This Week We Swing Your Way with:
- a doc on a 90s classic
- a take on an instant classic(?)
- a request to an untamed web
- a search for reclusive drummer
- a talk with a ubiquitous comedian.
Thanks to Ruck Cohlchez, wallflower, and scb0212 for contributing this week! Send articles throughout the next week to ploughmanplods [at] gmail, post articles from the past week below for discussion, and Have a Happy Friday!
For Jezebel, profiles trans filmmaker Sav Rogers and his upcoming documentary looking back at Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy:
Chasing Amy gave Rodgers language that set him on his journey to becoming himself, but he couldn’t have predicted just how much it would align with his life. As he points out to his wife toward the end of the movie: “Let’s talk about the fact that you still call yourself a lesbian, despite being married to a man—very Alyssa of you.” […] “I’m thankful that this idea of restrictive labels have not held our relationship back,” said Rodgers in his interview, while acknowledging, “If I had written this as a screenplay, I would have been told to go back to the drawing board because it was too unrealistic.”
Meanwhile at Vox, Alex Abad-Santos reports fans are noticing a lot of trans imagery around Spider-Gwen in the new movie:
In Gwen’s characterization on-screen in both movies, the character never explicitly identifies as transgender or cisgender, but artists in Across the Spider-Verse drape the character in the colors of the transgender flag — light pink, light blue, and white. They show up in her constantly changing hair, and around her in her room. These colors are especially pronounced when Gwen is in her own world, where the artistic conceit is that the colors around her reflect her feelings. In a sequence where she talks to her father about her secret identity, a moment where she’s afraid and anxious, the room she’s in melts away into those pinks, blues, and whites. Perhaps it’s all a coincidence, but these artists — the same ones who deliberately put the “protect trans kids” flag in Gwen’s room — are aware of the symbolism of these colors.
TorrentFreak’s Ernesto van der Star on the call from actors for Reddit to filter uploads of nude scenes:
Actress Andrea Vagn Jensen, who has had one of her explicit scenes shared online, explains to DR that there’s a huge difference between appearing naked in a film and being posted on Reddit. “It’s just abuse. You deliver something for the production and the story, and then you end up being molested that way,” Jensen notes.
Elle’s Melissa Giannini searches for the elusive Meg White of The White Stripes:
This past February, when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame listed the duo among its annual nominees for induction, it seemed that finally the world had come around to realizing what Jack knew all along. While they didn’t make the final list, getting nominated in their first year of eligibility solidified one thing: The White Stripes have reentered the chat. And I figured, maybe, just maybe, awash in a sea of long-overdue accolades, Meg might finally agree to talk to me.
At the New York Times, Sam Anderson talks to Tim Robinson and pontificates on “cringe comedy”:
Over the past 20 years, American culture has been gorging itself nearly to death on cringe comedy. “The Office”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Veep,” “The Rehearsal.” What is this deep hunger? Why, in an era of polarization, widespread humiliation and literal insurrection — in a nation full of so much real-life cringing — would we want to watch people simulating social discomfort? It hurts enough, these days, just to exist. I think it’s for the same reason, actually, that we enjoy eating spicy food: what scientists call “benign masochism.” In a harsh world, it can be soothing to microdose shots of controlled pain. Comforting, to touch the scary parts of life without putting ourselves in real danger. Humor has always served this function; it allows us to express threatening things in safe ways. Cringe comedy is like social chile powder: a way to feel the burn without getting burned.
And finally, The Wrap‘s Steve Pond interviews Al Yankovic about what inspired him to make his own fake biopic:
Yankovic: For the longest time, I thought, “It is what it is: It’s a Funny or Die viral video.” I showed it in my live concerts for about a decade, ‘cause I do a lot of costume changes on stage, and it always got a huge reaction. And after shows, people would be like, “When’s the movie coming out? This sounds amazing.” And I’d have to explain how it’s just a bit. It wasn’t until about three years ago that out of the blue I emailed Eric and said, “I think it might be time.” ‘Cause “Bohemian Rhapsody” had come out — famously not accurate in a lot of ways, but it won a lot of awards and is very, very popular. And I thought, it’s time to puncture the biopic genre once again.
