Long story short, people, it’s better than What Is a Woman? We laughed until our facial muscles hurt. It’s really really funny.
Quite a few people attended the very first showing in our town. 1 pm on Thursday is not a popular time slot but people showed up and weren’t sorry.
Do yourselves a favor and go. It’s really funny. Even N who knows absolutely nothing about these Saira Raos and Jussie Smolletts was in stitches the entire time.
For very personal reasons, I’m uncomfortable with the movie format and won’t be going to see it. I understand it’s journalism and he’s doing valid work… but I have a huge huge issue with pretending to be someone you aren’t, in order to trick people into being on camera, so that you can later hold them up for public mockery. Even if they richly deserve it. It makes my skin crawl.
Dates back to the whole Borat thing. I hate that movie with the fire of a thousand suns.
But at the same time, I don’t go around trying to prevent people from watching it. I don’t think they understand what they are participating in, mostly. And if they do… well, I hope they find repentance. God forgives. But. I know people who liked it. I didn’t try to talk them out of that more than once. After the first couple of conversations about that… now I just let it inform me about what kind of person I’m dealing with, and I take precautions.
Can’t quite imagine a situation where I’d be so against a movie that I’d try to sabotage it… but still be trying to work at the theater that hosted it.
I hated Borat so much.
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It had nothing to do with vulgarity or tastefulness. It had to do with the fact that he ambushed ordinary people in their ordinary lives and jobs, who weren’t trying to be famous, plastered them across the big screen and made them public figures of mockery, very much against their wills. Some people *like* being in the public eye. All attention is good attention right? But there are a lot of people who break under that kind of pressure, and none of them asked for it. A lot of them were just trying to be nice and accommodating. But there they all are, forever on film, cast in the worst light that editing hours of video footage could give them. For money, and a laugh. ha. ha. ha. Cancelled before cancelling was cool: and to this day, if you look up any of the names of those unwilling participants online, their ignoble appearances in the movie they didn’t sign up for pop right up. It’s the most public thing that’s ever happened to them, and it’s still haunting their friend groups and their employment prospects almost two decades later. Things that go on the internet *seem* like they’re forever, but it’s possible to clutter search results, and even petition search engines to downgrade your results, after you’re not news anymore. Studio movies, though: they’re the gift that never seems to stop giving.
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I understand what you are saying but in what concerns Matt Walsh, he wouldn’t be able to air the footage if every single one of the participants hadn’t signed the release allowing him to do it. They are also received payment for participating. Often, a very large payment.
Borat I only watched for 3 minutes and don’t know what happened.
Borat had very comprehensive release forms too. He had all his legal bases covered.
I’ve been through that meat grinder with people I love, and even when the people targeted richly deserve it and must be exposed for the greater good… I can’t get any enjoyment out of it. It’s a deeply immoral and unethical thing to do.
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On Borat: “lot of them were just trying to be nice and accommodating”
One of the people he “caught” was the spouse of one of the best friends of a cousin. I’d met the person in passing.
I despise the whole Sacha Baron Cohen shtick which is mostly about making fun of people with non-prestige accents (Cohen’s natural accent is upper class British) and “gotcha!”-ing people who are trying to be polite.
Borat in particular also seems to come from the same source as Polish jokes in the US (middle class Jews whose ancestors from Eastern Europe regarded Slavs as filthy, drunken horn dogs).
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I was on suicide watch duty for a month because of that movie.
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…and as a result, it is hard for me to justify the tactics involved, even when the targets are not regular people. Yes their ideology needs to be exposed. No, this is not how you approach people in Christian love, and ultimately I am not at all sure the ends justify means here, even for Walsh who is at least somewhat on “my side”.
Principles matter. “We” shouldn’t be doing this.
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@methylethyl During the pandemic I became the kind of person who loved the coffin dancers wipeout death meme, and I am not proud of that.
Good for you for staying a better person. When I pray for things, I pray for the health of my kith & kin, not to harm others, but I still need to get rid of my mean streak.
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These are truly weird people. The movie takes aim specifically at rich grifters. That a movie theater employee on a minimum wage would be so taken up with compassion for the mega-wealthy Robin DiAngelo is very bizarre. So she had a few unpleasant minutes in exchange for making extraordinary sums of money for doing nothing. Big whoop. Why would anybody care?
“God loves her”
That’s his job. Not mine. I detested Borat because he was going after everyday people (who Cohen clearly despises) just trying to get through the day and trying to turn them into devils because they don’t stop what they’re doing to express philosemitic views….
