After he made a movie where a little girl gets rapidly aged so she can get knocked up by her cousin, I decided I simply do not care to see his movies.
He didn’t age the girl SO she could get knocked up by her cousin.
That makes it sound really bad. Everyone aged quickly and that was the progression of 2 kids aging into maturity too fast. It’s not like the cousin was 22 and they intentionally aged a 5 year old girl so she could legally get fucked by someone.
every story choice is a decision. the scenario does not actually exist, anything can happen in it. So, yes, he decided to keep an element of the story where a young child matures over the course of the day and is impregnated by the cousin. he did it so that story beat could happen, because he wanted it to happen, because he thought it was artistically relevant.
And I think that's a weird gross thing to have in a movie, I think that's a weird choice to make, even if it's in the source material.
iiiiii don't really think i would describe that plot point in that way. but like, i'm also not going to give a spirited defense of split. but like, you could say that about any person's history in any movie. she isn't special because of her trauma, but her past trauma does inform her character and why she makes the choices that she does.
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
She's the point of view heroine of the film, it's hard not to read that as tacit endorsement of her Specialness.
I'm not gonna discuss it much further because I think the entire thing is just gross and weird and could have been done any one of a hundred other ways that would have been less fuckin' awful and whether he's actually into that idea or simply too stupid to choose something less awful is not a distinction I give many shits about.
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Bloods EndBlade of TyshallePunch dimensionRegistered Userregular
That is an bizarre read of that.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Personally I think the book Knock at the Cabin is based on is quite bad, so I'm going to be avoiding it on that basis
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
I'm just at a point where if you put sexual violence, especially sexual violence against a literal child, into your film, I expect a certain degree of tact and skill and fairly strong story reasoning for why that's there. If you're going to ask me to look at something that horrible, make it worth my time.
Shyamalan doesn't, and doesn't seem interested in really interrogating why he included that beyond "isn't this bad? isn't it bad that this happened?", and that is just profoundly frustrating to me. Using one of the worst traumas a person can experience just to be shock jockey shit suuuuuuuuuuuucks, dude.
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
No I know it's awesome he gags up a rat for twenty million and it makes two hundred and the fact that it's so terrible it will burn holes in your brainpan doesn't factor into it, I do get it you know, I live here too you know, I get it, you're not describing your home to a stranger from far away Im right here with you, I get it, I've been confronted with this just like you have and thought about it just like you did, I do get it, like I do get it right, like I get it
I heard Mia Goth's real voice the other day and it threw me for a fuckin' loop
It adds a level of charm to her performance that she sounds how she does while her character is unhinged, and I'm glad they didn't ask her to try masking her voice like every other film seems to
But also the very first time I heard her real voice I was hysterical because someone compared it to if the Oy Mista! You Me Dad? doll was unbelievably polite, and I can't stop thinking about it
My first thought was, "Oh, this is that fairytale voice Nicki Minaj did on MBDTF," but I haven't listened to that album in years and didn't want to go back to check
I'm just at a point where if you put sexual violence, especially sexual violence against a literal child, into your film, I expect a certain degree of tact and skill and fairly strong story reasoning for why that's there. If you're going to ask me to look at something that horrible, make it worth my time.
Shyamalan doesn't, and doesn't seem interested in really interrogating why he included that beyond "isn't this bad? isn't it bad that this happened?", and that is just profoundly frustrating to me. Using one of the worst traumas a person can experience just to be shock jockey shit suuuuuuuuuuuucks, dude.
Genuinely asking, if you turned the movie off how do you know it's guilty of this? Her past trauma is used to inform why she's kind of a nihilistic loner at the start of the film and why she decides to fight - and how she's so capable when she does decide to fight.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
I did take a second stab at it later for that exact reason. That time I made it as far as James McAvoy breaking a knife off on his abs through the power of dissociative identity disorder before my eyes rolled out of my head and I put something else on.
This is, granted, a compounding issue for Split: the sexual violence is something I really dislike, and I also think the core conceit of the movie is just really dumb.
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PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
I think an extra irritant with the Shyamalan ouevre is that they are largely seen as like weighty thematic intelligent shit and so the fans will get right up your nose for taking shots at the hackest fuckest garbage this side of your local landfill
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Split takes place in a world with literal superpowers, I think that is breaking the knife not the did.
The Beast personality from his DID is what has the superpowers. His other personalities don't have superpowers. The psychologist also mentions a woman who was physically weak but had a weightlifter personality which let her deadlift many hundreds of pounds. One of her monologues explicitly says that the alternate personalities are what give them these extraordinary abilities.
I think it's pretty dumb!
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I think the problem with Split is that it was kinda torn between two ideals
Like, someone being knifeproof because they have superpowers associated to their DID - sure, I love it, I've read Doom Patrol, why not
And the unsavory sexual violence bits ultimately being genuinely valuable for a character is, well, I don't love that but I think it can work in the right context
But when you combine them in the same schlocky horror movie it starts feeling like maybe they're equivalent ideas, y'know?
I didn't watch Split because James McAvoy is my nemesis
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I also think
Split spoilers and also sexual violence in film talk
There's something really hollow in the way that her history of sexual assault ends up saving her, because it's still ultimately just the killer deciding to not kill her (because of her history).
