kirr

andre was born in germany, a country where men are traditionally extremely strong and extremely masculine, although he came to america at the age of 1, his father grew up there, and most likely pushed and passed down his learned traits to andre. in fact, andre tells us that his father taught him how to hunt from a young age, he’s been exposed to these expectations and what a man “should be” for years now. andre also displays an aversion to women the entire movie, referring to rachel as a “bitch”, and not wanting to be asked to prom by one, he hates the idea of being associated with anything feminine. i believe he also dislikes women because he’s a little jealous of them, even if he doesn’t realize it. because it’s socially acceptable for women to like men, it’s socially acceptable for rachel to go to prom with cal, but this isn’t the case for him.

cal is more free with his emotions than andre is, he shows happiness, sadness, and he has humor. i suspect andre was taught that men shouldn’t show their emotions, because it’s seen as weak, obviously we get instances of andre being happy or nervous, but almost the entire movie his feelings come out as anger, because he was taught that being angry is the only acceptable way to react as a “real” man. and much of his anger is projected onto cal, maybe because he’s resentful cal is able to express himself, something he was never allowed to do due to his upbringing and the bullying when he did try. andre swaps out his true interests with this need for violence and he uses zero day as a circumvent for his feelings towards cal. when they’re loading their guns, andre tells cal “i couldn’t have done this with anyone else, i don’t know what would’ve happened to me if we weren’t friends.” and for once in this movie he sounds human, he sounds vulnerable, something we’ve never seen from him. he doesn’t know his fate after this, and he can’t run away from his feelings anymore, the distraction’s is gone. they have no more missions, no more planning. so he lets his guard down for the only person he feels safe enough to do it around, the closest thing he’ll get to accepting himself.

"i know it's hard for ya'll... or really anyone to believe i would be struggling with something like this, but it is very real"