Use my GlassesUSA links for an exclusive offer on your first frames! Muse Geso: glassesusa.me/juliac_MuseGeso Amelia E. Demi: glassesusa.me/juliac_AmeliaEDemi Eyeglasses: glassesusa.me/juliac_Eyeglasses Sunglasses: glassesusa.me/juliac_Sunglasses
i find it weird that “knives out” manages to sneak into a lot of these “good for her” lists. like yeah, obviously good for her, because she literally did nothing wrong. she was literally being framed for murder and inherited the dead guy’s beautiful mansion and all of his money because she was the only person in his life that showed him real kindness. she doesn’t show sympathy to the family at the end because they didn’t deserve it. so yeah, “good for her,” but not in the ironic way like gone girl or midsommar.
i originally included knives out in the section about self-defense not counting, but i felt like it didn’t fit because she doesn’t even do anything “wrong” self-defensively. her worst offense is… lying to the police??
huh, I kinda disagree with you there. I feel like Knives Out is a purer 'good for her" movie because we as the audience are sincerely rooting. The ending has that satisfying moment with Marta holding the 'my house my rules' mug. While Midsommar and Gone Girl feel muddled deviations of the genre because of that irony. The latter lack that pure satisfaction for me in terms of cheering the protagonist on.
@@booksvsmovies but isn't that just a likeable female protagonist succeeding? That's hardly specific to the "good for her" theme as described in the video, that's literally good for her, divorced from the meme
That’s kind of how I feel about The Witch and Midsommar too when I see it end up on lists - like yes, Good For Her that she survives and finds, uh, “family”, but all the characters did was endure and survive by not being awful people. So idk, maybe it’s a misinterpretation, or maybe there’s an unspoken agreement that they fall under an umbrella of Good For Her. I’m still kinda undecided.
@@lydialuton4402 I guess my interpretation of good for her doesn't require the protagonist to be morally dubious so I differ from Julia in my definition. A better example could be Ex Machina where Ava leaves both Nathan, her abuser, and Caleb, the "nice guy" who technically didn't do anything wrong, for dead. But Ava to me is a harder protagonist to root for because she also killed her fellow robot sex slaves who were definitely treated worse than her (and who just so happened to be women of colour) on her path to freedom.
The cinematography in "Last Night in Soho" was gorgeous, particularly when Ellie first arrived in the past. However, while I liked John, Ellie's love interest, he seemed bland, and there wasn't much to his character aside from "Not Being a dick."
When my brother and I went to see it I got less of a "The men were the real victims" vibe and more of "You think that you don't fit in today and that things were better in the past, but you don't know what it took to survive." I saw the final confrontation as being less about the "twist" and more about confronting the hardships of the past and their impact, and using that to navigate the present. As seen by Eloise thriving by the end-of-year fashion show. In confronting the reality of her escapist fantasies, she was able to thrive in her present reality. (The inciting incident for the main plot is an unwillingness to engage with her contemporaries). I feel like this is why John is written as such a straightforward and "nice" character. He contrasts the glamor & allure of Jack leading down a path of danger. I'm very thankful you made a video about this movie because I like talking about it and I don't know many people who saw it lol.
thank you for disagreeing so politely! this is why i do think the movie comes off better if you’re moreso thinking about through the lens of past verses present than “good her her”ness
I agree, I interpreted the ghosts only as a reminder of the horrible things that happened to Sandie, just in two separate ways: For Ellie, who only knows them as men who solicited Sandie, they grab her and chase her. When Sandie sees them, she sees all the men in the context of having murdered them, because killing a hundred men, even if they deserved it, has haunted her.
@@abbywolffe4114 I really like the way you put things here. victims tend to feel a sort of guilt with how they handled their situation even if their actions were justified. it makes me think of the scene in AHS season 2 where Lana is doing the reading of her book at the library and she has visions of her abuser and late ex girlfriend standing up to guilt her for how she chose to tell her own story
This is SUCH a cohesive read on my favorite movie, and I think this is now (so far!) my favorite video of yours. Super insightful and really scratched that itch of “this isn’t as good as it could have been” that I get every time I watch Last Night In SoHo. Also, John will ALWAYS deserve better than just being Debra Babydriver 2.0 (the stock Supportive Love Interest™️). There could’ve been some interesting contrast between him being the embodiment of Not All Men (Honorific)- supporting and believing Ellie, listening and helping her while not deciding what’s best for her- and who Lindsay turned out to be as a Not All Men (Derogatory) by being condescending and judgmental to Sandie (offering superficial help while basically saying it was her fault she got into trouble, then talking SUPER shittily about her to Ellie). Missed opportunity on the part of the writers not to contrast those two characters imo!
Great video! I think I agree with you about catharsis being the most important part of the nebulous 'good for her' genre. I had similar conflicting feelings about Last Night in Soho, but wasn't able to quite put my feelings into words when I first saw it. I think you broke down the ending and the sort of conflicted messaging that comes through very well.
I’m so disappointed that last night in soho completely disregarded how powerful and empathetic of an experience it is to have a young woman reach out and so desperately want to protect and comfort another woman suffering from traumatic experiences. There is so much raw emotional power in compassion and care and they could have had such an empowering and cathartic (not to mention visual stunning) movie. If only they didn’t overcomplicate things and try and outsmart the audience. You think they would have learned from game of thrones season 8 that twist villains suck if they aren’t properly built up.
I personally viewed the ending in a completely different way and it's one of my favorite movies ever now. i didn't see it as 'women are just as bad as men'' i saw it as a way of explaining how horrible the industry is especially hollywood, ellie and sandie both have this dream to make it big with their passions and sadly some people (like sandie) see the horrible side of show business and being taken advantage of. also sandie being stuck in the house after killing the men who abused her and her 'soul dying' to me felt like a way of saying even after all of that the trauma is still going to be there.
this is rly interesting bc on my first watch i rly enjoyed last night in soho (& especially anya taylor joy's performance) but i did absolutely miss the catharsis i get from movies like jennifer's body's final scene...great video julia i love the way you anyalyze horror!!!
I just watched Last Night In Soho and loved it (even with the weird, dissonant ending) - one detail that I DID love however is how when Ellie first meets with Ms. Collins about the room, the lady mentions how people “have a habit of leaving in the middle of the night suddenly”. I loved that kernel of doubt helped by the fact that Ellie’s visions are truthful. I love that you took the time to make a video on the subject too bc Good For Her movies have been a recent obsession lol
I agree. I think part of the problem is the cognitive dissonance with the ending. The first two thirds of the movie were about women supporting each other. So when the twist happens, it comes across as jarring, because there was zero build up to it. Personally, I would've liked it a lot more if it ended with Ellie bringing Sandy's killer to justice, so that it follows through on its original premise more.
omg, I'm watching this right after Rowan Ellis's good for her analysis it makes such a good double feature. Gone Girl and Midsommar are fascinating movies to analyze in the 'good for her' context of catharsis. I argue that they both don't quite fit the label because their endings don't produce the same catharsis something like Ex-Machina does. For me, Gone Girl's ending is cathartic not because Amy "won" but because I know Amy, while temporarily victorious, is going to be miserable for the rest of her life. Something that feels fitting for a women that level of deranged Midsommar isn't cathartic in a "good for her" way to me because the movie is so clearly tragic. The film represents just how easily cults can indoctrinate emotionally vulnerable people by isolating them from the rest of the world and seemingly giving them what they "need" at the expense of freedom and individuality. The film is great but not necessarily cathartic, it's horrific.
I think Midsommar is cathartic in the classical sense of the word, not the power fantasy sense of the word. Tragedy has roots as a religious ritual in ancient greece where (iirc) audiences could experience all these negative emotions by proxy, get them out of their system and emerge unscathed. I didn't leave the cinema feeling upset the first time I saw it: I honestly felt cleansed. It was cathartic to see my own insecurities projected onto the big screen, like how poking a bruise is cathartic. I also think it's equally critical of an uncaring side of modern society, which is what leaves Dani isolated and vulnerable to the cult and it's a shame you don't see that aspect talked about as often. I see it as presenting two extremes: the cult on one side and a social group who think Dani asking for support from her long term boyfriend during an emergency is "abusive" on the other. What I took from it is that Ari Aster took the things Dani most needed (empathy & community) and turned them into a hideous, monkey's paw exaggeration of themselves. But I think a lot of people resonate strongly with that need for empathy, even if Dani's solution to the problem is ultimately one that consumes her.
I hadn't thought of that, but ''Good for her'' is a great way to describe this sort of films (one of the reasons I love Midsommar so much). I hope it becomes a fully fledged genre.
Is midsommar really a good for her movie though? The only 'catharsis' that Dani's experiencing is due to her escape from an abusive romantic relationship and in a way she punishes her boyfriend for the way he's treated her. But isn't joining a cult a start to a whole new level of abusive relationships? Cults recruit emotionaly vulnerable people and manipulate them into joining them, their whole system is based on abusive relationships• so isn't Dani just a victim of a another, even more harmful relationship that is about to unfold?
@@mariaefstratiou7427 Personally, I think the greatest thing about Midsommer is that it's both a "good for her" movie and a "girl you should run" movie (The Witch also fits into that category for me). Both readings are valid and I would even say, they are both intentional. Midsommer is the story of Dani and Christian. They are in a very toxic relationship because Christian is an emotionally abusive boyfriend and a gaslighter. He is incapable of giving Dani the emotional support she needs and makes things worse for her. The whole movie is a metaphor for Dani meeting a new community which supports her and gives her the strength to finally get rid of her terrible boyfriend. The whole thing is obviously over the top because it is a horror movie but ultimately, it's a movie about a woman escaping an abusive relationship, with the catharsis of her abusive boyfriend suffering a terrible death. It's a "good for her" movie. Midsommer is also the story of Dani, a woman who just went through the horrifying trauma of losing her entire family. Her boyfriend is neglectful and emotionally abusive so she is going through this basically alone. When she arrives in the Harga, they use this emotional vulnerability as a way to manipulate her into joining the cult. At the end, she is so fully indoctrinated that she even decides to be complicit in the murder of her terrible boyfriend who still didn't deserve such a fate. And she is so far gone that she " has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane" (quoting the script here). It's a "girl you should run" movie. The greatest thing about this ending is that you feel the catharsis but also, the catharsis feels wrong and it's because those two interpretations coexist on different levels. It creates a cognitive dissonance and you might not be able to fully explain how but people felt it, that's why the ending is so divisive. And I think it's 100% intentional, as evidenced by the ending of the screenplay, which I will quote again because really, it says all of what I just said better than I ever could : "A SMILE finally breaks onto Dani’s face. She has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane. She has lost herself completely, and she is finally free. It is horrible and it is beautiful."
