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Reviews
A Vigilante (2018)
Angry Birds
It must be nice -- indeed wonderful -- to express and share one's neuroses and persecution complexes with the world and receive external funding and promotion to boot!
Currently, the world in general and America and Hollywood in particular are enduring womens' cathartic outrage at "The Patriarchy." "A Vigilante" is the latest symptom of the distaff neurosis, courtesy of a couple of angry "birds": writer-director Sarah Daggar-Nickson and star-co-producer Olivia Wilde.
Professional critical opinion (i.e., by scribes who actually get paid for, and earn a living by, critiquing movies) of "A Vigilante" is, by and large, favorable. The consensus seems be that it is a "must see" inspiration with an important message for us all.
That's as maybe.
By my lights, "A Vigilante" is merely another formulaic entry in the, for me, tiresome Revenge subgenre. Similarities to "Death Wish" are obvious. Any deeper, more significant, and psychologically complex meaning to the story is strictly subjective, IMO.
Daggar-Nickson simultaneously earns and loses points for not exhibitionistically and fetishistically showcasing the violent justice that Wilde's two-fisted protagonist rains upon her victims. We see the results of her violence against the first villain but not the actual beating. Ditto her dispatch of the ultimate bad guy near the story's end. But by shorthanding the violence, Daggar-Nickson also makes it ridiculous and unbelievable. The final battle between the titular avenger and her nemesis seems almost an afterthought (Oh yeah. By the way, she won the fight. 'Nuff said.) The audience for this sort of "entertainment" is deprived of the thrill to satisfy and slake its sick bloodlust (i.e., its need for "payback"). "Boo-hoo."
For me, "A Vigilante" "jumped the shark" when the protagonist, subdued and tied up escapes her bonds via a subcutaneous razor blade -- utterly absurd and appallingly bad storytelling that, alone, negates arguments that "A Vigilante" is anything more than a routine, run-of-the-mill "B-movie" potboiler.
Whether making movies such as "A Vigilante" is more beneficial and therapeutic than seeing a psychoanalyst to cope with personal neuroses and complexes is, perhaps, a financial consideration. Either you pay or you get someone else (movie studios, movie audiences) to pay. Filmmakers such as Sarah Daggar-Nickson and Olivia Wilde have figured out the angles and know a good deal when they see one.
Beauty Bites Beast (2016)
Empower Outage
As a mother's son and sisters' brother, I understand the point of "Beauty Bites Beast": the world is a scary place for women, who need to learn to defend themselves.
As a man, I found the documentary to be yet another tiresome misandrist manifesto (pardon me, womanifesto) declaring Men as The Enemy and Women as Eternal Victims (of Men). Its presentation, to me, was offensive, simplistic, and ridiculing. The male narrator alone deserves a good, swift kick in the cojones for his annoying, belittling tone.
Not all physical attacks on women are by men. I would have been more receptive to BBB had the producers been equitable and also reported on women-on-women violence. Case 1: the recent shooting of Marshae Jones in Alabama. Case 2: a woman friend who was brutally battered and bloodied by a psychotic member of her own sex (for being overweight) -- that case was also in the national news.
Yes, self-defense is good to know. But, it is no guarantee against being victimized. While in college I took a class in self-defense . . . skills that were absolutely useless when I was mugged several years later. The mugger held me up at gunpoint (guns: the great equalizer) and didn't even bother to get out of his car. Because a judo flip, karate chop, or wrestling chokehold can't deflect a bullet, I complied with the mugger's order and handed over my wallet.
Role model Nia Sanchez (2014 Miss USA), profiled in BBB, is a fourth-degree Black Belt. What happens when male attackers also know martial arts? See the news story on Rachael Ostovich-Berdon. What happens if Ms. Sanchez is attacked by a FIFTH-degree Black Belt? Again, martial arts does not endow someone with invincibility. See the news story about Olympic Judo medalist Dirk Van Tichelt.
. . . and what happens when male predators watch BBB ("Hmmm. Looks like I better take a self-defense class!")?
The Web is scrofulous with videos and news stories (many of which hail from Brazil) of women beating up men and besting male attackers. Perversely, much of such entertainment is consumed by, produced by and produced for a weird subculture of submissive, masochistic "men" who get off on being physically, psychologically, and verbally dominated and humiliated by "Amazon women."
Male aggression, male violence, and "toxic masculinity" do not result because they are learned behaviors taught only by men to men. Women need to take responsibility in such inculcation. When women pay more than lip service to wanting "men to become more like women" (and in the idealistic context of "equality," what does THAT even mean?) . . .
. . . when women start walking their talk and begin admiring, desiring, and respecting the "Sensitive Man" ("beta males," "omega males") instead of wetting their panties over macho male sports jocks and military jarheads and romantically fantasizing about fifty shades of alpha dog magnates . . .
. . . MAYBE the world will change and peace, love, and harmony between the sexes will blossom, flower, thrive, and prevail. Until then, take your empowering self-defense classes, Wonder Woman, and address the symptom but not the cause of the problem.
SheChotic (2018)
Behind Da Mask
If you like booties -- B-I-G booties -- then SheCotic is the movie for you!
If you like psychologically complex characters -- with B-I-G booties -- then SheCotic is the movie for you!
If you like badass sistahs packin' brass knuckles and samurai swords -- and B-I-G booties -- then SheCotic is the movie for you!
Check this out:
After hawt homegrrl Maxine, who is a split personality, finds out that her boo (lyin', cheatin' no-account rapper Lance) is two-timin' her with bangin' video ho' Brenda, her psycho bitch Dark Side kicks in, impelling her to go full-on, full-out ghetto on his sorry ass. She overpowers him, beats him, 'cuffs him, kidnaps him, slyly slips him a Viagra Mickey Finn and forcefully rapes him*. Dang! Some dudes have all the luck!
SheCotic is kinda like Repulsion cum Sisters if Roman Polanski and Brian De Palma had, y'know like, grown up in Da Hood. But what triple-threat (writer, director, producer) Leandre Fiori lacks in those filmmakers' creativity and style, he makes up for in casting and fetishism. Right from Jump Street, in the opening shot, Fiori thrillingly presents his artistic focus and vision. And that focus and vision is gloriously, delightfully, tantalizingly on big hips, big thighs (a special shout out to Brother Fiori for scoping the varicose-veined hams on supa fine Maya Tai Dorsey), and B-I-G booties! Can I get an "AMEN!", y'all!
I have seen the (Baby got back to the) future of "Black Cinema" -- and it is badonkadonk, y'all!
* Incongruously, filmmaker Fiori prefaces his flick with a disclaimer concerning violence against women. Say w-h-a-t?! I guess in the #MeToo era, female violence against males is totally copacetic.