I have one more post in me about gender/age, Asian culture, and why I really don’t fit anywhere. Here’s the post I wrote about it yesterday in which I talked about how society likes to say that you should be yourself, but then punishes the people who are way outside those norms. I’m not talking about in criminal/non-legal ways, either. I’m talking about people who are just weird.
Side note: Weird is a word I have used about myself regularly. To me, it’s not a negative–it’s just a statement of fact. It’s the same as ‘fat’ not being negative to me, either. It’s neutral to me, but it’s used in a negative way in American society. In a similar vein, I have reclaimed queer for myself. I know many LGBTQ+ folk don’t like it, but I like it because it means weird in the general sense. I am respectful when I talk about the group in general to use the politer ‘LGBQT+’, but if I’m talking about myself, I’m going to call me queer. That’s just the way it goes.
I will say I find it darkly amusing when I can turn a supposed negative into a positive. Back when I used to be on Twitter, I sometimes had discussions with people about pop culture. I usually wasn’t the one to start it because it’s not my interest, but I was happy to engage when asked for my opinion. I have, shall we say, nontraditional tastes in pop culture. In other words, I did not like what other people liked for the most part. I would espouse that opinion in a respectful way. I rarely said I thought something was shit–I usually phrased it as I did not like something or it wasn’t for me.
Some of the unpopular opinions I espoused: I don’t like The Beatles; I didn’t like The Big Lebowski; I don’t like The Rolling Stones; and to be frank, most of their compatriots. I think one of the last radical opinions I posted was when I was live-tweeting Knives Out (the first one). I cannot stress enough that I was really looking forward to it, and I’m being sincere. I had not been that hyped for a movie in quite some time. I adore Poirot novels, and I love a big cast of villains. In books, anyway.
I will admit I was a bit worried when I saw the trailer beacuse it was hypercuts and flashimages/video slices. That’s not my style at all, and my eyes weren’t fast enough to register what I was seeing. It’s a bias of mine that I think the flashier editing is used to cover up holes–either literal ones in the plot or visually. I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, though. Why? I don’t know. Because of all the big stars in it and because i really wanted an ensemble cast mystery movie.
There was so much hype for the movie. The director, Rian Johnson, was feted for first movie*, made a big show of requoesting that the reviewers didn’t reveal the big twist.
I went into the movie with an open mind. I knew who the perp was the first time I saw them, and I mentally begged the sky that it wouldn’t be that person. There’s no way this brilliant movie would have the tritest, most tired story ever? With the most obvious perp. Would it???
Spoiler: Yes, it would. Though it would not reach it’s not-so-thrilling end for another two hours. I was live-tweeting the whole thing, and by the time we got to the end of hour one, I was bitching and groaning over how much time I had left.
There was exactly one thing I loved about the movie–and that was the stellar cast chewing up the scenery. Jamie Lee Curtis was glorious as she railed on Don Johnson, her beleagured husband. Who was cheating on her. She had the money in the family, being the daughter of a book mogul (can’t remember how exactly that worked. I just remember the father had a lot of money).
Side note: Jamie Lee Curtis is so great. I love that she looks her age. She is not trying to nip and tuck or look like a thirty year old. She is her age, and she looks great, damn it. It’s really refreshing. I especially love her in Everything Everywhere All at Once as the cynical and wornout auditor who was only a year or two from retirement. Her hair was frumpy; her clothing was frowsy; and she wore cheap glasses. She was the best!
Anyway, I did not like anything else about the movie. I did not get the hype, and I found it very predictable. By the beginning of the second hour, I was just waiting for it to be over. Yes, I could have stopped watching, but I had a morbid desire to see if it was going to end the way I really didn’t want it to. It just couldn’t, could it? But it did, and that was two hours I can never get back.
When the second movi came out, my brother saw it and said it was ok, but not great. I did watch the trailer, but that was it. I had no desire to see it, no matter how stellar the cast was.
How the hell did I get here? Oh, yes. It’s because I was talking about being weird and how that meant in my pop culture taste as well. Why? Because my mind does that. But also beacuse I was talking about how weird I am in general, and how that means that I would not do well in any society. Let’s face it. I don’t think there is a society in which I would fit. Which is why I’m staying put for now.
*Brick. With Gordon Levy Jr. That’s my joke name for Joseph Gordon Levy because for some reason, I called him that once unthinkingly and then I could just never past it. Oh, I actually saw the movie, which I didn’t realize until after I saw Knives Out. I thought it was overdone and pretentious. I did not like it at all.