Based on the joke this originated from, I'd say a "Good for her" movie can encompass a pyrrhic victory over others. It's catharsis, but at what cost? A mother drowning herself in a lake is, "good for her", but she still drowns. At least this seems like good criteria for the sub-genre imo.
I’m really glad you discussed this film. It left me feeling wrongfooted too. At the end I just ended up wondering what the point was. Like why tell this story? There’s a girl in the 60s who was exploited and a girl in the 2010s who has visions of her, except not all of those visions are accurate, and in the end her visions don’t actually have any relevancy to the plot if you break down the actual events of the film. So what was Ellie’s arc?
Great video, thank you for being the first person to talk about Gaslight and actually explain how gaslights work, that part of the plot summary never made sense to me lol
Rowan Ellis just put out a great video about Good For Her movies that goes really in depth on the feminism and implications of the “genre.” If you like this one from Julia I think you’ll really enjoy Rowan’s!
while I underatand the appeal and importance of "daughters of gaslight" movies, sometimes I wish there was more room for a thriller where the woman *is* "crazy." because, y'know, that happens in real life sometimes, and a sympathetic portrayal of a schizophrenic horror protagonist would be really cool.
this is what I actually expected from Last Night in Soho, particularly because it had been established Ellie's mom "saw things" as well. The fact she almost murdered one of her classmates and it is never brought up again, leading to a happy ending in which she has her own designs on a runway, kind of felt clumsy for me too. I mean, am I supposed to believe she just told EVERYONE the real story about the ghosts and Sandie and they all believed her and let it go without concerns? idk
I don't find Gone Girl to be a "good for her" film. Amy spends the movie complaining about her husband not being the person she thought he was even though she herself faked who she was to get him to marry her. To me she is a bit of a delusional character that is so focused on herself that she doesn't see that her husband is not happy with his life anymore. He realizes that their whole relationship has been fake from the beginning after everything that has happened and in the end is forced to stay. Amy doesn't care about the real world, she only cares about the fake world she created for herself in her mind and has no problem trapping her husband in order to keep it. She is doing exactly what she accuses her parents of when it comes to the children's books that they write about the fake version of her that they made up for themselves.
Great analysis. I definitely think it would've been a better ending if Ellie - via intervening as she did - was able to prevent Sandy from being brutalized and escape safely to a new life. THEN the twist of her being her current/future land lady would've felt more satisfying. Maybe she was able to communicate with her as a little voice inside and says something that makes older lady Sandy chuckle and recall how 'when I was younger things got very.....terrifying for a long while but somehow I was able to get out of it. A little voice and a presence helping me. I don't know what it was but I knew it would want me to be that for other women and here I am now, helping where I can' or something and Ellie gets the satisfaction of knowing her efforts weren't in vain but perhaps doesn't reveal herself.
Great analysis! I started to sour on Last Night in Soho around the 2nd act, when it was revealed that Jack was sex-trafficking Sandy, because I'm tired of movies using sexual exploitation simply to set a dark and gritty tone. I think if the movie had ended the way you describe, with Ellie getting justice for Sandy's murder, the movie could have said something about the ways women (and sex workers in particular) are treated by society, and how their lives are overlooked--but as is, it's just used as a justification for a girlboss serial killer. It frustrates me because I feel that movies that portray sexual trafficking without saying anything interesting about it just further stigmatization of sex work, sending the message that ALL sex work is exploitative and all women involved in it are merely victims.
I noticed midsommar in the thumbnail as well as mentioned in the video a representation of a "good for her" movie. While the video isn't about this movie specifically, personally i'd just like to voice my thoughts on why midsommar is not a "good for her" movie, even if this is a bit off topic. I'd say a female protagonist being groomed into a "traditional", nazi, white supremacist cult which strives on racism, eugenics is not "good for her". exploiting the white female protagonist's yearn for family and acceptance in order to get her into the cult through the promise of comfort stemming from conformity and traditionalism is kinda supposed to show how easy it really is to fall into and become an active participant of a fascist regime as a white person, especially a white woman, and how dogma like this especially likes to go after said demographic. The real horror of the movie is supposed to be how anyone can become a part of a cult, and how such systems - fascist regimes, cults, MLMs, etc etc, are especially good at grooming especially vulnerable individuals, especially ones who have been through trauma, not unlike the protagonist herself, and people who say that they'd never get caught up in a cult are just.. wrong. The main horror aspect of this movie is especially terrifying when you look at the audience of the movie, who, alongside the protagonist, also got "groomed" into the nazi cult (and it is a nazi cult. The director confirmed it, the two black characters got immediately killed off by the cult intentionally, the eldest parties of the cult were executed, ie eugenics, one of the characters in a deleted scene were reading a book titled "nazi runes and how to recognize them" or something of the sort, and the cult itself is a village of white people living in a patriarchal traditional lifestyle), believing that becoming a part of it is a cathartic and "happy" ending for the character.
your conclusion hit the nail right on the head! it isn't subversive to leave a movie thinking the female protagonist made things up--thats just real life.
It's so interesting seeing the difference between Good For Her endings (Midsommar, Gone Girl) where a bittersweet 'victory' is achieved and sincere 'good for her' endings (Knives Out, Invisible Man) where female protagonists achieve catharsis and satisfaction and as an extension, so do the audience watching!
i think midsommar is an example for me of a movie that is NOT good for her Her friends all got brutally murdered, she was groomed into joining a violent and white supremacist cult, her boyfriend was SA'd and then due to the cult manipulating her she chose to burn him alive, yeah he was kinda a dick but the crime does not fit the punishment. idk just doesnt seem very cathartic ig
you copied this straight from tumblr, i remember one person making this post and then it being regurgitated word for word across the internet ever since 😭 its a horror movie, its not supposed to be an actual sweet and happy ending lol
they weren't her friends, they didn't like her and didn't want her to come but the cult friend saw opportunity in her vulnerability so insisted on inviting her. sure its not good for her because shes in a cult now but the rest of it nah
@@katierasburn9571 yeah they were shit friends and i get why arie aster did it, my problem is how viewers say their murders and r/pes are deserved because they were bad friends
hard agree lmao being manipulated into a literal cult is just going from on unhealthy realtionship to another. no real catharsis or victory for dani in the end
In my opinion, Ellie was wrong but not about her visions. She actually was seeing pieces of the past, and a few actually did believe her, she just didn't have the full picture. Her issue was being a young naive girl who idolized 70s London, specifically because she didn't know/comprehend the grime under all that glitz. That's where Sandy comes in. As someone who likes ghost stories, I thought it a fun twist that the haunting was residual of Sandy's trauma rather than her actual spirit. However, we didn't follow Sandy's trafficking story (and many others, considering all the girls being pimped around her) just so we would feel sorry for the men profiting. The narrative firmly considered them abusers who were punished for victimizing women. I thought that was an interesting twist in itself, since there are movies where the spooky ghosts actually turn out to be sympathetic. Not here! Even in death those men felt entitled to Ellie; skulking around her, grabbing her body, and even restraining her on the bed to intimidate her into what they wanted. Ellie saw them for what they were, which is exactly why she declined to help them and even agreed they deserved what they got. It is kinda "good for her" in that we can take a bit of delight in knowing Sandy got revenge and lived a long, seemingly quiet life after the murders (which we support for the Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss behavior it is). But Sandy is portrayed as the victim, even after the systematic abuse twisted her into someone who protects herself at ANY cost. She's still the woman who has strict rules about men inside her home, who worried about John hurting Ellie, who thought a painless death was a mercy to the young girl, and especially the woman who "didn't want any of this." She's twisted but, unlike the dead men, she's painted as someone who acts out of preservation rather than privilege.
The satisfaction I feel seeing people talk about this movie is immeasurable. I've been a Edgar Wright fan for most of my life at this point, I even went to a special screening with him in attendance while he was filming Scott Pilgrim, but I think we all need to admit he may have peaked with Hot Fuzz. I really hated the extended running around London somehow not getting hit by cars sequences that, while contributing to That Spooky 60's Vibe, could have been better spent doing almost anything else. I also disliked how it was both very true to the experience of being an awkward sheltered teen going to Uni in the big city, it was also very removed in a way that felt out of touch. It gave this strange dissonant feeling of being written by people removed from both sides of the time divide; they didn't experience the 60's or the 2010's as young people, let alone as pretty girls with a passion for fashion and performance, and as a result they have no clue how to relate to the both of them beyond relatively shallow modern post Me Too moralizing. The whole movie is uncomfortable in a way I don't think was intended and ends up being a distraction for the entire run time. While Wright and Co deploy his usual meticulous attention to background details, music and editing it doesn't land as gritty fantasy or heightened reality. Like you said, it leaves a lot of questions on the table in a way that feels sloppy instead of mysterious, at odds with Wright's style at it's Peak which feels very tight and well considered. Why not have Sandy feel empowered by the murder? Taking lives, making these men so insignificant as to be mere offhand mentions in the news, not even front page. Knowing that they must have been vile, low creatures that their deaths go unremarked and she grows into a monstrous man-eater. Sandy only doing things because of her being a poor, victimized sex worker feels incredibly trite, stale, rickety, it lacks flavour. Jack is her first kill if I remember correctly, and if she hates hooking so much why does she keep going back after her pimp died? Wouldn't her returning as a free agent EXTREMELY suspicious to the London underground sex entertainment scene who all knew and apparently were pals with Jack? Why not reveal that Lindsay then became her pimp and retroactively justify his otherwise random, tragic death, make it ACAB and explain why he came off as so effing sinister besides DuMb WiTtLe GiRl PaRaNoId aBoUt MeN? Why did Ellie have the vision of Jack killing Sandy when the opposite was true? Why was it a pure fantasy that one time? If it was Jack's undead rage forcing the fantasy to the surface then why didn't the other no-name brand Johns also send visions of Sandy's death? Why only Young Sandy? They've been hanging out for decades, presumably watching her round the house or at least the room they occupied, why do they not hint at her modern counterpart? Why did we need an over the top out of touch Mean Girls Devil Wears Prada style Fashion Bully but for the Euphoria generation purposely drugging her schoolmate in front of dozens of witnesses (which is high key illegal and could get her expelled at the least) instead of it being an accidental drugging and general social awkwardness being what pushes her out of her dorm and into escapist 60's dream sequences, why does it have to be some jealous posh girlie who somehow doesn't press charges over almost being stabbed??? I could keep going honestly, like don't even get me started on how John was treated (just looked it up he doesn't even appear in the top cast list???). Though as a final aside, as a fashion girlie myself who has helped out and even walked in Uni fashion shows I think Modern Gurls' was right saying that Ellie's designs are extremely Meh and did nothing to deserve wild applause or special attention from the teacher after she scrapped Sandy's Iconic gown. The materials, silhouettes, and styling was all extremely basic so all the compliments at the end came off as patronizing to me? Like "WOW this is AMAZING for someone who was ALMOST GUTTED LIKE A FISH BY A SERIAL KILLER, we're SO IMPRESSED YOU SURVIVED TO SEW ANYTHING AT ALL instead of DYING IN A FIRE and NO we're NOT going to talk about or even look at John WHO REALLY ALMOST DIED, or his collection at all!! ELLIE ONLY" What about instead she had made the same dresses from fabric printed with news clippings from Sandy's spree that she helped reveal to the public, maybe even splattered with what looks like dried blood, tying in the opening sequence outfit but changing it's shape to reflect Ellie's experiences and matured understanding of past glamour? Profs are always trying to get their students to put more of their lives and experiences and ESPECIALLY their trauma into their work, so I feel like teachers and audiences would EAT THAT SHIT UP at an end of year show, but not the whatever that cupcake dress business she did ended up showing was. Soundtrack still slapped though the king does not miss in this one way 10/10 as ever.
