As a lily livered liberal, I do cringe a bit when they bring up social correctness type of issues. I suppose they're not actually that bad, though - more tone-deaf on the subject than actively twatty and mostly from Mike Stoklasa, who seems increasingly run down and hacked off as time goes by.
I would actually like it if they brought up things like this more often -- given its increasing entanglement with mainstream cinema and film culture these days. And I don't think they come across as tone-deaf at all. Equality involves acknowledging that women and other marginalized individuals are simple human beings: sure, they can offer a different perspective on life from a unique point of view - but they are still only humans, and are therefore probably just as shit as everybody else.
I think that RLM, despite being basically hicks, are a good example of people who view equality in this way. In fact, for me, their approach to these issues is some of the sanest I’ve seen around. It’s nice to have someone who can give a nuanced critique of social justice issues, in a world where most people view them as a superficial black and white tribal affair.
The only video I can think of that possibly flipped into Bad territory was the one where they spent 60% of it talking about a Brie Larson press conference, because it just seemed far disproportionate.
As a woman myself, I found that “This movie wasn’t made for men” speech to be completely deranged, and merited more discussion than the film. It amounted to nothing more than encouraging divisiveness between the two sexes, masquerading under the banner of social justice and equality.
They will never understand
our girl movies, isn't that right ladies? Fuck off. Why promote the notion that women are so alien to men, and vice versa? Why is it that both sexes can never understand the other’s struggles and points of view? But perhaps she’s just an idiot. And so are, perhaps, the endorsers of the whole “female lead GO GIRL empowerment” scam. Mate, your movie is just shite.
I think they make good points about the exploitation of social issues for the cynical purposes of corporate monetary gains. Soulless and outright evil corporations are forgiven, and even praised, for championing "representation" of women in film. Whereas, in reality, their team of market researchers and psychologists have established that making a big deal about representation and demographics = controversy = free promotion = big monies. No, young ladies, Sony and Disney don't give a flying fuck about social inequality; they seek nothing but profits. And no, young men, they are not part of a “femininist conspiracy” either; your anger is nothing more than a marketing tool.
The 2016 Ghostbusters movie also demonstrates the replacement of critique with tribalism. People were labelled as sexist for pointing out the obvious Sandleresque levels of awfulness in the film. A big movie with women leads was actually plain shite, and full of unscrupulous adverts? No, of course not, we must unconditionally love the corporate gruel that contains
the female, or perish. Ditto the new series of Doctor Who. Ditto Clinton. Ditto female billionaires.
Thousands upon thousands of morons proudly proclaimed to have watched this garbage in the theatres multiple times, just to spite the white male nerds. That will show them “Nazis”!!! And of course we need to support poor old Sony Corp, for standing up for the little guy. I mean girl – whoops. As if the same companies wouldn’t throw any marginalized demographic under the bus as soon as they become unprofitable.
Of course, I would really like to see more diversity in the movie industry, but this is just not the way.
They are sensitive to what they perceive as studio pandering, so I understand how you could come away with that impression. My perception though, is that they have no problem with women or minorities, they have a problem with women or minorities being cynically used by studios. In all my years watching RLM, I've never seen them have a problem with casting in the same way "nerd culture" can tend to. It's a fine line to walk, but to me it's clear they're on the right side of this one.
Basically this. Although bizarrely, those men who bemoan diversity will also go and watch the next pretend feminist Marvel movie, so beholden are they to the brand. The values and convictions of nerds are completely meaningless, and the PR departments know precisely that. The nerd is one of the most perfect examples of a consumer, and will consume exactly as he is told. So it's a win on both sides.
In the end, movies get worse and worse, sequel after prequel after remake – meaningless, churned out, beige products of capitalism. Flashy sounds and images hiding behind the most sensitive social issue of the week, still inherently uniform and devoid of all meaning and artistic value. Women lose. Men lose. As Mike himself said, "Anybody who enjoys cinema as an art form loses". But I guess this is a world of corporate shilling, brand loyalty wars, cultivated consumer identities based around movie franchises, trailer whooping, toy captain America shield-wielding, DisneysTM Star WarsTM Kylo RenTM Garden Salad munching imbeciles.
Ideally, RLM would completely stop reviewing the monthly Disney's Marvel's Corporatesludge movies, just for principles sake. Maybe only talk about the big picture of it all, rather than treating the individual films as if they are actually cinema and not a product. They seemed to understand this with Jack and Jill, but have a curious blind spot when it comes to big budget superhero fare. Even if the movie might have been competently executed, they are still giving the whole machine a low-level endorsement. And I do think that deep down it’s something that they themselves would believe to be the right thing to do.
....eh, I mean.... AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIDS
