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Family
Fundamentals CONTAINS
SPOILERS |
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| A
flawed documentary with a brutally insensitive look at the shattered lives of
people dealing with gay children. |
The director could
not decide if he wanted to totally take advantage of hurt and suffering people
or not. Ooops, looks like opportunity got the best of him - he could not
resist.
Overall, this guy
needs to treat these people not as objects for derision, but as human beings.
And sometimes you just need to turn the camera
off.
Aside from that,
there is a beautiful shot of horses on snow in Utah about halfway through the
film... |
 Just saw this at the new
REEL IDENTITIES film festival in
New Orleans.
I
fault the director on this one.
Supposedly because of the
narrow and prejudiced view these people have, they are fair game for the
director and his intended audience. What he ends up showing us is his own
narrow view in a film that is too long for its content and no where near long
enough if the content were on target.
I believe in treating people
decently, and exposing their flawed thinking without taking advantage of them.
I saw, and felt for the pain of people who did not really know
what to do with the fact their child was gay. I have known just a few people
like that. It was too much for them, they believed the lies and hand-me-down
demonization of Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered people (Did I leave anyone
out?).
To try and make the world fit their view of God, instead of
accepting that maybe God has other plans in mind for their child, they turned
somersaults to change things. Finally acceptance came, as it should, and the
emotional siege lifted.
We don't see that here, nor see its potential. Why
did the director not try to show a family that had been through this and came
out okay on the other side?
Unfortunately for the film, two of the three
families were seen only through the eyes of the child - as the director failed
to get them on camera to tell their side of the story. Getting the gay side is
okay, but we already know what they think, and simply rehashing their pain is
not worth the effort.
Apparently, because of the snickers and guffaws
from some of the New Orleans audience, the suffering of the people the director
did get on tape was considered sport. For this too, I fault the director.
Where was cogent analysis of their views? Where was the (truly
enlightened) Psychiatric or Spiritual Professional to say here's why they feel
this way, it's normal for them to be upset and act out in religion or other
ways? (Normal for them to feel this way does not excuse inhuman behavior
towards their children, TYVM.) Where was the Gay Sage to elevate this to a
dialogue instead of a freak show?
It is not like this guy did
not have the resources to do the film, the credit list is as long as an Indiana
Jones Outing, a veritable check list of left-oriented right (by right I mean
PC) sounding organizations. He is apparently just not capable of imbuing
balance in this work, of exercising judicious restraint in exposing the
innermost feelings of people that are just plain wrong - except that is the way
they feel.
No amount of expose will change anything about them - instead
it is like a peep show museum where us enlightened folk get to look at the
educated chickens scratch out the answers to complex math problems in the crap
covered floor of their cage. We know what they think going in, and we don't get
much new information going out.
By following through on the
anti-gay philosophy, tracing it to its roots' end, showing it to be emotional
instead of intellectual, the director could have pulled off a reconciliation,
if not for the people in the film, then for the audience, who undoubtedly deals
with such senseless bigotry in their own lives. They don't need a textbook on
justifying more separation from the family.
I think the director is so
far removed from understanding the real basis for the opinions of these
"fundamentalist" people in the movie that he does not see (peculiarly, in his
own film) that their world was not just inconvenienced by the gayness of their
offspring, it was irretrievably shattered. For that, I take him to task.
One positive spot, a gay Republican was allowed to state his
views, and there was even a picture of him as an openly gay man assisting
President Bush with the transition into office.
Hey WAIT A DANGED MINUTE!!! I heard Bush was a Neanderthal HOMOPHOBE! Why is
his hand on this gay guy's shoulder, why are they both smiling? Can it be all
of the hype we have been spoon-fed about how retro this administration is,
simply is not true?
Sigh. Is this film, en totale, more evidence that
liberals are tolerant of everything except conservatives? Gee, maybe we humans
are all more alike than we think. |
B-1 Bob Dornan with a gay republican, one of the subjects of
the film. Despite the director's best efforts, the guy comes across as knowing
what he is doing. Most of the audience in New Orleans was respectful of his
stance.
There is one point in the film where Dornan is blasting gay
people (Not "gay", "sad" people) -and he loses his mantra. He actually breaks
himself up a little, forgets his angry face, like he does not mean the anti-gay
stuff he has been spewing. At that moment I knew he was/is a fraudulent
anti-gay spokesman (not that we need sincere ones). He does not believe it all
himself - it is just a verbiage game...
Shame on Dornan. He is an
opportunist as coldly calculating as any I have seen, never minding the fact
that anti-gay rhetoric is foundationless. |
PRODUCTION RANT
The present trend of lionizing anyone who grabs a Canon XL1 and
"makes" a movie has to be put to a swift and permanent rest. Give the guy a
damned tripod. EVERY single shot in this damned film was hand held subjective
shaky cam. Sorry - it is not more authentic that way - it is cheap and
unprofessional.
"Oh well, we weren't GOING
for the PROFESSIONAL look!
Steady camera work, basic lighting and smooth
editing is not just fluff, it is as basic to film as proper spelling is to
writing an essay. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL YOU CANOT COMMUCINICATE
WEL.
WELL,
what about NYPD Blue? It has a shaky
cam...
Yes, but they know
so much about what they are doing it is an intentional effect, not an
accident, and not from laziness.
I don't care how avant garde
your work is, you have to know what you are doing and if you know, you have to
care. (Not obviously, this guy has made many films before this
one.) |
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