Thank you for articulating why I didn't love this movie as much as I wanted to! It was so rushed at the end and felt invalidating to the solidarity that the film spent building between the two women.
I felt like the movie said fuck you to the men who assaulted sandy…they said, yeah she did murder them but they deserved it…i don’t feel like they were saying the men were victims anymore than just stating they were murdered. also lindsay was a cop who knew about the sex crimes and did nothing about it so Ellie wasn’t too far off and he deserved to die too! i just didn’t feel as much catharsis cause I’ve been a victim of SA and it was an upsetting movie for me but I did appreciate that Ellie seemed to have all the same reactions that I would have…Sandy is Anya who I’m in love with so her wanting to be like her makes sense, her wanting to know more makes sense, her being haunted and confusing dreams and reality makes me think of PTSD and feeling like there’s no escape from what you’ve experienced, and then her finding out Sandy killed them and never once being upset with her, just saying she was sorry it all happened and she understood why she did it
It's a movie. You are not a bad person for enjoying violence displayed in it and these constant moral panics are getting more and more annoying and pointless.
THANK YOU!!!!! god i find the hot takes trying to shame people for thinking a violent and scary “happy” ending in a HORROR movie is weird and needs to be moralized. its especially annoying when peoole try to make it a white woman thing (saying this as a woc) and make those silly little arguments like “uwu this is why white women irl are bad because they enjoy this fictional movie where a white woman is evil” like give me a break
Perhaps the right ending for this story would’ve been to have the main girl go seek out the girl’s murderer (who is not died in this version) and kill him, finally enacting justice for a forgotten victim. It’s kind of weird to frame your story through the lens of this victim and then turn them into a plot twist villain at the 11th hour.
I loved Last Night In Soho. One of the most memorable movies I watched this year. I have trouble rooting for Sandy AND the men she killed because both were morally wrong. I also watched and read Gone Girl for the first time, and though just as memorable as LNIS, I HATED it because she was just a vindictive bitter woman who couldn't ask for a divorce... and I had trouble saying "yay Amy! Good for her!". Maybe I misread LNIS but I don't feel like I was supposed to feel sorry for either of them. Given the culture around GG, I FELT like I was supposed to like, root for, and emulate Amy.
That's always been the issue I had with how GG has been received. I love Gillian Flynn as a writer and I took Gone Girl to be a subversive read where at the end both Nick and Amy are awful people who "deserve" each other, and we're led to initially be on Amy's side, but we're trick by our own expectations from how women in thriller genre's usually are But the general culture around Gone Girl has kinda showed me some people don't...get that... like I know "good for her" is ironic but I've seen too many people take the "Cool Girl" speech at face value
I definitely agree about your take on ready or not - I was unironically rooting for the protagonist the whole time. I think it's hard for some film-makers to grasp the nuance of "good for her." Gone Girl is a great example. I hated Amy's narcissism, even her attachment to her (in my opinion) always schlub husband who she sacrificed so much for, but I definitely resonated with the "Cool Girl" speech. That speech is what made me read the book and watch the movie. The underlying narrative that all women face this nuanced machine of actions, perceptions, and ideals to a certain extent, that's where the catharsis comes from. I hope future movies don't lose the actual anchor that drives these narratives forward. I also felt bad about not liking last night in soho since Hot Fuzz is one of my favorite movies of all time -_-
The way you absolutely nailed how I have felt about this movie but haven't been able to put it into words. I think this is my new favorite video of yours.
so for some reason two weeks ago I finally knocked last night in soho off my watchlist (now I can’t for the life of me remember WHAT prompted me to finally watch it but it was smth on social media for sure), and I saw this video tonight and wanted to watch it bc I recognized the movie, but you mentioned 3 movies in your spoiler warning that I had yet to watch that I didn’t want to get spoiled on, but I also wanted to watch this video, so I just spent the last few hours binging those movies just so I could watch this video. after the fact I see you barely mentioned them in your video, but I got to knock off 3 videos from my watchlist, so win/win - your impact🥂
I kinda wanted this video to be longer lol, this is a topic that interests me and this was also the first time I got full context for the term "gaslighting"
I love Last Night in Soho, and I was interested in your opinion on it. You brought up some very interesting thoughts to go through. After watching it, I still stand by that the film, including its ending, fully works for me, but I understand your points. I didn't see the ending as ''she was paranoid and crazy after all''. Ellie was right about crimes being committed. Only not in the same manner she originally thought. Sandy was a victim. Violence against women is real. Violent actions committed by those men are what has brought them to their death. Has Sandy crossed the line by continuing to kill instead of going out of business as soon as her pimp was dead? Perhaps. It's the grey nuances this film does so well in my opinion. Sandy is not the perfect survivor to root for, but she is a survivor nonetheless, and there is validity in some of her actions. Also, I want to genuinely express my surprise that Amy Dunne is considered to be an ''antihero'' in so many conversations. I've seen most of the films you listed. In every other case, said woman either acted in self-defense or direct revenge of those who harmed her. While some of their actions might have been excessive, every one of them is perfectly understandable, and comes out of self-preservation. Amy is a sadist. Sure, we can argue that her faking her own death is a direct response to her husband's infidelity, but the way she handles it is way too cold and cruel. His infidelity is what triggered that specific action, but the coldness and self-centered point of view was already inside of her. She was the golden girl everyone loved. She was untouchable. She went the distance to teach her husband a lesson, not to free herself from him. She killed someone in the process, and didn't blink twice. While the violence depicted in films like Last Night in Soho, Promising Young Woman, Ready or Not, The Invisible Man, ect. is specifically against women (and in statistics, that kind of violence most often is), the morals is universal. I can argue that anyone, regardless of gender and sexual orientation can sympathize with Cassie, Grace, Cecilia, or even Sandy. Even identify with them in given situations. On the other hand, Amy doesn't fit the bill. For a moment, let's imagine a privileged man, a best-selling author, finding out that his wife is unfaithful, and as a response, faking his own abduction and sexual assault, letting her be accused of it, killing another woman whom he manipulates, and then getting his ''happy ending'' by blackmailing her to stay with him forever, and impregnating his surogat accomplice with her baby. I don't think that a single person would stand by his side. Even the book's author Gillian Flynn says that she envisioned Amy as a villain. Of course, her husband is bad too, but she is much worse. In any case, sorry for the long post, but it's such an interesting subject and I had a lot to say. Thanks for the video. :)
I saw Last Night in Soho at the movies when it first came out because I'm a massive Edgar Wright fan and I love me some Anya Taylor-Joy. I remember the moment it started to lose me: when Ellie is running around tripping balls and having a full blown panic attack dragged. Also, Thomasin and Anya have great chemistry, I really thought Ellie had a thing for Sandie so I was very weirded out when she ended up with John especially when she's barely shown any interest in him.
i've missed you! so glad your video was recommended to me! saw last night in soho in greenwich last year (the irony) and loved it, but did feel like it was a tad cheesy & didn't need some of the dramatic visual pieces in the last bit of the movie, but all in all loved Ellie's character & the story of Sandy. But it just felt slightly off at the end, like there was too few or too many ingredients in it! I'm so here for Matt Smith dance scenes though, will forever love him in anything! And Edgar Wright, totally love his filmmaking, considering this is first venture into the horror genre I was quite pleased with it, but I'm more looking forward to seeing what he tries next.
I remember leaving the theather feeling like a devil's advocate had just told me a two and half hour story, I thought the ending was very "see! women are as bad if not more than men"
See, for me it matters less whether I feel the lady has actually transgressed in some way, than whether I actually feel like the end state is the kind of triumph that... well, would make me say "good for her". [Midsommar spoilers ahead] Like, Midsommar REALLY doesn't count for me, because ok, your terrible ex is dead, but so are all of your other friends, except for one guy who seems nice but has been very transparently manipulating you while you were at your most vulnerable. You have no remaining support network, unless we count the fascist death cult who you are now at the mercy of. I DO NOT feel "good for her" at this ending. Same for Promising Young Woman, though I can see that one being more up for debate.
@@xolotte haven't seen it, though I could see that one being complicated in the same way Last Night in Soho is. Anytime you've got two women who at the outset are framed sympathetically, writers and directors seem to fall into this trap of "evil empowerment vs acceptable empowerment", and tbh I personally really hate that.
@@CatHasOpinions734 Interesting! I would reccomend checking it out if you are interested in the movie. A lot of people on the internet seem to look at it as an underrated masterpiece, which I don't think is accurate, but it's still a worthwhile movie and in my opinion it subverts those themes (although I can see how someone might disagree with md on that)
While I agree that the ending is not good, I don't think the twist suddenly changed the message. The men aren't suddenly victims, and Eloise recognizes this. While they are begging for help for her to call the cops, she decides that no, they don't deserve her help. They might've been victims of murder but they were also agents of sexual violence. I think the final message is that neither them or Sandy are fully without blame, and while Sandy's crimes might be worse because she acts in a premeditated way, she is only driven to that due to the constant abuse by men she's had to suffer.
