2020 Films and Oscars

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CA Dreamin



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  • #141
  • Posted: 04/27/2021 19:20
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I watched The Father yesterday and I'm confused on where this interpretation is coming from:
Applerill wrote:
Okay, this opinion might ruffle some jimmies, but while it WAS beautifully shot and acted, The Father was genuinely one of the most eugenicist movies
I’ve ever seen. It literally uses the format of the Rooney Mara breakup scene in The Social Network to frame disability as something that old white abusive men have and nobody else, and that disability is a burden on society that keeps girlbosses like Olivia Coleman (who are NEVER disabled, and whose whiteness and straightness and thinness doesn’t matter because she’s a woman) from living their lives normally. And it’s sorta sad to see so many abled people frame their reviews this way: “I had a grandpa with this disability; that was really hard for me when he couldn’t remember my name or get me the presents I wanted.”

This takes itself more artistically seriously than a lot of ableist Oscar bait, but it still ultimately focuses on making abled people feel good for being allies than anything else. I know things like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly aren’t perfect either, but at least that movie focused entirely on the disabled person’s legacy.

ALSO, it’s worth noting that there are a LOT of people (several of whom I know personally) who have this sort of memory loss young because of things like depression or DID or Down Syndrome, which makes the connection here between Alzheimer’s and “lol ok boomer” all the more egregious here
How did you see The Father as a pushing an ableist agenda? How did you see it as an ableist film in general? I did not see The Father at all as a statement on disability on the macro level. It was about one specific disability...dementia. And yes, it certainly can be a burden on the family, depending on the severity. Olivia Colman's performance captured the stress of what it's like to be trapped between extremely difficult decisions, none of which will have a positive outcome. I agree her character was thin. And I also happened to notice her character was white and straight, however I don't see why that's relevant here. Would it have made a big difference if her character was black and lesbian? I can see your point that disability tends to be portrayed in film by white men, and I 100% agree that film needs more diversity. Nevertheless, I don't see how Hopkins's whiteness and maleness matter, because the film is only here to show us how rough dementia can be, and that its victims deserve sympathy.

I think my biggest issue with this interpretation is the line "ultimately focuses on making abled people feel good..." At no point did I feel good while watching this movie. Not in the slightest. Same goes for the few people I've spoken with about this movie irl. If people walked away from The Father thinking to themselves "Damn, I feel good that I'm not in Anthony Hopkins's shoes but I support people with disabilities", while Applerill implies that's the takeaway the movie was going for, then they are all wrong. That's a narrow way of looking at it. For one, it's disrespectful to those who have been through Hopkins's and Colman's experiences. Secondly, for those who haven't, that interpretation ignores the possibility they may someday be in those positions. The gloomy thought that I, or a loved one, may come down with Alzheimer's and dementia at some point in life was running through my head while watching. From what I've heard and read, that was the general reaction from viewers, which I'm pretty sure was what the filmmakers were aiming for, not to make "abled people feel good" but to make everyone feel depressed. I'm glad we found common ground in our views on Nomadland and Promising Young Woman, but I'm sorry I think the above interpretation is just garbage, unless it's expanded on in a more persuasive manner.

Ditto to jnfbn and Hayden on Hopkins's deserving of the award.
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Applerill
Autistic Princess <3


Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago
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  • #142
  • Posted: 04/27/2021 21:43
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Yeah, maybe I was way too harsh, though I WAS in lots of legitimate pain from COVID while watching it, so it was hard for me to get disability off my mind. Looking back, it WAS really powerful, even if lots of disability activists I follow couldn’t help but notice some sort of connection between Crip Camp losing and Anthony winning (though apparently he has autism, so at least that’s SOME rep)

I guess one thing I should say is that, more than before, I felt like it was hard to figure out how I felt about so many of the noms this year. For instance, Sound of Metal DID warm up on me a lot, mostly because of its amazing atmosphere, but as I thought about it more, the little political issues (like the Deaf community being painted as a cult, and the allegations against the lead, and the way it feels more like an immersive video game for hearing people than an experience for Deaf ones) never really went away. I hope this does NOT get into a messy discourse about it (as I said, I’m tired of talking about these movies), but it definitely shows how movies are so complicated, and it’s so hard for them to not be flawed in some way while still being interesting.
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CA Dreamin



Gender: Male
Location: LA
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  • #143
  • Posted: 04/28/2021 17:16
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Understandable. There are a few potential talking points here regarding how films depict smaller communities, or how films reflect the viewer's sociopolitical views. But yeah, understandable if we prefer not to go there (because agreed it is complicated). So I'll finish off by saying I hope your road to Covid recovery is going smoothly.
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BARDAMU





  • #144
  • Posted: 04/28/2021 18:16
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I didn't watch the Oscars.
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Applerill
Autistic Princess <3


Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago
United States

  • #145
  • Posted: 04/28/2021 18:57
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CA Dreamin wrote:
Understandable. There are a few potential talking points here regarding how films depict smaller communities, or how films reflect the viewer's sociopolitical views. But yeah, understandable if we prefer not to go there (because agreed it is complicated). So I'll finish off by saying I hope your road to Covid recovery is going smoothly.


Actually, I don't know if I talked about this already, but I think I learned something this Oscar season with Promising Young Woman. We often like to assume that the problems "Oscar-bait" movies have are specifically there because of the greed and myopia of trying to win such a universal award. But with PYM, it seems like it never dreamed of winning Oscars when it was in development, which makes me now feel like problematic movies like that are just that way because making consistent movies is hard. Maybe this is obvious to everyone else, but it's new to me.
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