the film sets up several things that feel very prescient and real and on point and then just… follows through on the framing in a way that feels like dunking on the possibilities / realities of the metaphors
like… mmm let me try to pinpoint them:
- Joy’s difficulty with Evelyn being boiled down to “nihilism,” instead of the followthrough of their relationship
- that nihilism being abstracted from it’s own validity despite throwaway lines about systemic issues
- positioning Joy as the antagonist at all and having the semi-twist be that she doesn’t want to destroy it all, she just wants to die and all of that stems from just… existing? so many like threads towards “there are reasons things are rough” and then having them be so disconnected? like setting it up with the very real “I just want you to understand too” and doing that excellent rock scene to have it all just still kind of land like “well actually it’s all an attitude problem” basically sucks
- Waymond’s outlook as a form of resistance being boiled down to “optimism” and that optimism manifesting as “just be kind to everyone and it’s fine” instead of like… a more thorough and realistic take on that? like I was crying while dude was talking about how holding that shit up is hard and it’s own work, but then having that turn into like some “throw flowers at cops” shit?? and they still could have made the gag they were going for work without completely dissolving it like they did
- also really not into the metaphorical follow-through of that being her husband saying “you don’t have to fight anymore” without the conditions changing
- a big fuck you to the conclusion that “well Joy’s great because she’s a fuck up but somebody loves her and that’s her value to the world” and “Evelyn’s also a fuck up but it’s all just okay because Waymond loves her” like instead of addressing… anything about them being valid as people????
- especially when it was setting up so much “their broad interests and restlessness actually make them that much more talented and aware” that it just dropped?
- plus like Evelyn stands up to her dad for Joy (sort of??) but then keeps saying shitty things to Joy instead of trying harder? like ignoring the ways in which she’s hurting her kid??
- like for anyone familiar with the distinct horrors of a strained mother-daughter relationship, it did such a good job of representing the pain of that and then none of the dealing with it or resolving it or acknowledging it in a way that felt real??
- or like it had so many elements that could have pulled together on that but just let them clatter on the floor at the end??
- and sure Evelyn “sees” Waymond in new light, but then like… doesn’t address at all the way she was making him feel? enough to want a divorce? like it feels like her self-recognition and actually being better to anyone is all hypothetical and off-screen
there’s loads more to delve into on those points and adjacent but I’m pretty tired so I’m sure I’m losing the thread again
but yeah, had a lot of good that both in conclusion and with a little scrutiny felt really… dropped somehow
and also felt like it suffered from “two dudes write for women” syndrome
and it did a lot better than most instances of that, to be sure
but… idk. and maybe I’m overthinking it / underthinking it / a menace and should be stopped