Honestly, I kinda disagree with the take that the film dismissed male violence, I think there is a reason why at the end Eloise says that Ms. Collins is right and she refuses to avenge the 'victims'. I think Eloise understood that unlike her, Sandie was all alone and had to become something horrible in order to survive under patriarchy. The problem at least for me, it is that to me the movie said that the only real answer to male violence is female violence, instead of destroying the ways the system perpetuates violence. That is why the Cop character becomes so messt to me, as his purpose in the story is not very clear. He could be a read that police is also a perpetrator of male violence since he was kinda of sketchy since the start and he seems to have a 'Madona-Wh*re complex' of sorts, but altogether his place in the story feels very underbacked outside the 'he isn't actually jack' plotwist.
I think there may have been something powerful in a less bombastic ending. Like Ellie finding out that Sandie killed only Jack and Ellie choosing to keep her secret. Idk like a soft admittance that she did what she had to to survive and managed to live on.
hmmmmmmm i see what you're saying and it does make me look at the movie in a new angle. i do still really like the movie, though. but maybe it's more b/c of the film craft and less the story craft
Only 5 minutes in, but please tell me everyone else had a Get Out moment when John was in Ellie’s bedroom. Dude, run for the hills and do not get got when a white girl is screaming in the middle of the night and landlady seems like a maim first ask second type of rescuer. Also, the final pink dress Ellie presents in the fashion show is so disappointing. Like I almost wish the mean girl reported Ellie for the attempts in the library if this was the final showcase she gave.
I think there could have been a way to make a twist like this work. (disclaimer: havent seen the movie just having some thoughts) So Sandie is alive and still in this house. And she even committed the murders! But shes not a serial killer, and killing these people who harmed her turned her into a recluse and a shell of herself. And Ellie figures out that Sandie is alive and talks about Sandie's life as she saw it, maybe accidentally leading to some justice for her, maybe leading to her going to jail. I think an important aspect to the 'not romanticizing the past' and the 'im not crazy' narrative is to point out the consequences of living in this bygone era and being told that you're crazy and believing it. I think they could have shown that in a Sandie who is traumatized but still alive.
I've never been the type to leave comments on videos, or likes for that matter. But, since I've been watching your videos for years now i wanted to share an opinion on these last videos you're making. First, i think you did a good job explaining and presenting your information all while making it fun to watch, this comment is in no way shape or form a hateful critique of your hard work. However, there's an issue i noticed with the last videos you've made. It's that you always end it abruptly somehow. You don't leave enough time for us (viewers or listeners) to catch up to your conclusion. And sometimes, like this video, it feels like i didn't get to a conclusion at all. Upon rewatch i can barely grasp what you presented as a conclusion, and i feel robbed of my time. In any case, i do love your videos and I will continue to watch you, it's just something that i felt was needed to be said.
Was thinking the same thing. I'm actually rewatching this video because I couldn't remember the conclusion she came to. I enjoy her videos though, but I do agree with you
Would American Mary be a "good for her" movie. I does have exploitation and abuse followed by revenge elements. Basically a med student is abused by her teacher. She needs money so she finds work as a surgeon and sometimes dancer at a sleazy club while occasionally torturing sketchy men. There are a lot of body modification and bdsm scenes in the movie but I'm not sure how that relates to the revenge plot
You mentioned Thoroughbreds and I would love to hear you talk about movies about female friendships and jealousy in that vein. I call them "You're Just Like Me" movies (other examples include Do Revenge, Passing, and Birds of Paradise) and some of them also have homoerotic subtext
Why do you think that the twist in "Last Night in Soho" minimizes or justifies the actions of the men who abused Sandy? Consider that we are able to accept the idea that Sandy can have suffering abuse, is also a serial killer, and that the two are connected. Why is it then that when we discover that all of the ghosts of the murdered johns were murdered, suddenly the film is deliberately or unintentionally excusing their conduct. We can accept the idea that there is some moral complexity to Sandy's character but not these men? The killing of Jack was self defense, but, according to the movie, the others were not. They were murdered because Sandy had been hurt by some men (but one in particular), and chose to take it out on all men. The fact these men were killed does not justify their murder, but also their murder doesn't make patronizing a prostitute OK, and nothing in the movie itself indicates that it does. While Jack was pimping Sandy, what she had to do, she was forced to do. However, after jack was gone, Sandy could have moved away to somewhere where nobody knew her, or started a business in the area (such as a boarding house, for example). Instead, she chose to pretend to be a prostitute in order to get these men to a place where she could kill them. Her character is morally complex because she is not doing this because she is just evil, but rather her having been victimized explains her motive for going on to be a serial killer, and it allows us to empathize with her while being repelled by her actions. Yet, when it comes to all the men she killed, you do not do the same thing. Instead, you claimed that the movie makes them out to be only victims, when it does nothing of the sort. What it does do is help us think about Sandy's character a bit more. Accepting that these guys were sleazy, does that justify them being killed? And if getting murdered is a disproportionate punishment for wanting to buy sex, why do we still emphasize with Sandy? The answer, of course, is that movie has us experienced the plot through Sandy's (or at least Eloise's) eyes, and and we have been witness to the abuse she had suffered. Prior to the end, we have only seen her victims in a negative light, so the turnaround gives us a reason to care about said victimization. That's it; I think you are reading misogyny into the film where it is unwarranted.
I don''t see how 'The witch' fits into this idea. The main character acts in self defense from her mother and once left alone in the wilderness is seduced into the coven. There's no horrible actions on her part. Not trying to argue against your point I just don't think the specific film fits into what you're saying.
I agree catharsis is the most important aspect of the good for her genre, though in my opinion the protagonist also has to end the film in a stronger position than they started through their own agency. I don't they need to do acts of wrongdoing to achieve that end, just acts that are unexpected of their character. So I don't think Midsommar or Gone Girl really fit for me, because both characters in the end have become trapped. Also Dani is brainwashed by a cult lol. In Knives Out, Marta no longer allowing the rich white family keep her under their thumb counts. In Jennifer's Body, Needy freeing herself from intoxicating hold Jennifer has on her counts. Last Night in Soho didn't feel cathartic to me, and while the twist was fun it ultimately ended pretty weakly. I don't even know if I'd consider it part of the genre because it made such little impression on me.
The mirror scenes, besides being cool, I think definitely show the contrast between broken and pure Sandie, Anya and Thomasin respectively. It explains a lot of the imagery and reflections though not sure if this is an oversight of interpereting the film as Sandie bringing this on herself. We know this is not what the film is trying to say, the film literally agrees with Sandie not wanting any of this, though the fact that they had Thomasin representing pure Sandie just for the husk of Sandie to try and murder her literally recalls the idea of "Alex killed Sandie" or her not getting help from the cop. Beautiful film, beautiful soundtrack and great acting, honestly a comfort horror for me, but you can't deny these issues which lead to misinterpretation. Heck, a lot of men thought this was a movie calling the murder of men reasonable and here we are noticing that they did not give Sandie a satisfactory ending; they did not balance the message of this film well haha.
I watched the sponsor part the video and I noticed(as I’m sure others did as well) the ANTM (America’s Next Top Model) theme music and I thought I would LOVE to hear your analysis of the show please with cherries on top! 😊
Haven't seen LNIS yet so I'm devastated not to be able to watch the video yet, but I'm amused this video has come out so close to Rowan Ellis' one on the same topic. There I was having no idea about the "good for her" universe, and now I've got y'all to educate me. Thanks muchly for that.
el vídeo es bueno pero la conclusión es tan estupida que me tuve que repetir el video pasar saber si realmente era obvio llegar a la conclusión y la verdad tanto last nigth in soho como este video no sabían como cerrar todo y sacaron lo primero que alguien con ilimitado acceso a internet de niños lesdijo
This is one of your best videos, imo! i've been struggling for a while to describe why i enjoy "good for her" narratives and why i've been so let down by recent twists on the genre, and i think you've spelled it out really well here.
Just because you say ‘good for her’ about a female character, doesn’t mean it’s a good for her film. The character needs to have doesn’t something wrong maybe be a criminal. You saying good for her needs to feel slightly wrong but also right. I recommend looking into it more I didn’t quite explain it fully but it’s along those lines
![NOSFERATU - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters December 25](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nulvWqYUM8k/mqdefault.jpg)
Use my GlassesUSA links for an exclusive offer on your first frames!
Muse Geso: glassesusa.me/juliac_MuseGeso
Amelia E. Demi: glassesusa.me/juliac_AmeliaEDemi
Eyeglasses: glassesusa.me/juliac_Eyeglasses
Sunglasses: glassesusa.me/juliac_Sunglasses
i find it weird that “knives out” manages to sneak into a lot of these “good for her” lists. like yeah, obviously good for her, because she literally did nothing wrong. she was literally being framed for murder and inherited the dead guy’s beautiful mansion and all of his money because she was the only person in his life that showed him real kindness. she doesn’t show sympathy to the family at the end because they didn’t deserve it. so yeah, “good for her,” but not in the ironic way like gone girl or midsommar.
i originally included knives out in the section about self-defense not counting, but i felt like it didn’t fit because she doesn’t even do anything “wrong” self-defensively. her worst offense is… lying to the police??
huh, I kinda disagree with you there. I feel like Knives Out is a purer 'good for her" movie because we as the audience are sincerely rooting. The ending has that satisfying moment with Marta holding the 'my house my rules' mug. While Midsommar and Gone Girl feel muddled deviations of the genre because of that irony. The latter lack that pure satisfaction for me in terms of cheering the protagonist on.
@@booksvsmovies but isn't that just a likeable female protagonist succeeding? That's hardly specific to the "good for her" theme as described in the video, that's literally good for her, divorced from the meme
That’s kind of how I feel about The Witch and Midsommar too when I see it end up on lists - like yes, Good For Her that she survives and finds, uh, “family”, but all the characters did was endure and survive by not being awful people. So idk, maybe it’s a misinterpretation, or maybe there’s an unspoken agreement that they fall under an umbrella of Good For Her. I’m still kinda undecided.
@@lydialuton4402 I guess my interpretation of good for her doesn't require the protagonist to be morally dubious so I differ from Julia in my definition. A better example could be Ex Machina where Ava leaves both Nathan, her abuser, and Caleb, the "nice guy" who technically didn't do anything wrong, for dead.
But Ava to me is a harder protagonist to root for because she also killed her fellow robot sex slaves who were definitely treated worse than her (and who just so happened to be women of colour) on her path to freedom.
