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HellCopter posted:Having the plot hinge on something impossible makes the movie a little less...relateable? I'm scared of weird tightly-knit cult communities but I'm not afraid of getting my brain stolen. I don't know that I would even describe it as 'less relatable'. Like, maybe yeah, people probably aren't going to be able to literally brain transplant an old white person into the body of a young black person, but it's still a pretty potent metaphor for someone's culture and sense of self/individuality being consumed by white people and made 'palatable' by the latter's standards.
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Feb 27, 2017 23:34
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I'd also argue that Stephen Root's character fits that same "possible white savior" role, maybe even moreso than Rose. He might not come with the instinctual "trust the white woman" reaction, but he presents himself as at least semi-'woke' to the racism of his peers and expresses some measure of disgust over it. Isn't until later that he reveals as a guy who basically sees all the racism of the world but is able to turn a blind eye as long as it benefits him. He might not be completely dead-eyed psychopathic about it, but he still won't help save Chris just because it's the right thing to do. (None of those puns were intended.)
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Mar 11, 2017 04:55
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ruddiger posted:While true, the "it's all in his head" also refers back to the lack of repercussions at the climax of the film. The horrors the family were up to burned up in the fire, the cops will never believe or be privy to what actually happened, and the conspiracy dies in the car with Chris and his buddy. That doesn't seem like it's entirely the case, even. He killed the family and burned down the house where the operations themselves took place, but that entire town of elderly white people still exists. Andre/Logan still exists with a massive surgical scar all around his head. They might circle the wagons and ghost Andre before any police can investigate (if they even WANT to), but at the exact point the movie ends, that physical evidence remains out in the world (and we aren't really presented, I don't think, with a decisive argument that the Andre that Chris found doesn't exist himself). And if the rich white people DON'T immediately ghost Andre once they hear what happened, he's a camera flash away (combined with the presumed surgical scars) from drawing suspicion that Chris's recollection of events might actually be closer to the truth than someone might otherwise believe. Again, that's not to say any follow-up from those events would definitely go one way (Chris in prison, accused of arson/murder) or another (Chris vindicated by the judicial system) or even a third (Chris/Rod never speak of it again, the rich white folk ALSO never speak of it again, the deaths of the Armitage family are left an unsolved mystery), but just that there's more lingering in the aftermath than what Chris and Rod carry with them in that police car.
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Mar 17, 2017 03:13
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Sir Kodiak posted:It is the case that he (Stephen Root) and the father (Bradley Whitford) appreciate the implications of using black bodies for the project. But instead of trying to engage in stereotypical black behavior, they fit into the more enlightened-liberal idea that once a black person reaches a certain level of success (e.g., Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Jordan Peele), the status of being a "successful African American" is a positive. But is that co-opting black culture, given how much those sorts of figures are accused of acting white? (Note, Peele made a whole other movie about "acting white") And further, these are the white characters. The black-body/white-brain characters don't get into this. I think it's both? Like, yes, Logan/Walter/Georgina don't specifically put on ANY of even the superficial trappings of "being black" that might you might consider as old white people "co-opting black culture", but I think it's close enough to be a valid conversation and I think it still functions metaphorically on the idea of "cultural appropriation". It's just that in the literal of the movie itself, the thing being co-opted is the physical embodiment of being black without any of the cultural associations thereof. It's culture disappearing into whiteness. Maybe that needs a different term than "co-opting", since the white people in question aren't absorbing anything about black culture than the skin color, but it's along similar lines, I think.
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Mar 29, 2017 19:07
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