emily watches movies

2019: a year in films & TV

Bonus:

More research for the film “A Monster Calls”.

me: 

alex strangelove was one of the best films I’ve ever seen and it deals with both internal homophobia and casual pressure/homophobia in a high school environment and y'all are shitting all over it bc

1: “DeLL wAs HoMopHoBiC/BiPhObiC/tHRew A PedOpHiLe oRgAniZaTiOn iN wiTh LgBtQ+ sExUaLiTiEs!!!”

uh, yeah. unfortunately, most high schoolers are like that and the fact that you think that should be erased and therefore undermine the struggles lgbtq+ youth suffer through so the kids look like they’re being overdramatic and are overreacting is more disgusting than some of dell’s statements. his character arc was also wildly realistic (homophobia in the beginning but cheering and pumping his fist and smiling when he sees alex kiss elliot) and it’s ridiculous that y'all aren’t satisfied when given actual true-to-life rep of teens and humans and how they work bc showing gay youth that they’ll absolutely get no homophobia is unrealistic (unfortunately) and damaging to them and their mindset of their sexuality

2: “CLaiRe wAs hOmOpHoBiC tO ALeX aT tHe eNd!!!”

well duh lmao if I had been dating my favorite most trusted person in the world and they told me they weren’t in love with me and never had been and never would be capable of doing so I’d be a bit taken aback and shook as well honestly her reaction was accurate and expected

3: “nEtfLiX Bi-bAiTeD uS!!! wE nEeD mOrE ThAn ciS WhiTe gAy bOyS!!!”

again, we’re talking confused and confusing high schoolers here and obviously bisexuality isn’t just a stepping stone into homosexuality but identifying as bi sometimes does help teenagers become more comfortable with their sexuality. yes, I agree we need more PoC and lesbian/pan/ace/bi/lbtq+ rep, but we also need more gay rep. the film industry is (obviously) so dominated with heterosexual cis relationships that gay rep is a huge win for the community bc we need it. it’s huge progress, and especially when in such a realistically portrayed high school environment!!! plus creating more realistic + beautiful lgbtq+ films like alex strangelove and love, simon might be a stepping stone into the + part of the acronym!!!

Me: Moonlight had six golden globe nominations and has such a meaningful story and beautiful cinematography but it took me two Wal-Marts and a Target to find it and when I did, it was with all the really corny stupid movies that are on clearance because no one wants to watch them and in my search I discovered that it costs less then Twilight: Breaking Dawn which I found near the front of the store with all the really good, newer movies despite the Twilight series being fucking terrible and this is coming from the person who always defends that the books aren’t as bad as the movies. As a person who enjoys the Twilight books I can admit that the series is pretty shitty. I knew the minute I noticed it, it was because Moonlight is about a queer man of color living in the slums whereas Twilight is just rich white people (excluding the werewolves, that was one thing they did right) and only has like a single black person in it (if you squint) and all of them are straight. As a queer woman of color I think that’s complete bullshit. Everyone talks about how Love, Simon, Call Me By Your Name and Alex Strangelove are amazing stories but I haven’t heard shit about Moonlight and we all know damn well that It’s because they’re all focused around white gays. (no hate to any of these movies, especially Love, Simon considering Simon’s love interest is black but c'mon, they had us believing Blue was a white boy for like 4/5 of the movie) It just irritates me that It’s already really hard to find movies with black protagonists (we’re starting to get there though but we still don’t have a lot of dark skinned rep) much less gay black protagonists and when they give us this amazing story showcasing both everyone is just ignoring it.

White person: well Zendaya is in a bunch of popular movies! Light skinned people are just more attractive!!

Me (a mixed, light-skinned woman):