The cinematography in "Last Night in Soho" was gorgeous, particularly when Ellie first arrived in the past. However, while I liked John, Ellie's love interest, he seemed bland, and there wasn't much to his character aside from "Not Being a dick."
he was definitely under-written!
He was the Black Saviour trope
TRINA WHY ARE YOU EVERYWHERE. ITS DRIVING ME INSANE. ARE WE THE SAME PERSON? ALMOST EVERY VIDEO I CLICK ON- YOU ARE THERE.
@@lunalovegood8931 Haha, great minds certainly think alike, right?! I adore Luna, by the way, she's my favourite Harry Potter character by far! 💖🤓
The bar may be on the floor, but at least he didn't trip ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When my brother and I went to see it I got less of a "The men were the real victims" vibe and more of "You think that you don't fit in today and that things were better in the past, but you don't know what it took to survive." I saw the final confrontation as being less about the "twist" and more about confronting the hardships of the past and their impact, and using that to navigate the present. As seen by Eloise thriving by the end-of-year fashion show. In confronting the reality of her escapist fantasies, she was able to thrive in her present reality. (The inciting incident for the main plot is an unwillingness to engage with her contemporaries).
I feel like this is why John is written as such a straightforward and "nice" character. He contrasts the glamor & allure of Jack leading down a path of danger.
I'm very thankful you made a video about this movie because I like talking about it and I don't know many people who saw it lol.
thank you for disagreeing so politely!
this is why i do think the movie comes off better if you’re moreso thinking about through the lens of past verses present than “good her her”ness
same, i also liked the twist of sandy still being alive, but being still stuck in the house she says her soul died in
I agree, I interpreted the ghosts only as a reminder of the horrible things that happened to Sandie, just in two separate ways: For Ellie, who only knows them as men who solicited Sandie, they grab her and chase her. When Sandie sees them, she sees all the men in the context of having murdered them, because killing a hundred men, even if they deserved it, has haunted her.
@@abbywolffe4114 I really like the way you put things here. victims tend to feel a sort of guilt with how they handled their situation even if their actions were justified. it makes me think of the scene in AHS season 2 where Lana is doing the reading of her book at the library and she has visions of her abuser and late ex girlfriend standing up to guilt her for how she chose to tell her own story
This is SUCH a cohesive read on my favorite movie, and I think this is now (so far!) my favorite video of yours. Super insightful and really scratched that itch of “this isn’t as good as it could have been” that I get every time I watch Last Night In SoHo. Also, John will ALWAYS deserve better than just being Debra Babydriver 2.0 (the stock Supportive Love Interest™️). There could’ve been some interesting contrast between him being the embodiment of Not All Men (Honorific)- supporting and believing Ellie, listening and helping her while not deciding what’s best for her- and who Lindsay turned out to be as a Not All Men (Derogatory) by being condescending and judgmental to Sandie (offering superficial help while basically saying it was her fault she got into trouble, then talking SUPER shittily about her to Ellie). Missed opportunity on the part of the writers not to contrast those two characters imo!
Great video! I think I agree with you about catharsis being the most important part of the nebulous 'good for her' genre. I had similar conflicting feelings about Last Night in Soho, but wasn't able to quite put my feelings into words when I first saw it. I think you broke down the ending and the sort of conflicted messaging that comes through very well.
i'm glad you think so!
I’m so disappointed that last night in soho completely disregarded how powerful and empathetic of an experience it is to have a young woman reach out and so desperately want to protect and comfort another woman suffering from traumatic experiences. There is so much raw emotional power in compassion and care and they could have had such an empowering and cathartic (not to mention visual stunning) movie. If only they didn’t overcomplicate things and try and outsmart the audience. You think they would have learned from game of thrones season 8 that twist villains suck if they aren’t properly built up.
This is a great companion peice to rowan ellis's video "rage and revenge: the birth of a new genre", and y'all are both truly underated creators
I personally viewed the ending in a completely different way and it's one of my favorite movies ever now. i didn't see it as 'women are just as bad as men'' i saw it as a way of explaining how horrible the industry is especially hollywood, ellie and sandie both have this dream to make it big with their passions and sadly some people (like sandie) see the horrible side of show business and being taken advantage of. also sandie being stuck in the house after killing the men who abused her and her 'soul dying' to me felt like a way of saying even after all of that the trauma is still going to be there.
this is rly interesting bc on my first watch i rly enjoyed last night in soho (& especially anya taylor joy's performance) but i did absolutely miss the catharsis i get from movies like jennifer's body's final scene...great video julia i love the way you anyalyze horror!!!
I just watched Last Night In Soho and loved it (even with the weird, dissonant ending) - one detail that I DID love however is how when Ellie first meets with Ms. Collins about the room, the lady mentions how people “have a habit of leaving in the middle of the night suddenly”. I loved that kernel of doubt helped by the fact that Ellie’s visions are truthful. I love that you took the time to make a video on the subject too bc Good For Her movies have been a recent obsession lol
I agree. I think part of the problem is the cognitive dissonance with the ending. The first two thirds of the movie were about women supporting each other. So when the twist happens, it comes across as jarring, because there was zero build up to it. Personally, I would've liked it a lot more if it ended with Ellie bringing Sandy's killer to justice, so that it follows through on its original premise more.
Horse girl is an "am I crazy?" movie where the answer is ambiguous, but likely "yes"
omg, I'm watching this right after Rowan Ellis's good for her analysis it makes such a good double feature. Gone Girl and Midsommar are fascinating movies to analyze in the 'good for her' context of catharsis. I argue that they both don't quite fit the label because their endings don't produce the same catharsis something like Ex-Machina does. For me, Gone Girl's ending is cathartic not because Amy "won" but because I know Amy, while temporarily victorious, is going to be miserable for the rest of her life. Something that feels fitting for a women that level of deranged
Midsommar isn't cathartic in a "good for her" way to me because the movie is so clearly tragic. The film represents just how easily cults can indoctrinate emotionally vulnerable people by isolating them from the rest of the world and seemingly giving them what they "need" at the expense of freedom and individuality. The film is great but not necessarily cathartic, it's horrific.
i haven’t watched rowan’s yet because i was working on this and i didn’t want to get in my head or overly inspired, but i’ve got to get on that
I think Midsommar is cathartic in the classical sense of the word, not the power fantasy sense of the word. Tragedy has roots as a religious ritual in ancient greece where (iirc) audiences could experience all these negative emotions by proxy, get them out of their system and emerge unscathed. I didn't leave the cinema feeling upset the first time I saw it: I honestly felt cleansed. It was cathartic to see my own insecurities projected onto the big screen, like how poking a bruise is cathartic.
I also think it's equally critical of an uncaring side of modern society, which is what leaves Dani isolated and vulnerable to the cult and it's a shame you don't see that aspect talked about as often. I see it as presenting two extremes: the cult on one side and a social group who think Dani asking for support from her long term boyfriend during an emergency is "abusive" on the other. What I took from it is that Ari Aster took the things Dani most needed (empathy & community) and turned them into a hideous, monkey's paw exaggeration of themselves. But I think a lot of people resonate strongly with that need for empathy, even if Dani's solution to the problem is ultimately one that consumes her.
I hadn't thought of that, but ''Good for her'' is a great way to describe this sort of films (one of the reasons I love Midsommar so much). I hope it becomes a fully fledged genre.
Is midsommar really a good for her movie though? The only 'catharsis' that Dani's experiencing is due to her escape from an abusive romantic relationship and in a way she punishes her boyfriend for the way he's treated her. But isn't joining a cult a start to a whole new level of abusive relationships? Cults recruit emotionaly vulnerable people and manipulate them into joining them, their whole system is based on abusive relationships• so isn't Dani just a victim of a another, even more harmful relationship that is about to unfold?
If you think Midsommar Is a Good For Her movie... You Need to stay away from cults.
@@mariaefstratiou7427 Personally, I think the greatest thing about Midsommer is that it's both a "good for her" movie and a "girl you should run" movie (The Witch also fits into that category for me). Both readings are valid and I would even say, they are both intentional.
Midsommer is the story of Dani and Christian. They are in a very toxic relationship because Christian is an emotionally abusive boyfriend and a gaslighter. He is incapable of giving Dani the emotional support she needs and makes things worse for her. The whole movie is a metaphor for Dani meeting a new community which supports her and gives her the strength to finally get rid of her terrible boyfriend. The whole thing is obviously over the top because it is a horror movie but ultimately, it's a movie about a woman escaping an abusive relationship, with the catharsis of her abusive boyfriend suffering a terrible death. It's a "good for her" movie.
Midsommer is also the story of Dani, a woman who just went through the horrifying trauma of losing her entire family. Her boyfriend is neglectful and emotionally abusive so she is going through this basically alone. When she arrives in the Harga, they use this emotional vulnerability as a way to manipulate her into joining the cult. At the end, she is so fully indoctrinated that she even decides to be complicit in the murder of her terrible boyfriend who still didn't deserve such a fate. And she is so far gone that she " has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane" (quoting the script here). It's a "girl you should run" movie.
The greatest thing about this ending is that you feel the catharsis but also, the catharsis feels wrong and it's because those two interpretations coexist on different levels. It creates a cognitive dissonance and you might not be able to fully explain how but people felt it, that's why the ending is so divisive. And I think it's 100% intentional, as evidenced by the ending of the screenplay, which I will quote again because really, it says all of what I just said better than I ever could :
"A SMILE finally breaks onto Dani’s face. She has surrendered to a joy known only by the insane. She has lost herself completely, and she is finally free. It is horrible and it is beautiful."
@@marieb9105 thank you for your insight! It's incredibly nuanced and when put like that I think I agree with you
Based on the joke this originated from, I'd say a "Good for her" movie can encompass a pyrrhic victory over others.
It's catharsis, but at what cost? A mother drowning herself in a lake is, "good for her", but she still drowns. At least this seems like good criteria for the sub-genre imo.
I’m really glad you discussed this film. It left me feeling wrongfooted too. At the end I just ended up wondering what the point was. Like why tell this story? There’s a girl in the 60s who was exploited and a girl in the 2010s who has visions of her, except not all of those visions are accurate, and in the end her visions don’t actually have any relevancy to the plot if you break down the actual events of the film. So what was Ellie’s arc?
