butlering along

[Liza Featherstone]

omigod. i'm on deadline but HAVE to rant about this movie. What I have been
trying to find out for some time is the reverse question: why did so many
people LOVE it? I thought it was a totally banal boy fantasy (agree with
Frances, he changes the lesbian and  forever replaces women in the center of
her emotional universe, thus symbolically wins, it doesn't really matter
that they don't get together in the end...in fact the fantasy works even
better that way because he gets to forever *believe* that it would have been
perfect if he hadn't fucked it up...she returns to being an inaccessible and
therefore desirable lesbian, having been booted from the rather messier
day-to-day role of het girlfriend). despite the gritty alternafilm look and
gritty alternalifestyle people with their interesting little black
nationalisms and lesbianisms and artistic pursuits,  it was classic
hollywood one true hetero love metanarrative,  bothering to take other
possibilities into account only to dismiss them.  But sooo many people
thought it was "refreshing", "open",i cant even remember all the joyous
adjectives. which to me just shows how little interesting discussion of any
social/sexual issue appears even on the edges of the mainstream, audiences
and even critics are just so starved for any kind of thoughtful analysis of
sexuality that this kind of crap is cutting edge, even if all that's new is
that fist-fucking is mentioned. (granted that is a bit unusual but who
cares? you can rent an xxx video (hey, or "Bound") and actually see it.)
what was also really banal and lame about this movie was the subjectivity
thing. how we were supposed to really feel his pain about her "sordid" past
(which incidentally involved having been a slut with Men, he didn't care
when he thought she had only been with penis-free folks and he was the first
Real dog at the hydrant...Wise Black Dude  (speaking of Hollywood cliche) of
course tells whitey off about that but the insight goes totally
unexplored)...and we never really gave a shit about her(how could we? that
Minnie Mouse voice totally cancelled out any possible empathy) even though
her conflicts were potentially a lot more interesting (she gives up her
whole community and social life to be with this pretty ordinary repressed
guy who doesn't understand her that well but thinks she's really exotic and
fascinating). In fact all the characters other than Ben Affleck's had
something more interesting going on, but he was the one straight white male
and his problems ALL had to do with a profound anxiety about female sexual
agency so of course the whole thing had to be from his point of view. hoo
boy, that was some cynical shit. 

but um, if someone reelly liked it i would be genuinely curious to know why.

   


>5  Now a rilly rilly tangential issue, but one that might be really
>interesting is this:  if it's the case that people are, more and more,
>recognizing the radical dynamism of sexual identities, then someone please
>explain the furor over Chasing Amy.  Yes, yes I realize that the film came
>off as an adolescent buoy's fantasy. But you know, she didn't end up
>marrying the fellah living happily ever after in wedded het bliss, now did
>she.  And, now that I think about, that ending may well conform to an
>adolescent buoy's fantasy in so far as now he can pine for her as his one
>true love for the rest of his life--now that's a Hollywood staple too.  But
>anyway, I didn't pay as much attention to the whole thing when it was
>happening--too immersed in other stuff at the time.  So, if anyone has any
>thoughts I'd sure like a good spanking on this one.
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