On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#26 Post by knives » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:35 pm

whaleallright wrote:
Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:14 pm
Knives, is English your first language? Because you often seem to nitpick others' posts on the basis of a less-than-perfect (and often overly literal) understanding of what words can connote. "Corrupt" doesn't necessarily mean something like, I dunno, the Trump-Putin-GOP-NRA thing; it can just mean—and I intended it to mean—rotten, or dubious. Likewise, I'm not positing that the film was greenlit specifically because of the success of the RBG documentary, but that they both are seeking, in an identical and thoroughly opportunistic and slipshod fashion, to flatter and thereby exploit the same audience. (I'm not the only one who feels somewhat this way. And I'm not counting the usual shit-for-brains "conservative" film critics who might object to these films for the obvious reasons.)
Regardless of how bad this film might turn out to be, why shouldn't it be able to exist?
Ugh. Who said it shouldn't (or shouldn't be able to) exist? It just looks awful, is all.
Thanks for the ad hominen and yes, English is my first language and you are using corrupt (a loaded term) wrong and I am sure no one will come to your defense on this one. There's a huge difference between opportunism, which I think we all agree on, and something being corrupt.

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whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#27 Post by whaleallright » Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:40 pm

No, I am not using the word wrong (among the first definitions in several dictionaries are "depraved"; "lacking integrity"; "debased in character"). Perhaps being a bit hyperbolic. In guessing at your language background I was trying to be charitable.

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domino harvey
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#28 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:07 pm

Free advice: calm down

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#29 Post by knives » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:31 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:07 pm
Free advice: calm down
I feel like the summer heat must be getting to the board. Lots of testiness lately. I blame Al Gore.

Last thing on this whole corrupt silliness: Whaleallright, you're the only one who has made the connection between your use of corrupt and political corruption. I said you have yet to prove this film is corrupt and that if I hold you by your explanation of the word then you are using it wrong. To clarify myself by wrong I mean not in the way most people use it socially. As a synonym to rotten or decay it tends to be used on objects (e.g. the computer program has become corrupted). Against people though it tends to indicate deliberate flaws in matters of ethics (hence the dictionary using terms like debased and lacking integrity). If you are talking about the filmmakers you haven't proven any degrading flaw in their ethics (like I said this seems like typical opportunism) and if it is the film I'm not sure how you could prove that without seeing it.

If I'll be sarcastically charitable here perhaps you were conflating two of my points (a lack of proof on one hand and coming across as conspiratorial on the other) as one point.

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swo17
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#30 Post by swo17 » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:45 pm

You know what other word people use wrong? FREEDOM

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zedz
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#31 Post by zedz » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:50 pm

Cremildo wrote:
Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:36 pm
So, when a "progressive" awards bait doesn't actually become a contender, it's because of white male critics. But when it does - like Get Out, Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water, or Lady Bird, just to name a few of the most recent critically acclaimed ones -, it's in spite of the same white male critics. Isn't that neat?
Get Out was awards bait?

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whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#32 Post by whaleallright » Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:09 pm

I honestly don't know why it's so hard to grasp how I might think the sheer crassness of this film being made in this way, at this time —as a kind of sheerly consumerist manifestation of the spirit of #resistance—speaks to a lack of integrity and a kind of debasement. (I'll drop the tedious debate over word choice; suffice to say the word "corrupt" is frequently used the way I intended it, though there appears to be no convincing folks of that.)

these "uplifting" biopics, and their usual pandering travesties of history and causality—whether they are designed to appeal to right or left or both— are among the worst forms of contemporary cinema and there's every indication this film will not be any exception. perhaps my annoyance is heightened by the industry that RBG-worship seems to have awakened. the microcinema here not only was able to hold over the documentary for over a month (when they typically show films for less than a week), but they were ceaselessly pimping RBG merch (t-shirts, posters, pendants, the works) on social media that entire time. the doc itself is a ghastly, borderline-incompetent piece of hagiography. (think of all the $$ that could have gone instead to NARAL or the Midwest Access Coalition or what have you.)

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Omensetter
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#33 Post by Omensetter » Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:20 pm

whaleallright's general assessment of the film based on what we know seems dead-on, if a bit strong. Plenty of films are designed to flatter liberals, based on the topic du jour or evergreen subjects like race and gender. Ginsberg's been having a moment since the early part of this decade. If it seems "executed with an almost pathological caution", then, well, yeah---it exists to make money. I don't doubt the creators' love for Ginsberg, but its existence can be traced to Ginsberg's current fanfare. These movies are floated into the marketplace every Oscar season and, like domino harvey said, it will likely make a profit and then be forgotten or, if it makes more than expected, stick around for the Oscars, and then be forgotten.
Last edited by Omensetter on Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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movielocke
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#34 Post by movielocke » Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:49 pm

I can’t wait to see the filmbro freak out when Mimi leder and Orson Welles both get best director nominations this year and then Mimi wins.

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jsteffe
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#35 Post by jsteffe » Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:57 pm

I have neither forgiven nor forgotten Pay it Forward, so unless every one of you--including whaleallright--proclaims this film a surprise masterpiece, I ain't takin' the RBG bait.

TIVOLI
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:58 pm

Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#36 Post by TIVOLI » Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:28 am

Excuse me; I am somewhat confused here, even though English is my first language. Is this gush of vitriol a response to a film that nobody will be able to see (or fairly judge) until December ?

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cdnchris
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#37 Post by cdnchris » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:20 am

Appears that way

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mfunk9786
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Re: On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder, 2018)

#38 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:22 am

People react to trailers here regularly, and it often doesn't have a ton of bearing on the way those same people react to the full film when it releases. This one just went completely off the rails.

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