Great video, thank you for being the first person to talk about Gaslight and actually explain how gaslights work, that part of the plot summary never made sense to me lol
Rowan Ellis just put out a great video about Good For Her movies that goes really in depth on the feminism and implications of the “genre.” If you like this one from Julia I think you’ll really enjoy Rowan’s!
while I underatand the appeal and importance of "daughters of gaslight" movies, sometimes I wish there was more room for a thriller where the woman *is* "crazy." because, y'know, that happens in real life sometimes, and a sympathetic portrayal of a schizophrenic horror protagonist would be really cool.
this is what I actually expected from Last Night in Soho, particularly because it had been established Ellie's mom "saw things" as well. The fact she almost murdered one of her classmates and it is never brought up again, leading to a happy ending in which she has her own designs on a runway, kind of felt clumsy for me too. I mean, am I supposed to believe she just told EVERYONE the real story about the ghosts and Sandie and they all believed her and let it go without concerns? idk
Am I right in assuming the title cards are inspired by HIMYM's playbook or am I delusional
honestly? i didn’t intend for that, but i love himym so let’s go with it
@@juliacudney do you think you’ll ever make a HIMYM video essay or is that a little outside your niche lol
Omg I only just watched Last Night in Soho and was so conflicted, I'm glad you made this because you put why I didn't like the ending into words!
I don't find Gone Girl to be a "good for her" film. Amy spends the movie complaining about her husband not being the person she thought he was even though she herself faked who she was to get him to marry her. To me she is a bit of a delusional character that is so focused on herself that she doesn't see that her husband is not happy with his life anymore. He realizes that their whole relationship has been fake from the beginning after everything that has happened and in the end is forced to stay. Amy doesn't care about the real world, she only cares about the fake world she created for herself in her mind and has no problem trapping her husband in order to keep it. She is doing exactly what she accuses her parents of when it comes to the children's books that they write about the fake version of her that they made up for themselves.
Great analysis. I definitely think it would've been a better ending if Ellie - via intervening as she did - was able to prevent Sandy from being brutalized and escape safely to a new life. THEN the twist of her being her current/future land lady would've felt more satisfying. Maybe she was able to communicate with her as a little voice inside and says something that makes older lady Sandy chuckle and recall how 'when I was younger things got very.....terrifying for a long while but somehow I was able to get out of it. A little voice and a presence helping me. I don't know what it was but I knew it would want me to be that for other women and here I am now, helping where I can' or something and Ellie gets the satisfaction of knowing her efforts weren't in vain but perhaps doesn't reveal herself.
I really liked Last night in soho
Great analysis! I started to sour on Last Night in Soho around the 2nd act, when it was revealed that Jack was sex-trafficking Sandy, because I'm tired of movies using sexual exploitation simply to set a dark and gritty tone. I think if the movie had ended the way you describe, with Ellie getting justice for Sandy's murder, the movie could have said something about the ways women (and sex workers in particular) are treated by society, and how their lives are overlooked--but as is, it's just used as a justification for a girlboss serial killer. It frustrates me because I feel that movies that portray sexual trafficking without saying anything interesting about it just further stigmatization of sex work, sending the message that ALL sex work is exploitative and all women involved in it are merely victims.
I noticed midsommar in the thumbnail as well as mentioned in the video a representation of a "good for her" movie. While the video isn't about this movie specifically, personally i'd just like to voice my thoughts on why midsommar is not a "good for her" movie, even if this is a bit off topic.
I'd say a female protagonist being groomed into a "traditional", nazi, white supremacist cult which strives on racism, eugenics is not "good for her". exploiting the white female protagonist's yearn for family and acceptance in order to get her into the cult through the promise of comfort stemming from conformity and traditionalism is kinda supposed to show how easy it really is to fall into and become an active participant of a fascist regime as a white person, especially a white woman, and how dogma like this especially likes to go after said demographic.
The real horror of the movie is supposed to be how anyone can become a part of a cult, and how such systems - fascist regimes, cults, MLMs, etc etc, are especially good at grooming especially vulnerable individuals, especially ones who have been through trauma, not unlike the protagonist herself, and people who say that they'd never get caught up in a cult are just.. wrong.
The main horror aspect of this movie is especially terrifying when you look at the audience of the movie, who, alongside the protagonist, also got "groomed" into the nazi cult (and it is a nazi cult. The director confirmed it, the two black characters got immediately killed off by the cult intentionally, the eldest parties of the cult were executed, ie eugenics, one of the characters in a deleted scene were reading a book titled "nazi runes and how to recognize them" or something of the sort, and the cult itself is a village of white people living in a patriarchal traditional lifestyle), believing that becoming a part of it is a cathartic and "happy" ending for the character.
your conclusion hit the nail right on the head! it isn't subversive to leave a movie thinking the female protagonist made things up--thats just real life.
It's so interesting seeing the difference between Good For Her endings (Midsommar, Gone Girl) where a bittersweet 'victory' is achieved and sincere 'good for her' endings (Knives Out, Invisible Man) where female protagonists achieve catharsis and satisfaction and as an extension, so do the audience watching!
i think midsommar is an example for me of a movie that is NOT good for her
Her friends all got brutally murdered, she was groomed into joining a violent and white supremacist cult, her boyfriend was SA'd and then due to the cult manipulating her she chose to burn him alive, yeah he was kinda a dick but the crime does not fit the punishment. idk just doesnt seem very cathartic ig
you copied this straight from tumblr, i remember one person making this post and then it being regurgitated word for word across the internet ever since 😭
its a horror movie, its not supposed to be an actual sweet and happy ending lol
they weren't her friends, they didn't like her and didn't want her to come but the cult friend saw opportunity in her vulnerability so insisted on inviting her. sure its not good for her because shes in a cult now but the rest of it nah
@@amydunnediditnow i know, the problem is many people THINK its supposed to be a sweet happy ending, and babes never used tumblr
@@katierasburn9571 yeah they were shit friends and i get why arie aster did it, my problem is how viewers say their murders and r/pes are deserved because they were bad friends
hard agree lmao being manipulated into a literal cult is just going from on unhealthy realtionship to another. no real catharsis or victory for dani in the end
In my opinion, Ellie was wrong but not about her visions. She actually was seeing pieces of the past, and a few actually did believe her, she just didn't have the full picture. Her issue was being a young naive girl who idolized 70s London, specifically because she didn't know/comprehend the grime under all that glitz.
That's where Sandy comes in. As someone who likes ghost stories, I thought it a fun twist that the haunting was residual of Sandy's trauma rather than her actual spirit. However, we didn't follow Sandy's trafficking story (and many others, considering all the girls being pimped around her) just so we would feel sorry for the men profiting. The narrative firmly considered them abusers who were punished for victimizing women.
I thought that was an interesting twist in itself, since there are movies where the spooky ghosts actually turn out to be sympathetic. Not here! Even in death those men felt entitled to Ellie; skulking around her, grabbing her body, and even restraining her on the bed to intimidate her into what they wanted. Ellie saw them for what they were, which is exactly why she declined to help them and even agreed they deserved what they got.
It is kinda "good for her" in that we can take a bit of delight in knowing Sandy got revenge and lived a long, seemingly quiet life after the murders (which we support for the Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss behavior it is). But Sandy is portrayed as the victim, even after the systematic abuse twisted her into someone who protects herself at ANY cost. She's still the woman who has strict rules about men inside her home, who worried about John hurting Ellie, who thought a painless death was a mercy to the young girl, and especially the woman who "didn't want any of this." She's twisted but, unlike the dead men, she's painted as someone who acts out of preservation rather than privilege.
Carrie White is the literal definition of “good for her” horror
The satisfaction I feel seeing people talk about this movie is immeasurable. I've been a Edgar Wright fan for most of my life at this point, I even went to a special screening with him in attendance while he was filming Scott Pilgrim, but I think we all need to admit he may have peaked with Hot Fuzz.
I really hated the extended running around London somehow not getting hit by cars sequences that, while contributing to That Spooky 60's Vibe, could have been better spent doing almost anything else. I also disliked how it was both very true to the experience of being an awkward sheltered teen going to Uni in the big city, it was also very removed in a way that felt out of touch. It gave this strange dissonant feeling of being written by people removed from both sides of the time divide; they didn't experience the 60's or the 2010's as young people, let alone as pretty girls with a passion for fashion and performance, and as a result they have no clue how to relate to the both of them beyond relatively shallow modern post Me Too moralizing. The whole movie is uncomfortable in a way I don't think was intended and ends up being a distraction for the entire run time. While Wright and Co deploy his usual meticulous attention to background details, music and editing it doesn't land as gritty fantasy or heightened reality. Like you said, it leaves a lot of questions on the table in a way that feels sloppy instead of mysterious, at odds with Wright's style at it's Peak which feels very tight and well considered.
Why not have Sandy feel empowered by the murder? Taking lives, making these men so insignificant as to be mere offhand mentions in the news, not even front page. Knowing that they must have been vile, low creatures that their deaths go unremarked and she grows into a monstrous man-eater. Sandy only doing things because of her being a poor, victimized sex worker feels incredibly trite, stale, rickety, it lacks flavour. Jack is her first kill if I remember correctly, and if she hates hooking so much why does she keep going back after her pimp died? Wouldn't her returning as a free agent EXTREMELY suspicious to the London underground sex entertainment scene who all knew and apparently were pals with Jack? Why not reveal that Lindsay then became her pimp and retroactively justify his otherwise random, tragic death, make it ACAB and explain why he came off as so effing sinister besides DuMb WiTtLe GiRl PaRaNoId aBoUt MeN? Why did Ellie have the vision of Jack killing Sandy when the opposite was true? Why was it a pure fantasy that one time? If it was Jack's undead rage forcing the fantasy to the surface then why didn't the other no-name brand Johns also send visions of Sandy's death? Why only Young Sandy? They've been hanging out for decades, presumably watching her round the house or at least the room they occupied, why do they not hint at her modern counterpart? Why did we need an over the top out of touch Mean Girls Devil Wears Prada style Fashion Bully but for the Euphoria generation purposely drugging her schoolmate in front of dozens of witnesses (which is high key illegal and could get her expelled at the least) instead of it being an accidental drugging and general social awkwardness being what pushes her out of her dorm and into escapist 60's dream sequences, why does it have to be some jealous posh girlie who somehow doesn't press charges over almost being stabbed???
