PolyPinoyPuppy:Quite a scathing review of the movie. Things like this make me wonder if we'll ever see fat celebrated or even just accepted in our culture.
www.polygon.com/reviews/23351261/the-whale-review-brendan-fraserMunchies:This isn't even a good review. The whole thing is "movie bad because fat people are gross and stupid". That's it. There's nothing of substance at all.
Did we read the same thing? That isn't at all how I read the review at all. If anything, the reviewer levies against the movie the same criticisms you have for her review:
In The Whale, Aronofsky posits his sadism as an intellectual experiment, challenging viewers to find the humanity buried under Charlie’s thick layers of fat. That’s not as benevolent of a premise as he seems to think it is. It proceeds from the assumption that a 600-pound man is inherently unlovable. It’s like walking up to a stranger on the street and saying, “You’re an abomination, but I love you anyway,” in keeping with the strong strain of self-satisfied Christianity that the film purports to critique. Audience members get to walk away proud of themselves that they shed a few tears for this disgusting whale, while gaining no new insight into what it’s actually like to be that whale. That’s not empathy. That’s pity, buried under a thick, smothering layer of contempt.
The reviewer's tone is one of absolute disdain for the movie's "fable" and for all of its premises, such as the idea that fat people are disgusting--that they are people *despite* being fat, rather than fat being just one part of their lives:
For a movie that, in the most generous reading possible, encourages viewers to consider that maybe there’s a painful backstory behind bodies they consider “disgusting” (the movie’s word), The Whale seems to have little interest in the point of view of its protagonist, Charlie (Brendan Fraser.
PolyPinoyPuppy:
The reviewer came across as nothing but critical of the movie's reinforcement of the status quo perception of fat people as less than human--as whales.
This is what I get for reading at work during a stressful day. I reread the article. Apparently, I am having an off day.
