Change Your Image
gracehuo
Reviews
Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021)
Powerful take on the abuse women can endure in marriages
The show immediately got me hooked because it was obvious there was something going on beneath the surface of the harmless sitcom. Minutes into the first episode they reveal this other life/reality that the wife Allison lives with. It becomes clear to the audience quickly that she wants a better and different life for herself, we see that initially she imagines this life with her husband Kevin, but when she finds out he had spent all their savings (this happens pretty early on in the season), she quickly moves on to the idea of killing him, it seems like only then can she escape this kind of life.
It's interesting that a lot of reviews I read seem to be analysing this show's worth for its satirical twist on traditional sitcoms. Some are disappointed because the sitcom part and the drama part of the show didn't weave together to create one cohesive storyline, and some were criticising the show for not being clever enough a satire. I don't think the show was necessarily made with the intention for us to laugh at the cringyness of laugh track sitcoms we're all used to. It does intentionally play into all the tropes and by doing so sets itself apart from the tropes, but the Point isn't 'look at how cringy sitcoms are', it's more 'look at the abuse a woman endures can literally be written into a comedy'. As the show goes on, the sitcom portion with its relentless laugh tracks just becomes more sinister. The juxtaposition of Allison's depressing (and scary) reality makes the comedy part really depressing. She barely has a personality in the sitcom, but in the drama we see a wife that's in pain, lost and afraid, realising that she had wasted years of her life on someone worse than mediocre, and that he has such a grip on her life (in that he IS her life) there seems to be no escape but death (his, in this case). There are indications of abuse/controlling behaviour throughout the show that we have the option of laughing off as Kevin's silly mischiefs as the harmless funny guy. I read the show's intention as shedding some light on the insidiousness of domestic violence and abuse, and I think it did an excellent job at doing that. The sitcom and drama parts didn't need to come together, the fact that they were so far apart there were basically two separate plot lines going on just really shows me that Allison needs this alternate reality to survive. It's very likely that outside of the comedy Kevin actually abuses her in more serious ways that would be harder to laugh off. But throughout the show Kevin is always the centre of attention when he is onscreen, completely happy in his own reality and oblivious to the tension and hatred within Allison. I particularly liked how in the very end, Neil was brought to Allison's reality. Neil is still goofy seeming when he comes out of the closet and reveals that he heard all the secrets, he doesn't explicitly say that he heard Allison was going to kill Kevin, so even then there was still room for laughter. But then he got violent, and then the mood and music and everything changed. For the first time in the show, one of the 'guys' had been dragged into the drama portion of the show where actual terrible things were happening and people were getting really hurt--badly enough that we won't just accept cutting to a new scene straight away and forgetting about it. In that way the show did tie together, and shows a lot of promise for season two with Neil potentially being the bridge between the sitcom facade and Allison's reality. I'mr really excited to see where it goes!
Love & Other Drugs (2010)
Trashy rom com
What a trashy love story. Gives audience false expectations about love. The fact that this has gotten 2 Golden Globe nominations says that something is wrong with American film industry. Are there no better movies for us to watch? As handsome and good at acting Jake Gyllenhaal still is, I am very disappointed in him after watching this (Anne Hathaway too, why, why??!!). A quarter of my love for him has died. R.I.P. (it's now in the trash area in my macbook along with this movie). But I won't give this movie a '1' because it has some positive aspects such as giving people with Parkinson's disease hope. I'm giving a generous '4' because Jake and Anne were still very good at acting, as per usual.
Geek Charming (2011)
Lack originality
You would think people would make less films displaying American high school stereotypes by 2011 already, but no, there are still hundreds and thousands of them coming out every year and this is one of them. I'd watch this when I'm really bored because it does have its fun, emotional and touching parts like good movies. But overall, it's just too normal, too unoriginal, and the message that they are sending across is basically grouping high school kids into bunches with stereotypical labels, it makes the "geek" kids feel inferior, and worthless and that they can only be cool and accepted when they hang out with the popular kids. So the movie does end in kind of a semi-positive way but it still doesn't set the message straight. Anyway to sum it up, its too clichéd and too unoriginal and just like most other movies about American high schools out there.
Suicide Squad (2016)
Good movie, too harshly criticised
I think it's a good movie overall, I enjoyed it and could really relate to the characters, I get why it was criticised so much, and I am really disappointed at WB for deleting all the scenes. I get that it's a PG 13 movie, so they had to delete the abusive scenes so that they don't "glorify" the abusive relationship between HQ and Joker. But if you really don't want to mislead children and teenagers why do you glorify the villains? The whole movie is focused on villains and how cool they are, how is that not misleading? I want them to make an actual movie, follow the original storyline, actually put some real elements into it instead of just trying to make it appropriate, I think it's worth to make it R rated, although it might be risky for the box office... can't be worse than it already is right? Look at how much the box office has dropped and how much it is being criticised. DC was doing a good job until WB stepped in. I'm disappointed for that but then again overall, I still liked it as I really could relate to the characters. Hope to see more of Joker and Harley Quinn. Without Harley Quinn this movie would've had no point. I like that it is focused on the villains, but as I said, if that's what they wanted just go all the way! Don't cut the abusive scenes, that's just who they are and now the plot line is confusing and sends mixed messages.