I could keep going honestly, like don't even get me started on how John was treated (just looked it up he doesn't even appear in the top cast list???). Though as a final aside, as a fashion girlie myself who has helped out and even walked in Uni fashion shows I think Modern Gurls' was right saying that Ellie's designs are extremely Meh and did nothing to deserve wild applause or special attention from the teacher after she scrapped Sandy's Iconic gown. The materials, silhouettes, and styling was all extremely basic so all the compliments at the end came off as patronizing to me? Like "WOW this is AMAZING for someone who was ALMOST GUTTED LIKE A FISH BY A SERIAL KILLER, we're SO IMPRESSED YOU SURVIVED TO SEW ANYTHING AT ALL instead of DYING IN A FIRE and NO we're NOT going to talk about or even look at John WHO REALLY ALMOST DIED, or his collection at all!! ELLIE ONLY" What about instead she had made the same dresses from fabric printed with news clippings from Sandy's spree that she helped reveal to the public, maybe even splattered with what looks like dried blood, tying in the opening sequence outfit but changing it's shape to reflect Ellie's experiences and matured understanding of past glamour? Profs are always trying to get their students to put more of their lives and experiences and ESPECIALLY their trauma into their work, so I feel like teachers and audiences would EAT THAT SHIT UP at an end of year show, but not the whatever that cupcake dress business she did ended up showing was.
Soundtrack still slapped though the king does not miss in this one way 10/10 as ever.
ye especially when the ghost men started begging ellie to kill sandy, excuse me ??
Ladies, I've actually seen the movies in the thumbnail this time...
Thank you for articulating why I didn't love this movie as much as I wanted to! It was so rushed at the end and felt invalidating to the solidarity that the film spent building between the two women.
Honestly I've been manifesting this ever since I saw your letterboxd review, I'm so excited to watch it!!👀
I loved Last Night Soho! I'm so glad I got to watch it in the cinema.
I felt like the movie said fuck you to the men who assaulted sandy…they said, yeah she did murder them but they deserved it…i don’t feel like they were saying the men were victims anymore than just stating they were murdered. also lindsay was a cop who knew about the sex crimes and did nothing about it so Ellie wasn’t too far off and he deserved to die too! i just didn’t feel as much catharsis cause I’ve been a victim of SA and it was an upsetting movie for me but I did appreciate that Ellie seemed to have all the same reactions that I would have…Sandy is Anya who I’m in love with so her wanting to be like her makes sense, her wanting to know more makes sense, her being haunted and confusing dreams and reality makes me think of PTSD and feeling like there’s no escape from what you’ve experienced, and then her finding out Sandy killed them and never once being upset with her, just saying she was sorry it all happened and she understood why she did it
It's a movie. You are not a bad person for enjoying violence displayed in it and these constant moral panics are getting more and more annoying and pointless.
THANK YOU!!!!! god i find the hot takes trying to shame people for thinking a violent and scary “happy” ending in a HORROR movie is weird and needs to be moralized.
its especially annoying when peoole try to make it a white woman thing (saying this as a woc) and make those silly little arguments like “uwu this is why white women irl are bad because they enjoy this fictional movie where a white woman is evil” like give me a break
… i didn’t argue otherwise
What does this have to do with the video pal
@@juliacudney Oh no it wasn't an attack on you or the video. Just commenting on people who have that issue with "good for her" movies.
@@xolotte She does mention in the video that some people can react that way to "good for her" movies and I've noticed it as well.
Perhaps the right ending for this story would’ve been to have the main girl go seek out the girl’s murderer (who is not died in this version) and kill him, finally enacting justice for a forgotten victim. It’s kind of weird to frame your story through the lens of this victim and then turn them into a plot twist villain at the 11th hour.
you always discuss the most interesting topics!! ...good for you 😌❤
I loved Last Night In Soho. One of the most memorable movies I watched this year. I have trouble rooting for Sandy AND the men she killed because both were morally wrong. I also watched and read Gone Girl for the first time, and though just as memorable as LNIS, I HATED it because she was just a vindictive bitter woman who couldn't ask for a divorce... and I had trouble saying "yay Amy! Good for her!". Maybe I misread LNIS but I don't feel like I was supposed to feel sorry for either of them. Given the culture around GG, I FELT like I was supposed to like, root for, and emulate Amy.
That's always been the issue I had with how GG has been received. I love Gillian Flynn as a writer and I took Gone Girl to be a subversive read where at the end both Nick and Amy are awful people who "deserve" each other, and we're led to initially be on Amy's side, but we're trick by our own expectations from how women in thriller genre's usually are
But the general culture around Gone Girl has kinda showed me some people don't...get that... like I know "good for her" is ironic but I've seen too many people take the "Cool Girl" speech at face value
I definitely agree about your take on ready or not - I was unironically rooting for the protagonist the whole time. I think it's hard for some film-makers to grasp the nuance of "good for her." Gone Girl is a great example. I hated Amy's narcissism, even her attachment to her (in my opinion) always schlub husband who she sacrificed so much for, but I definitely resonated with the "Cool Girl" speech. That speech is what made me read the book and watch the movie. The underlying narrative that all women face this nuanced machine of actions, perceptions, and ideals to a certain extent, that's where the catharsis comes from. I hope future movies don't lose the actual anchor that drives these narratives forward.
I also felt bad about not liking last night in soho since Hot Fuzz is one of my favorite movies of all time -_-
ever since i've seen pearl a few weeks ago i've been binging these kinds of movies, this couldn't have found me at a better time
same!
The way you absolutely nailed how I have felt about this movie but haven't been able to put it into words. I think this is my new favorite video of yours.
so for some reason two weeks ago I finally knocked last night in soho off my watchlist (now I can’t for the life of me remember WHAT prompted me to finally watch it but it was smth on social media for sure), and I saw this video tonight and wanted to watch it bc I recognized the movie, but you mentioned 3 movies in your spoiler warning that I had yet to watch that I didn’t want to get spoiled on, but I also wanted to watch this video, so I just spent the last few hours binging those movies just so I could watch this video. after the fact I see you barely mentioned them in your video, but I got to knock off 3 videos from my watchlist, so win/win - your impact🥂
i thought last night in soho was about a schizophrenic girl, bc i didn't watch the end lol
I kinda wanted this video to be longer lol, this is a topic that interests me and this was also the first time I got full context for the term "gaslighting"
I loved the film but haven’t seen last night in soho associated with this genre yet! Saving this for later:)
I love Last Night in Soho, and I was interested in your opinion on it. You brought up some very interesting thoughts to go through. After watching it, I still stand by that the film, including its ending, fully works for me, but I understand your points. I didn't see the ending as ''she was paranoid and crazy after all''. Ellie was right about crimes being committed. Only not in the same manner she originally thought. Sandy was a victim. Violence against women is real. Violent actions committed by those men are what has brought them to their death. Has Sandy crossed the line by continuing to kill instead of going out of business as soon as her pimp was dead? Perhaps. It's the grey nuances this film does so well in my opinion. Sandy is not the perfect survivor to root for, but she is a survivor nonetheless, and there is validity in some of her actions.
Also, I want to genuinely express my surprise that Amy Dunne is considered to be an ''antihero'' in so many conversations. I've seen most of the films you listed. In every other case, said woman either acted in self-defense or direct revenge of those who harmed her. While some of their actions might have been excessive, every one of them is perfectly understandable, and comes out of self-preservation. Amy is a sadist. Sure, we can argue that her faking her own death is a direct response to her husband's infidelity, but the way she handles it is way too cold and cruel. His infidelity is what triggered that specific action, but the coldness and self-centered point of view was already inside of her. She was the golden girl everyone loved. She was untouchable. She went the distance to teach her husband a lesson, not to free herself from him. She killed someone in the process, and didn't blink twice.
While the violence depicted in films like Last Night in Soho, Promising Young Woman, Ready or Not, The Invisible Man, ect. is specifically against women (and in statistics, that kind of violence most often is), the morals is universal. I can argue that anyone, regardless of gender and sexual orientation can sympathize with Cassie, Grace, Cecilia, or even Sandy. Even identify with them in given situations. On the other hand, Amy doesn't fit the bill. For a moment, let's imagine a privileged man, a best-selling author, finding out that his wife is unfaithful, and as a response, faking his own abduction and sexual assault, letting her be accused of it, killing another woman whom he manipulates, and then getting his ''happy ending'' by blackmailing her to stay with him forever, and impregnating his surogat accomplice with her baby. I don't think that a single person would stand by his side. Even the book's author Gillian Flynn says that she envisioned Amy as a villain. Of course, her husband is bad too, but she is much worse.
In any case, sorry for the long post, but it's such an interesting subject and I had a lot to say. Thanks for the video. :)
SO many people use the Lucille meme like they are honestly happy for the person but not in the disturbed way and it makes me so angry 😂
I saw Last Night in Soho at the movies when it first came out because I'm a massive Edgar Wright fan and I love me some Anya Taylor-Joy. I remember the moment it started to lose me: when Ellie is running around tripping balls and having a full blown panic attack dragged.
Also, Thomasin and Anya have great chemistry, I really thought Ellie had a thing for Sandie so I was very weirded out when she ended up with John especially when she's barely shown any interest in him.
i've missed you! so glad your video was recommended to me! saw last night in soho in greenwich last year (the irony) and loved it, but did feel like it was a tad cheesy & didn't need some of the dramatic visual pieces in the last bit of the movie, but all in all loved Ellie's character & the story of Sandy. But it just felt slightly off at the end, like there was too few or too many ingredients in it!
I'm so here for Matt Smith dance scenes though, will forever love him in anything! And Edgar Wright, totally love his filmmaking, considering this is first venture into the horror genre I was quite pleased with it, but I'm more looking forward to seeing what he tries next.
I remember leaving the theather feeling like a devil's advocate had just told me a two and half hour story, I thought the ending was very "see! women are as bad if not more than men"
See, for me it matters less whether I feel the lady has actually transgressed in some way, than whether I actually feel like the end state is the kind of triumph that... well, would make me say "good for her".
[Midsommar spoilers ahead]
Like, Midsommar REALLY doesn't count for me, because ok, your terrible ex is dead, but so are all of your other friends, except for one guy who seems nice but has been very transparently manipulating you while you were at your most vulnerable. You have no remaining support network, unless we count the fascist death cult who you are now at the mercy of. I DO NOT feel "good for her" at this ending.
Same for Promising Young Woman, though I can see that one being more up for debate.
I agree! Do you think this is true for Jennifer's Body as well? (if you've seen it)
@@xolotte haven't seen it, though I could see that one being complicated in the same way Last Night in Soho is. Anytime you've got two women who at the outset are framed sympathetically, writers and directors seem to fall into this trap of "evil empowerment vs acceptable empowerment", and tbh I personally really hate that.