Walsh (not crazy about him either) is going after (in RdA’s case) a famous person who wants to be more famous who’s a verbal abuser and con artist.
I’m not planning on watching the movie and there might be less deserving targets in the film but I’m not shedding any worry about someone who’s achieved fame and fortune through humiliating good-willed people.
Yeah. Like I said. They deserve it. But the tactics themselves are not something I can condone, and I hate to see anyone purportedly on “my side” using them. It makes me distrust Walsh.
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“the tactics themselves are not something I can condone”
What about project veritas and its mo (very clearly honey-trapping* people into saying the quiet part out loud)?
*the Planned Parenthood person was clearly being led on with promises of economic cooperation while mostly their targets are found on dating apps (and don’t wonder why this random hookup person seems soooooooooo interested in their job).
Mixed feelings. I’m less uncomfortable with what PV is doing, because so many of its targets have been engaged in activity that is overtly illegal, or that they, and their employers, have publicly stated *is not happening*.
There’s a continuum– a lot of gray area. I’m uncomfortable with lying in *any* situation, but understand it’s a necessary evil in some situations. We would not expect, for instance, intelligence agents, or undercover cops, to be frank and truthful all the time. We need them not to be.
But even in those situations… cops being allowed to lie to people has still been the source of serious miscarriages of justice.
The purpose of the thing matters. The PV videos I don’t object to as strongly, but they *still* make me profoundly uncomfortable, and I’d rather read the transcript. I think they do cross the line sometimes, and I wonder if there isn’t some other way to get at the information, without making some low-level office flunky permanently unemployable. Much like getting a Home Depot employee fired for their vile internet opinions. Yes they were vile. No, it’s not OK to make fun of the mentally handicapped. Nobody should feel good about that.
Movies, presented for entertainment and laughs, are a whole other level. Some dude on PV hidden cam… *might* disappear from an internet search in five years. Movies are much more permanent in their effect. It’s not that everybody remembers your face or anything, it’s that it stays in the search results for all eternity. You don’t recover from that. I appreciate that Walsh doesn’t seem to be targeting normal people… these people have the money and connections to recover from some uncontrolled publicity. It still makes me deeply uncomfortable. They are, of course, trying to destroy our country, and yes, it’s important for the public to understand who they truly are because they have an outsized influence on events and policy right now.
But I can’t enjoy it as entertainment, and it still kinda disturbs me that so many people do.
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HaHaHa LOL
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None of this is journalism, but I’m sure it’s entertaining.
It has to be funny if you’re laughing that hard without imbibing.
[ Comedy clubs often require a 2 drink minimum to make money and people who are tipsy tend to laugh harder at light chuckle jokes and bits.]
Guessing the reddit plotters don’t identify with the grifters so much as they hate Matt Walsh?
Would you see it in the theater again? Is it Saturday night worthy?
Did you and N support the film by buying food or beverages at the movie theater?
Or what kind of lunch did you ear before or afterwards?
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I actually had to resist the urge to return for another showing later in the day. I promised to go next week with s friend.
I watched each of Michael Moore’s documentaries at least 6 times, so this isn’t unusual for me.
I don’t know why it’s interesting but we ate borscht and kotlety with mashed potatoes inside. Unfortunately, we are no longer of the age when we can eat movie theater fare with impunity.
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Movie theaters make money on the concessions. They either lose money or break even on the tickets.
I only get theater food and drink if I’m specifically going to support someone in the film. Like I’m within 2 or 3 degrees of separation. Or I want more of this type to exist and/or the distributors are small and indie. The food and drink at theaters is expensive and not good and I don’t like eating and drinking in the dark.
Plus if you can say it’s date-night-dinner-and-a-movie material, maybe a witty satire.or a comedy, you can get more normies to watch the film.
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“PV …. so many of its targets have been engaged in activity that is overtly illegal”
I get that. On the other hand, many of those caught on camera are obviously pretty small fish and nowhere near decision making positions and often seem to be trying to impress this person that seems so fascinated by their work…
For me, a big part of the decision is public vs private… Borat went after private people just going about their business while RdA has been extremely public.
On the other hand, given the state of the economy I’m fairly sure that some of the targets are people who don’t really believe that crap but are doing a job to put food on the table. It’s like being a teacher in a repressive regime… they have to say a lot of stupid, false crap.
I have the idea (from some things I’ve seen) that the racism educators don’t necessarily believe the crap they’re saying but I might be imagining that due to my general Pollyannaish ‘try to see the good’ approach to life…..
Still not a fan of Matt Walsh and I’m not planning on seeing the movie.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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