It's not like, a rape and revenge film, or an instance where her hypervigilance saves her or prepares her to deal with her problems, it's just her scars being recognized. And yeah, there would be problems with her trauma giving her the ability to deal with the situation and survive, but it would make her feel like more of a person than a prop in that moment.
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I think an extra irritant with the Shyamalan ouevre is that they are largely seen as like weighty thematic intelligent shit and so the fans will get right up your nose for taking shots at the hackest fuckest garbage this side of your local landfill
Do people still think this? I feel like this is an old take and most people are now aware that his movies are…well just movies
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
His older stuff sometimes has an theme. The Village and onwards, not so much.
Skinamarink, so far…I’m getting Paranormal Activity vibes where it’s probably good in a dark room with other people who easily get freaked out but alone in the morning…it’s kind of boring
The one review I saw described the first 45 minutes as basically nothing but static shots establising A Mood. And then, right as the reviewer was thinking about turning it off, it apparently kicked into gear and was legit terrifying.
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PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
his movies absolutely one hundred percent present the pretense that they Have Something To Say
Glass is all about the audience and how they need to pack away their ideas of cinema, and their wants, and instead experience the story they are given.
What, just because the movie spends roughly 47 minutes talking about that tower you think it's important? That it'll feature in the climax?
Fuck no, you'll get James McAvoy galloping like a horse girl in a parking lot, and you'll fucking like it!
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I still need to start watching his AppleTV+ show Servant
Steam
every story choice is a decision. the scenario does not actually exist, anything can happen in it. So, yes, he decided to keep an element of the story where a young child matures over the course of the day and is impregnated by the cousin. he did it so that story beat could happen, because he wanted it to happen, because he thought it was artistically relevant.
And I think that's a weird gross thing to have in a movie, I think that's a weird choice to make, even if it's in the source material.
But it's also a hell of a ride
that spoiler is for sexual violence
but
I mean, I know I shouldn't even get into this discussion, but the serial killer was just way into people who experienced horrible trauma
I'm not gonna discuss it much further because I think the entire thing is just gross and weird and could have been done any one of a hundred other ways that would have been less fuckin' awful and whether he's actually into that idea or simply too stupid to choose something less awful is not a distinction I give many shits about.
Shyamalan doesn't, and doesn't seem interested in really interrogating why he included that beyond "isn't this bad? isn't it bad that this happened?", and that is just profoundly frustrating to me. Using one of the worst traumas a person can experience just to be shock jockey shit suuuuuuuuuuuucks, dude.
Subtle is not one of them.
It's probably about as good as we're going to get all things considered. Not a fan of Shuri's actress, but she was believable as a sister in mourning.
Green Room is a fucking good, TENSE ASS, movie
It's not like he's taking studio money from someone else, his last four films combined cost like 60 million
the heart wants what it wants, which is apparently Shia Labeouf
Yeah as much as I have a lot of distaste for Shyamalan I don't think he's like, stealing opportunities or funding from other filmmakers.
she times you gotta remarry a creepy violent abuser
you know
as one does
damn.
My first thought was, "Oh, this is that fairytale voice Nicki Minaj did on MBDTF," but I haven't listened to that album in years and didn't want to go back to check
Genuinely asking, if you turned the movie off how do you know it's guilty of this? Her past trauma is used to inform why she's kind of a nihilistic loner at the start of the film and why she decides to fight - and how she's so capable when she does decide to fight.
This is, granted, a compounding issue for Split: the sexual violence is something I really dislike, and I also think the core conceit of the movie is just really dumb.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/arts/music/fka-twigs-shia-labeouf-abuse.html
like
a lot
The Beast personality from his DID is what has the superpowers. His other personalities don't have superpowers. The psychologist also mentions a woman who was physically weak but had a weightlifter personality which let her deadlift many hundreds of pounds. One of her monologues explicitly says that the alternate personalities are what give them these extraordinary abilities.
I think it's pretty dumb!
And the unsavory sexual violence bits ultimately being genuinely valuable for a character is, well, I don't love that but I think it can work in the right context
But when you combine them in the same schlocky horror movie it starts feeling like maybe they're equivalent ideas, y'know?
Split spoilers and also sexual violence in film talk
It's not like, a rape and revenge film, or an instance where her hypervigilance saves her or prepares her to deal with her problems, it's just her scars being recognized. And yeah, there would be problems with her trauma giving her the ability to deal with the situation and survive, but it would make her feel like more of a person than a prop in that moment.
Do people still think this? I feel like this is an old take and most people are now aware that his movies are…well just movies
The one review I saw described the first 45 minutes as basically nothing but static shots establising A Mood. And then, right as the reviewer was thinking about turning it off, it apparently kicked into gear and was legit terrifying.
Shit like that is important to know, it's cinema about real stuff.
Well…there is definitely a “message” to Old. I’m not going to get into the ending because I’m lazy and don’t want to type it out though.
What, just because the movie spends roughly 47 minutes talking about that tower you think it's important? That it'll feature in the climax?
Fuck no, you'll get James McAvoy galloping like a horse girl in a parking lot, and you'll fucking like it!