@@CatHasOpinions734 Interesting! I would reccomend checking it out if you are interested in the movie. A lot of people on the internet seem to look at it as an underrated masterpiece, which I don't think is accurate, but it's still a worthwhile movie and in my opinion it subverts those themes (although I can see how someone might disagree with md on that)
Julia is Soo Cute 😍🥰😇
Is that a karma reference I smell
and i deleted an anti-hero reference as well
I applaud thee milady we stan
While I agree that the ending is not good, I don't think the twist suddenly changed the message. The men aren't suddenly victims, and Eloise recognizes this. While they are begging for help for her to call the cops, she decides that no, they don't deserve her help. They might've been victims of murder but they were also agents of sexual violence. I think the final message is that neither them or Sandy are fully without blame, and while Sandy's crimes might be worse because she acts in a premeditated way, she is only driven to that due to the constant abuse by men she's had to suffer.
Honestly, I kinda disagree with the take that the film dismissed male violence, I think there is a reason why at the end Eloise says that Ms. Collins is right and she refuses to avenge the 'victims'. I think Eloise understood that unlike her, Sandie was all alone and had to become something horrible in order to survive under patriarchy. The problem at least for me, it is that to me the movie said that the only real answer to male violence is female violence, instead of destroying the ways the system perpetuates violence. That is why the Cop character becomes so messt to me, as his purpose in the story is not very clear. He could be a read that police is also a perpetrator of male violence since he was kinda of sketchy since the start and he seems to have a 'Madona-Wh*re complex' of sorts, but altogether his place in the story feels very underbacked outside the 'he isn't actually jack' plotwist.
I think there may have been something powerful in a less bombastic ending. Like Ellie finding out that Sandie killed only Jack and Ellie choosing to keep her secret. Idk like a soft admittance that she did what she had to to survive and managed to live on.
hmmmmmmm i see what you're saying and it does make me look at the movie in a new angle. i do still really like the movie, though. but maybe it's more b/c of the film craft and less the story craft
Only 5 minutes in, but please tell me everyone else had a Get Out moment when John was in Ellie’s bedroom. Dude, run for the hills and do not get got when a white girl is screaming in the middle of the night and landlady seems like a maim first ask second type of rescuer.
Also, the final pink dress Ellie presents in the fashion show is so disappointing. Like I almost wish the mean girl reported Ellie for the attempts in the library if this was the final showcase she gave.
daughters of gaslight is so interesting! ive noticed this trend of movies but could never perfectly understand it
the movie you are looking that subverts the good for her moment is the uninvited with emily browning thank you
I’m in the play Gaslight at the moment, had to pause and rewind to double check that is what you said 😂🙈
She didn’t say that you just imagined it
@@smallpaperstars 😂
I love this video but i wish u talked about last night in soho more 😫 if u made a movie review on it id def watch
I think there could have been a way to make a twist like this work. (disclaimer: havent seen the movie just having some thoughts) So Sandie is alive and still in this house. And she even committed the murders! But shes not a serial killer, and killing these people who harmed her turned her into a recluse and a shell of herself. And Ellie figures out that Sandie is alive and talks about Sandie's life as she saw it, maybe accidentally leading to some justice for her, maybe leading to her going to jail. I think an important aspect to the 'not romanticizing the past' and the 'im not crazy' narrative is to point out the consequences of living in this bygone era and being told that you're crazy and believing it. I think they could have shown that in a Sandie who is traumatized but still alive.
I've never been the type to leave comments on videos, or likes for that matter. But, since I've been watching your videos for years now i wanted to share an opinion on these last videos you're making. First, i think you did a good job explaining and presenting your information all while making it fun to watch, this comment is in no way shape or form a hateful critique of your hard work. However, there's an issue i noticed with the last videos you've made. It's that you always end it abruptly somehow. You don't leave enough time for us (viewers or listeners) to catch up to your conclusion. And sometimes, like this video, it feels like i didn't get to a conclusion at all. Upon rewatch i can barely grasp what you presented as a conclusion, and i feel robbed of my time. In any case, i do love your videos and I will continue to watch you, it's just something that i felt was needed to be said.
Was thinking the same thing. I'm actually rewatching this video because I couldn't remember the conclusion she came to. I enjoy her videos though, but I do agree with you
I don't think this movie wanted to give the message you took from it
you’re so clever and underrated tbh
Would American Mary be a "good for her" movie. I does have exploitation and abuse followed by revenge elements. Basically a med student is abused by her teacher. She needs money so she finds work as a surgeon and sometimes dancer at a sleazy club while occasionally torturing sketchy men. There are a lot of body modification and bdsm scenes in the movie but I'm not sure how that relates to the revenge plot
You mentioned Thoroughbreds and I would love to hear you talk about movies about female friendships and jealousy in that vein. I call them "You're Just Like Me" movies (other examples include Do Revenge, Passing, and Birds of Paradise) and some of them also have homoerotic subtext
19:00 thats a FABULOUS POINT. Thank you! I've been trying to figure out how to articulate this for a long while!
Only 'I'm not crazy film' where the person is actually crazy on Saint Maud (2019). The only one.
Why do you think that the twist in "Last Night in Soho" minimizes or justifies the actions of the men who abused Sandy? Consider that we are able to accept the idea that Sandy can have suffering abuse, is also a serial killer, and that the two are connected. Why is it then that when we discover that all of the ghosts of the murdered johns were murdered, suddenly the film is deliberately or unintentionally excusing their conduct. We can accept the idea that there is some moral complexity to Sandy's character but not these men? The killing of Jack was self defense, but, according to the movie, the others were not. They were murdered because Sandy had been hurt by some men (but one in particular), and chose to take it out on all men. The fact these men were killed does not justify their murder, but also their murder doesn't make patronizing a prostitute OK, and nothing in the movie itself indicates that it does.
While Jack was pimping Sandy, what she had to do, she was forced to do. However, after jack was gone, Sandy could have moved away to somewhere where nobody knew her, or started a business in the area (such as a boarding house, for example). Instead, she chose to pretend to be a prostitute in order to get these men to a place where she could kill them. Her character is morally complex because she is not doing this because she is just evil, but rather her having been victimized explains her motive for going on to be a serial killer, and it allows us to empathize with her while being repelled by her actions. Yet, when it comes to all the men she killed, you do not do the same thing. Instead, you claimed that the movie makes them out to be only victims, when it does nothing of the sort. What it does do is help us think about Sandy's character a bit more. Accepting that these guys were sleazy, does that justify them being killed? And if getting murdered is a disproportionate punishment for wanting to buy sex, why do we still emphasize with Sandy? The answer, of course, is that movie has us experienced the plot through Sandy's (or at least Eloise's) eyes, and and we have been witness to the abuse she had suffered. Prior to the end, we have only seen her victims in a negative light, so the turnaround gives us a reason to care about said victimization. That's it; I think you are reading misogyny into the film where it is unwarranted.
your background is so cozy
I don''t see how 'The witch' fits into this idea. The main character acts in self defense from her mother and once left alone in the wilderness is seduced into the coven. There's no horrible actions on her part. Not trying to argue against your point I just don't think the specific film fits into what you're saying.
I agree catharsis is the most important aspect of the good for her genre, though in my opinion the protagonist also has to end the film in a stronger position than they started through their own agency. I don't they need to do acts of wrongdoing to achieve that end, just acts that are unexpected of their character.
So I don't think Midsommar or Gone Girl really fit for me, because both characters in the end have become trapped. Also Dani is brainwashed by a cult lol. In Knives Out, Marta no longer allowing the rich white family keep her under their thumb counts. In Jennifer's Body, Needy freeing herself from intoxicating hold Jennifer has on her counts.
Last Night in Soho didn't feel cathartic to me, and while the twist was fun it ultimately ended pretty weakly. I don't even know if I'd consider it part of the genre because it made such little impression on me.
The mirror scenes, besides being cool, I think definitely show the contrast between broken and pure Sandie, Anya and Thomasin respectively. It explains a lot of the imagery and reflections though not sure if this is an oversight of interpereting the film as Sandie bringing this on herself. We know this is not what the film is trying to say, the film literally agrees with Sandie not wanting any of this, though the fact that they had Thomasin representing pure Sandie just for the husk of Sandie to try and murder her literally recalls the idea of "Alex killed Sandie" or her not getting help from the cop. Beautiful film, beautiful soundtrack and great acting, honestly a comfort horror for me, but you can't deny these issues which lead to misinterpretation. Heck, a lot of men thought this was a movie calling the murder of men reasonable and here we are noticing that they did not give Sandie a satisfactory ending; they did not balance the message of this film well haha.
I watched the sponsor part the video and I noticed(as I’m sure others did as well) the ANTM (America’s Next Top Model) theme music and I thought I would LOVE to hear your analysis of the show please with cherries on top! 😊
Haven't seen LNIS yet so I'm devastated not to be able to watch the video yet, but I'm amused this video has come out so close to Rowan Ellis' one on the same topic. There I was having no idea about the "good for her" universe, and now I've got y'all to educate me. Thanks muchly for that.
el vídeo es bueno pero la conclusión es tan estupida que me tuve que repetir el video pasar saber si realmente era obvio llegar a la conclusión y la verdad tanto last nigth in soho como este video no sabían como cerrar todo y sacaron lo primero que alguien con ilimitado acceso a internet de niños lesdijo
Last Night is the good for her of giallo, which is saying a lot, but means almost nothing, I guess?
love the taylor cardigan peeking out of the closet!
This is one of your best videos, imo! i've been struggling for a while to describe why i enjoy "good for her" narratives and why i've been so let down by recent twists on the genre, and i think you've spelled it out really well here.
I could have easily listen to another 20 minutes of that, such a great take
I loved the twists in last night in soho and was pumping my fists to the murder montage
i felt the same after watching it!! glad you get it
This movie was good and crazy
"sacrifice substance for spectacle"
Yesss
yes
Hel yaaaaa
Imagine not rooting for Amy Dunne! I hated the ending of Gone Girl because she goes back to her husband
People who root for Amy Dunne cannot be trusted. Like people who root for the Harga.
@@DrGregoryHouseIT Not the same at all but ok
see, i'd have thought "good for her" when it comes to ready or not because she survives in spite of everything working against her.
Just because you say ‘good for her’ about a female character, doesn’t mean it’s a good for her film. The character needs to have doesn’t something wrong maybe be a criminal. You saying good for her needs to feel slightly wrong but also right. I recommend looking into it more I didn’t quite explain it fully but it’s along those lines