". as if i was in some sort of dream world or something that couldnt have counted because it was so horrid for me.
essentially, i think this story particularly connects with trans people. like i know others who've had intense experiences during it, & I kinda ugly cried during it, the story felt so close to my experience that it struck certain particular experiences & feelings i've had
I ended up appreciating this more than I enjoyed it. Has lots of Cronenberg body horror vibes and Lynchian metaphors about duality, nightmares, etc., both of whom’s work I adore. The first half just really dragged for me. Even though I grew up in the 90s and had some similar experiences to these characters of feeling misunderstood by the world, I was just counting down the minutes waiting for the surreal aspects of the film. Maybe on a second watch I’ll pick up more from the first half now that I know where the story is going.
Completely incorrect assessment. It's a show about the trans experience and a cautionary tale about identity suppression. Not about media escapism or nostalgia.
The rigid dogma of interpreting queer cinema is infuriating. Like, if you are not echoing the exact prescribed platitude you are supposedly "incorrect." Imagine this: a piece of art so unique that different people come away from it feeling different things, and the work is big enough to contain more than one possible interpretation.
It’s because that’s what most people are doing they’re ignoring Owen’s suffocating character. HES DYING and everyone keeps wanting to ignore him and talk about tv shows and how being connected to tv shows is unhealthy when the whole point of the movie is that the REASON people get obsessed with tv shows is sometimes because they need to disassociate from a reality where they’re miserably suppressing who they are. It’s the realistic irony of it all.
Very thoughtful review!
I liked Geoff's misinterpretaion on the angle of Matt's thumb protractor grading scale.
=)
Nonsense