I am just going to copy/paste my reply because I really want to hear how you guys feel about this:
I think his conclusions are noteworthy:
After some thought , the film is almost unthinkably reactionary. While the imagery is gross and repugnant. I find it hard to believe this was anything other than a direct attack at hip hop, social media , and lack of basic morals in the west.
the cinematography should be killed. But the reality is the film despite its pedophelic nature , is a giant fuck you to the west and our porn culture that poisons even children. its , dare i say it redpilled
done some more thinking. I think every parent should be forced to watch this movie until they throw out their kids technology and dont allow them to leave the house without a male of the family"
Seems like the writer/director felt like they had to make this as absolutely reprehensible as possible in order to shock people in to seeing what is going on with children these days.
I'm kind of split on this. It's obvious that many parents have no idea what their children are doing online and need to really start paying attention. Does this issue warrant using this level of shock, though?
Fuck netflix either way for the way their promotional material framed this movie. I don't think I can bring myself to watch it but if it really is as reactionary as twitter dude said it was it then it's putting out a very important message. Instead netflix just wanted to coast on shock value and pedo-bait.
hearing that the director intended this to be a giant critique of western culture. If true this movie is based and the pedo scare worked at maybe getting a billion dollars in free advertising.
FuckSpez: added credit. Also give that guys tweets a read, they are pretty funny.
Y'know even if the movie was supposed to be a critique on modern culture and how society sexualizes children or whatever it was they were saying, the fact that it sexualizes children to this degree pretty much destroys any credibility for that.
It'd be like if I decided to do a movie on why animal abuse is bad but it was just two straight hours of me torturing animals. No one wants to see that, you don't need to show that to get your point across, and the only people who would enjoy something like that are the people you are trying to demonize.
I don't care if it's "reactionary" or a "critique". It's fucked up to have close-up shots of children's crotches while they're dancing provocatively. That's not necessary if your goal is to simply "critique" a culture. You can show what's going on with wide angle shots of the entire stage without zooming in on the sexual organs of pre-pubescent children.
The sorts of angles they showed in that film are what you'd see in a porn, not a TV show or movie. You don't get a free pass doing so just because you want to show people "what is going on with children these days"
You know, one thought I've had simmering on the back burner for several years now is that the entire culture war has been a staged play with the intention of easing the general public into understanding just how reprehensible many of the popular social justice causes actually are behind closed doors.
No idea if that's true, but things like this do make it sound more likely.
Utter BS. The west has more laws and harsher punishment for pedophilia than any other culture out there. Most ignore it or treat it as less sever than it is. Hell, look at the "Bacha Bazi" in Afghanistan. The UN covering up sexual assaults by their people on children. And many other examples. This is just trying to appease critics that are calling this what it really is.
Interesting take, I'd have to actually see the movie to agree/disagree and I'm not sure I want to. Depending on the messaging in the movie it could go either way. Like is the film highlighting and condemning these things? Or is it highlighting and then watching this girl descend into debauchery hoping the audience disapproves of it? In this fucked up timeline you simply can't expect the audience to react as you'd hope they would, you really need to drive home the message you're attempting to deliver or else the rampant subjectivists will have their way with you.
I'm in the same boat as you with regards to watching it.
From what I gathered from the twitter thread it seems like the movie is actually trying to portray everything in a negative way. It ends with the kid breaking down and the final shot is of her in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt jump roping with other kids her age, so the end message is pretty clear.
I'm just not sure about the approach it takes to get there.
Its still pretty fucked up in a sense though. Netflix could never have advertised this movie as a warning against 11yr olds getting sexual and abandoning their cultural traditions and morality, instead they had to run with everything we've seen so far.
I am not defending this movie.
In another thread someone posted some guy live tweeting while watching it (credit to u/cartoonericroberts/) https://twitter.com/animegorilla/status/1304062928656773122
I am just going to copy/paste my reply because I really want to hear how you guys feel about this:
I think his conclusions are noteworthy:
Seems like the writer/director felt like they had to make this as absolutely reprehensible as possible in order to shock people in to seeing what is going on with children these days.
I'm kind of split on this. It's obvious that many parents have no idea what their children are doing online and need to really start paying attention. Does this issue warrant using this level of shock, though?
Fuck netflix either way for the way their promotional material framed this movie. I don't think I can bring myself to watch it but if it really is as reactionary as twitter dude said it was it then it's putting out a very important message. Instead netflix just wanted to coast on shock value and pedo-bait.
FuckSpez: added credit. Also give that guys tweets a read, they are pretty funny.
Y'know even if the movie was supposed to be a critique on modern culture and how society sexualizes children or whatever it was they were saying, the fact that it sexualizes children to this degree pretty much destroys any credibility for that.
It'd be like if I decided to do a movie on why animal abuse is bad but it was just two straight hours of me torturing animals. No one wants to see that, you don't need to show that to get your point across, and the only people who would enjoy something like that are the people you are trying to demonize.
Fuck, that's a way better way of putting it than I was able to. I'm stealing this.
I don't care if it's "reactionary" or a "critique". It's fucked up to have close-up shots of children's crotches while they're dancing provocatively. That's not necessary if your goal is to simply "critique" a culture. You can show what's going on with wide angle shots of the entire stage without zooming in on the sexual organs of pre-pubescent children.
The sorts of angles they showed in that film are what you'd see in a porn, not a TV show or movie. You don't get a free pass doing so just because you want to show people "what is going on with children these days"
You know, one thought I've had simmering on the back burner for several years now is that the entire culture war has been a staged play with the intention of easing the general public into understanding just how reprehensible many of the popular social justice causes actually are behind closed doors.
No idea if that's true, but things like this do make it sound more likely.
Utter BS. The west has more laws and harsher punishment for pedophilia than any other culture out there. Most ignore it or treat it as less sever than it is. Hell, look at the "Bacha Bazi" in Afghanistan. The UN covering up sexual assaults by their people on children. And many other examples. This is just trying to appease critics that are calling this what it really is.
Interesting take, I'd have to actually see the movie to agree/disagree and I'm not sure I want to. Depending on the messaging in the movie it could go either way. Like is the film highlighting and condemning these things? Or is it highlighting and then watching this girl descend into debauchery hoping the audience disapproves of it? In this fucked up timeline you simply can't expect the audience to react as you'd hope they would, you really need to drive home the message you're attempting to deliver or else the rampant subjectivists will have their way with you.
I'm in the same boat as you with regards to watching it.
From what I gathered from the twitter thread it seems like the movie is actually trying to portray everything in a negative way. It ends with the kid breaking down and the final shot is of her in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt jump roping with other kids her age, so the end message is pretty clear.
I'm just not sure about the approach it takes to get there.
Its still pretty fucked up in a sense though. Netflix could never have advertised this movie as a warning against 11yr olds getting sexual and abandoning their cultural traditions and morality, instead they had to run with everything we've seen so far.