i used to really really love romantic comedies. i used to be way more starry eyed and hopeful and stupid about love. lately, i'd rather watch some zombies destroy a corpse than watch he's just not that into you. (a movie which, by the way, made me lose my shit the other night with it's unrealisticness. "you're my exception" indeed. fuck you, he's just not that into you. way to turn a funny book into a bullshit movie. there is no justin long-esque light at the end of the tunnel.)
ANYYYYYWAY... that being said, I watched the most adorable movie the other night. It is called Imagine Me and You and it's pretty much about that girl from coyote ugly and that girl from the terminator tv show (hot tattoos and all) falling in love. You guys should all watch it, it's totally cute. But that isn't really the point of my blogs first soapbox.
I will compare it to my 2 other favorite romantic movies: my favorite movie of all time, Moulin Rouge and my favorite romantic comedy Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Moulin Rouge has definite sexual references. Satine fakes an orgasm while Christian reads poetry to her. Her entire character is sexualized... shes a prostitute. They drink absinthe and hallucinate. I'm not saying any of this makes it any less of the most beautiful astounding movie I have ever seen. My point is this: rated PG-13.
Nick and Norah.... also definite sexual references. You listen to the 2 main characters have sex. Norah's friend Caroline is drunk the entire movie and has lines like "balls deep. Sounds fun, right? not always...." once again, not making it any less adorable and amazing. But also rated PG-13.
Imagine Me and You is a cute love story (that also stars anthony stewart head from Buffy!! eeee!!!) about a married woman that falls in love with a woman that runs a flower shop. There is NO language. NO nudity. Not even a sex scene, implied or otherwise. There is a scene where the two women kiss, completely non gropy and completely clothed, for all of maybe 5 seconds. This movie is rated R. My guess is that is to procted you, the viewer, from the potentially damaging lesbians.
This reminds me of when I was a teenager. I was lucky enough to watch and see firsthand (with my MOM of all people, a huge Ellen fan) the Ellen Degeneres coming out episode. I think I was about 16 or 17 and it was one of the hugest events that has ever happened to me. It was during a time when almost all of my friends were gay, I had an undeniable crush on one of my best friends that graduated the year before (I ended up dating her for about a year), and I was insisting that none of that meant I was gay. How can you be gay in Mesquite, Texas? And I had always had crushes on boys (still do, sometimes, I'm not gonna lie). I still have the journal I wrote in from those years and whenever I read it I want to go back in time and let that silly, terrified girl know that everything will be ok. I would tell her that she was going to meet amazing friends who loved her for who she was and would have Gay Movie Night with her. I would tell her that when she grew up, younger gay kids would visit her at work and ask her advice and look up to her and she could tell them things really would be ok. I would tell her that her mom was going to be just fine with it and that she will love one of your ex girlfriends as her own kid and still buy her Christmas presents years after you broke up. And maybe i would tell her to avoid that first girl, the one from high school, like the plague. :) But I digress...
One of the most damaging things to my coming out process is attrubuted to the Ellen show. Or rather, what happened immediately before the show started for almost all the episodes after she came out: the parental advisory before the show. Watch out parents. You are about to watch a person being open about who she is and talking about love and doing nothing more shocking than holding hands and kissing another person. People on Hannah Montana hold hands and kiss. It is one of the most innocent things in the world.
Things like the R rating for Imagine Me and You and the parental advisory before Ellen will always remind me of being a scared, confused kid and being told by the MPAA and whatever the hell it is that puts parental advisories on TV shows that I'm different. In a world where I'm scared and just want the same things everyone else gets, I am told by these things and more that "it's because you're gay." Your G rated Hannah Montana is my R rated romantic comedy. Because there is something wrong with me and people need to be warned about me in advance to preserve their delicate sensibilities.
"they seem so very tough
they seem so very scared of us
I look into the mirror (look into)
for evil that just does not exist
I don't see what they see (tell them that tell them that)
try to control the pull of one
magnet to another magnet to another
magnet to another magnet to another"
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Most fear what they don't know. Until the old old white republican dudes stop running shit, you're gonna get higher ratings for things that weird them out.
ReplyDeleteThe fun thing is they don't HAVE to tell the moviemakers what they object to. They can give them scenes to cut, but if they feel like it, they can say NC-17 or nothing. Unrated movies don't really make money because most movie theatres won't run them, and you can rent them at movie stores (which isn't that big of a deal because those places are increasingly irrelevant).
I haven't seen "Imagine Me & You" but does it fit this bill: "The movie may contain strong violence and language, drug references or sexual content"? That's what supposedly garners an R. But, again, they don't have to tell you what the rating is based on.
However, remember the MPAA and the RIAA are the same old crazies who tried to keep digital media down. Now look at Hulu, iTunes and Netflix Instant. They'll try to hold out, but the evolution of society always prevails.