Indie C and I have decided to expand the scope of Indie As to include all manner of things. Like movies, books, zines, designers, hand crafters, coffee, chefs and whatever else strikes our collective fancies. Since we both try our best to support Indie of all kinds we thought this blog would benefit from a wider net of interests.
That said, I bring you Diatribe Tuesday chock full of both diatribe-iness as well as a new angle. I want to talk about things that are marketed a certain way but aren’t actually what they’re being described as. Recently this seems to be the case with movies. Specifically movies I’m watching.
First there was Sunshine Cleaning. If the trailers where to be believed it was a funny and light hearted if somewhat dark comedy about sisters who clean up crime scenes in New Mexico. There are sisters who clean up crime scenes in New Mexico. It’s certainly dark. There was even a couple of slightly funny parts. Overall though? Agonizingly sad, heart wrenching and tear jerking. I left the theater feeling like someone punched me in the stomach. A wonderful movie, but I went in expecting a comedy and came out needing therapy and a hug from someone I love.
Then there was Away We Go, I’ve seen two distinct sets of trailers for this film. In most of them this is marketed as a funny movie about a young couple trying to decide where to live when they find out they’re having a baby. Again, there is a young couple trying to figure out where to live when they find out they’re having a baby. There are funny parts. All the funny parts are in those few trailers though and the rest of the film is pretty sad. There’s a man who’s wife leaves him to raise their daughter on his own, there’s a couple with a host of adopted children whom they adore but they continue having miscarriages when they try to have their own, the funniest part of the movie was the new age-y cousin or something who breast feeds while walking around and refuses to use strollers. The second set of trailers I’ve seen for this movie depict it as a quirky ‘coming of age’ for the grown up set. Saying specifically that the father of this unborn baby has a lot of growing up to do. Which may be true, but in the actual movie it’s both the parents who are trying to find their place in the world and figure out how to get their shit together in time for the baby.
Most recently we saw Where The Wild Things Are. That beautiful bastion from my childhood about a young boy on an adventure with Wild Things. This movie was absolutely positively beautiful. Stunning to look at. Remarkably well made and well acted. Even the kid who played Max had an eerie depth of personality that shone on the screen. NOT A CHILDREN’S MOVIE. The themes that are not directly expressed in the childrens book; loneliness, longing, a feeling of not belonging, are all very much expressed in the movie. The imagery is beautiful and moving but for a child I think it would go over their heads. Small children would probably be scared of the Wild Things (especially since they’re very aggressive in this movie) and older children would simply be bored with the pace of the movie and lack of interesting things to look at. When we were at the movie 2 young boys, probably 9 or 10 years old, where running around the theater obviously bored with the movie. (That’s a whole different diatribe for a different day.)
Film makers/advertising execs I implore you, make trailers that reflect the true nature of the film you’re trying to corral us into seeing. I would still have seen all three of these films without the false pretense but I would have gone in prepared with tissues and the mental fortitude needed to deal with dead moms, miscarriages and sad runaway children.
Posted in Diatribe Tuesday, Indie As Movie Edition
