Posted by Jneil at 24.130.119.178 on August 18, 2001 at 05:50:47:
I shouldn't be allowed at my computer after midnight; inhibitions are down and I tend to say more than I mean. That's good for writing novels and screenplays but not for online comments. I don't know why, but I'm more motivated to write when I'm pissed off than when I'm happy. I think Dogma's a wonderful film but did I post a glowing review of it on IMDB? Nope. Instead, a few days ago, I was mad at what I saw as some politically correct gay-flashing (does that work as a clever antonym for gay-bashing? Must consult rhyming dictionary when I'm more awake) in Chasing Amy, and perhaps too hastily posted the following on the Chasing Amy comment board on IMDB:
"Spoiler warning.
"Comic artist Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) meets up with comic artist Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) at a comics con. He's instantly attracted to her which is no surprise because we are, after all, talking about Joey Lauren Adams, who's a peach. Holden gets a message through a friend that Alyssa wants him to meet her at a club, which he does, without noticing that it's a lesbian bar ... and doesn't pick up on it until Alyssa starts making out on the dance floor with another blonde gal.
"Now, maybe it's just me, but I would have been out of there at that point. I don't care how beautiful Joey Lauren Adams is, but that's just rude. If you don't know what good manners is, there's a great definition in Blast From The Past: making someone feel as comfortable as possible. Alyssa fails this basic test of humanity. She then compounds this insensitivity by acting very un-lesbian in continued pursuit of Holden, clueless that of course he's going to fall in love with her, which he does, and equally clueless that she's falling in love with him. The impossible male fantasy comes true, Alyssa decides she's in love with Holden, too, and now writer-director Kevin Smith tortures us straight males by turning Holden into a complete moron who gets bent out of shape because -- surprise! -- Alyssa is sexually experienced. He manages to insult her beyond redemption and only too late realizes the error of his ways.
"Please! The error of HIS ways? He's manipulated from the first moment she lays eyes on him, and she does everything possible to hang him out to dry. Alyssa is as clueless about Holden as he is about her, and she's in control of every moment, yet we're supposed to identify with her indignation as Holden tries to come to terms with the experience gap between them?
"Kevin Smith is a great filmmaker. Dogma rocks. I haven't seen Clerks or Mallrats yet but will get ahold of them soon. I'll be first in line for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
"But if you're going to preach at me regarding treating straight and gay relationships as socially and morally equivalent, do it on an even playing field that doesn't assume the gays have wisdom by virtue of being gay. In And Out, a 1997 Kevin Kline comedy, pulled the same stunt by showing us that if a man who thinks he's straight has any taste at all, he just hasn't figured out yet that he's gay.
"Let's hear it for the Hollywood vision of the gay ubermensch. Seig Heil, baby.
"You want to see a fanboy/fangirl movie without the veneer of political hypocrisy, rent Free Enterprise instead."
Pretty harsh, huh? I guess I almost sort of regret posting that now. I was venting. Kevin, after reconsideration, I don't see you as part of the Hollywood mafia but I am so sick at being propagandized with attempts to redefine Hollywood's favored victims as the moral high ground that I spew, and may hit innocent bystanders. I guess it's the character (or lack of character) of Alyssa that royally ticks me off. If, in some Aristotelian sense, art is a selective re-creation of reality, then I am offended by Alyssa and Holden having been selected as representatives of this age of supposed sexual liberation. Because Alyssa's not liberated, to begin with. She's a mass of her own neuroses and prejudices. And, Kevin, you got to play God and decide what she was going to be, and what Holden was going to be, and I don't understand what point there was in making Holden even more of an asshole than she was. It's not like either of them was better off having collided with the other, or really learned better from the experience, and if they didn't, then what's there for me, your audience, other than a bitter aftertaste, after I'm done admiring the professionalism of the crafts you brought together?
Maybe you don't want to be taken this seriously, analyzed this much. Maybe being phsilsophically reflective isn't the point of what you're doing. But I always give artists the benefit of the doubt that what they put out is what they actually intended, and if I missed your point, I'd appreciate it if you corrected me.