BEFORE: After watching "Solo: A Star Wars Story" I sat in on a podcast called Wrong Reel, where I was labelled the token Star Wars "superfan" - which is a moniker that used to have some negative connotations, but I guess those days are gone and it's OK for me to appear in public with that moniker. If you want to listen to that podcast, you can find it here:
https://wrongreel.com
I not only had to review my credentials as a superfan, but explain my "holistic" (OCD) approach to watching movies, where I obsessively feel the need to link movies by shared actors whenever possible. Of course some exceptions are made, because it's not always possible, but with careful planning, it's possible about 99% of the time.
Woody Harrelson carries over from "War for the Planet of the Apes" for his 3rd film in a row, and his fourth film this year. I've got more films with him on the docket, but I'll have to circle back in August or September (which works because one film is set in a school) because I want to program something for Memorial Day and I have to cut the Harrelson chain short in order to get there.
THE PLOT: Fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the U.S., where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
AFTER: See, this is where my process gets a bit confusing. This film shares two actors with "Three Billboards", why didn't I go here after that film? Well, the short answer is that then I needed a connection with Caleb Landry Jones in it, and I had several paths leading away from it, and I chose to follow it with another Sam Rockwell film, because that made sense at the time and it got me closer to where I needed to be next. And I recorded "North Country" to go on a DVD with "Norma Rae", thinking one or both would make a good Labor Day film, but then I realized that I needed this one as a link to tomorrow's film, which is extremely difficult to link to. Some films are so difficult to get to that they'll sit on the bottom of my list for months or years, and if I happen to find a way to work them in, I have to take it, because that may not come around again.
So, as a result, I've got the difficult task of reviewing this right after two sci-fi blockbusters, and maybe trying to find some common ground. But hey, I'm a professional, so here goes. "Solo" had a sub-plot about equal rights for droids, one robot saw itself as a liberator, trying to free others from their service to humans. Then in "War for the Planet of the Apes" it was all about equal rights for apes, trying to advance in a human-based world. And now tonight it's all about equal rights in the workplace. There, see, that wasn't so difficult, was it? It's just three films about equal rights.
Of course, this one is the most relevant to our current situation, what with #metoo and #timesup and our current commander-in-chief's history of grabbing women by the you-know-what, "moving in on them like a bitch" and whatnot. And his classy move to seduce women, apparently, was to buy them furniture. Ugh, that's so disgusting, forcing women to endure HIS taste in furniture. I can't even imagine, that's probably all gold-plated gaudy furniture that didn't match anything else in their houses or apartments. But I digress.
It wasn't that long ago when there wasn't even such a THING as sexual harassment. I mean, obviously it existed, but not in those terms, and not as a legal reason to file a complaint. Prior to 1984, apparently, there was NO recourse for a woman being harassed, except to quit her job, or to just endure it. That seems unthinkable now in today's modern world - but of course, thirty-plus years of litigation probably hasn't eliminated harassment, any more than we've eliminated racism or bullying or financial inequality (or pollution or global warming or childhood hunger, etc.). It seems like all we've done is become more "aware" of these problems, and I'm just not sure where that gets us.
Right or wrong, and I'm going to go with "wrong" here, the patriarchy was in place for thousands of years, and it just wasn't going to go away overnight. Change takes time, which I understand is small consolation to the person being harassed or discriminated against. And "it gets better" is just a platitude, unfortunately, for anyone crying out against any injustice. It gets better faster when you file a lawsuit and hit those corporate weasels where it really hurts, in the wallet. Even then, it took time for the legal system to find a way to apply the concept that maybe people should, on the whole, treat other people better and there was no dignity in sticking with the old method of turning a blind eye to sexism, racism and any other discrimination.
But I worry that now we've created a culture where, for every one person with boots on the ground fighting for change and equality on a practical level, there are 1,000 people on social media saying "Guys, come on, we have to DO something about this!" and they've fooled themselves into thinking that they are doing something. No, they're just TALKING about doing something, which is not the same thing. And this is how PC culture was born, from a genuine desire to try to accomplish, as long as that doesn't interfere with our social lives or binge-watching the next 27 episodes of "The Big Bang Theory". So here's to the doers, not the talkers.
What came up yesterday while recording the podcast was my encounter, during film school, with one particular future filmmaker, who now stands accused of harassment - Brett Ratner. I've decided I can talk about this now, because the rest of the world seems to have joined me now in my assessment of him, and he can't sue me for libel or slander, as long as everything I say is true, which it is. I was on a four-person production crew with him during my sophomore year at NYU, and this meant that each person on the crew would direct several 8mm films during the class, and there were four rotating crew positions: director, editor, and 2 camera crew. When it was your turn to be editor, that meant you were in the editing room working on your own short film, leaving the director with 2 crewmen. The way it worked out, Ratner was supposed to crew for me, and I was supposed to crew for him.
During the 12 (?) weeks of shooting, when I was the director, he never showed up for me. Not once. Which left me with a one-person crew every single time - my friend Hakon from Norway was also in the crew, but he was always scheduled to edit when I was the director, leaving me with less help, just one girl, and I've forgotten her name, but she was very helpful to me. Still, I had to act as director, cameraman, and even actor on my own films. I was sort of like an 18-year old Orson Welles, only without the talent.
When Ratner was the director, I did everything that was asked of me, and I never called him out on the fact that he never showed up, not once. Maybe I should have. Then while directing his films, he spent every spare moment - no matter where we were, in the park, on the subway - trying to pick up girls. And his signature move was to offer them chewing gum - I ended up making a film about a guy who tried to pick up girls with gum, but since he wasn't there to crew for me, and probably ignored everyone else's films during class, I bet he never even noticed. Anyway, his behavior just sickened me, a guy who was always on the make, who thought he was the most charming, most suave person ever.
I spent the next 25 years trying to avoid watching his movies, but still noting that he became a well-paid, famous director and producer (of the worst "X-Men" movie by far, and probably the worst Hannibal Lecter movie as well...). Occasionally there would be some gossip about him and an ex-girlfriend like Serena Williams or Rebecca Gayheart, or some actor would say something in vested terms like "Oh, I'll never work for Brett Ratner again..." but decline to give specifics. Then when he got caught up in the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and attention started to focus on his (alleged) reputation for harassment too, I wasn't the least bit surprised. And no one could have been more thrilled, except perhaps the women filing claims against him, I suppose.
Still, I wonder, what would have happened if I had busted him back in film school? Should I have gone to my teacher and pointed out that he never showed up when he was supposed to? Could I have caused him to fail that class, drop out of NYU and never get any further in the film business? Would I have acted any differently if I thought I could have saved women from harassment in the future? I guess we'll never know - but maybe he would have gone on to be a total douchebag no matter what profession he fell into. I hope against hope that my inaction doesn't imply that I somehow condoned his treatment of women as sex objects, or that I was somehow complicit. But I decided that it wasn't up to me to force better behavior on him, and that I was incapable of reaching inside his brain and getting him to see how his actions and attitude were potentially hurtful in the long run.
So there you go. Now, if anyone wants to call me as a character witness about that man's actions in 1987 and how they related to the society we all lived in back then, I stand ready to serve. It's literally the least I can do. The larger question that I now have to wrestle with is - now that we've been told that we have to basically boycott certain actors and directors, where do we draw the line? Bill Cosby, sure, that'll be easy. Roman Polanski, OK, I'm with you, even though I just watched "Carnage" a few weeks ago. Kevin Spacey? OK, now it's getting tougher, can I avoid Jeffrey Tambor for a while and get back to you on Spacey? Dustin Hoffman? See, now we're getting a little silly. Morgan Freeman? God damn it, now we're going just a bit too far. Right? Umm, right?
Anyway, I talked about everything else today except the specifics of the movie. Just in case that's why you came here, it's an all right film - a bit dated now, of course, but ultimately that's a good thing, since it features sexist attitudes that are better left in the past. Richard Jenkins had a tough job as Josey's father, Hank, who has to demonstrate the old patriarchal attitudes at the start. He actually blames his daughter for her marital troubles, including the fact that her husband abused her! That's a very fine line to walk and not create a character that the audience will hate. But ultimately he stands by his daughter (doing so a little earlier would have been more helpful) and gets the other tough, manly miners to re-consider their attitudes toward women by pointing out that every woman is someone's daughter, wife or sister, and this manages to drive the point home. Why people couldn't just be excellent to each other from the start is a larger question that the film just doesn't have time to answer - but can't we all at least try this, going forward? Seeing as how the old system didn't really work, I'm just saying.
Also starring Charlize Theron (last seen in "The Huntsman: Winter's War"), Frances McDormand (last seen in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"), Richard Jenkins (last seen in "God's Pocket"), Sissy Spacek (last seen in "Crimes of the Heart"), Sean Bean (last seen in "The Young Messiah"), Jeremy Renner (last seen in "Arrival"), Chris Mulkey (last seen in "Truth"), Corey Stoll (last seen in "Gold"), Amber Heard (last seen in "Justice League"), Michelle Monaghan (last seen in "Patriots Day"), Cole Williams, Thomas Curtis, Elle Peterson, Rusty Schwimmer (last seen in "EdTV"), Jillian Armenante, Linda Emond, Brad William Henke (last seen in "Bright"), Xander Berkeley (last seen in "Tapeheads"), John Aylward, Tom Bower, Jacqueline Wright, James Cada.
RATING: 5 out of 10 karaoke songs
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