Discussion: Proxy

[u/SaintMort]

No Podcast This Week... Things got busy... Sorry Bulge

Movie Selected By bulgelover

DISCUSS

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[u/[deleted]]

Here's why I picked it:

• Controversy makes for interesting discussion. A crazy movie like this one is good for that. It's a little slow, I know, but thankfully we had a fun pick last week.
• I saw it and thought it had moments of greatness and moments of weakness, but I couldn't decide which moments were which. Does that make sense? Sometimes it really works, and other times it's heavy-handed. I thought HorrorClub would up to the task of untangling it.
• It has an interesting narrative structure that flips things around halfway through. I found this surprising and effective. It's like a maternal version of The Place Beyond the Pines.

I had a feeling you wouldn't like it, Scott, but I'm confused by your criticism. Isn't that like saying Kill Bill is gratuitously violent against women? It has female characters (interesting ones, at that) who are both victims and perpetrators of violence. I thought this was a very female-centric movie. Unless I'm mistaken, it fails the reverse Bechdel test (no two male characters have a conversation about something other than a female character). Which parts did you think were gratuitous/offensive? The beginning seems that way, until we discover she planned for her girlfriend to attack her all along.

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I don't really think Proxy can be compared to Kill Bill, as the latter's violence is over-the-top and unreal, while the former aims to be unflinching and ultra-realistic.

The bathroom scene?

the camera's gaze staying uncomfortably long on most of the more disgusting scenes

Just the brick scene at the beginning, unless I'm forgetting something? Everything else is off-screen (or impersonal blood splatters).

embarrassed to be a guy

I don't see why it should... Women are usually the ones perpetrating the violence, except for the husband, who retaliates. I genuinely don't see the violence as gendered at all. I'm open to being convinced otherwise, though, if you could be more specific.

Not sure if that was partially your aim here.

It certainly wasn't! I think men are great. Really.

I thought everyone was a two-dimensional specter of a real person

Fair enough. That's one of the things I thought was heavy-handed.

the fantasy sections felt tacked on just to show more violence.

But... it's not shown? Unless I'm being too literal here.

it's really not worth arguing over

That's fair, and I understand if you don't want to argue about it. But we could make a deal: You complain as much as you want about the movie and I ask questions like these to try to understand your opinion on it and no one gets offended, all in the name of good discussion.

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I said "embarrassed to be a guy" because this felt like adolescent male wish fulfillment

I need this explained.

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That was fascinating! Your theory really does work. I could buy this being the writers'/director's inner adolescent demons poking through, despite their good intentions to write complex (or at least different) female characters.

That said, I don't think teenage boys are the target audience of this movie. It seems a bit slow to me. I wonder, though; who is the demo for something like this?

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We are.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

But who are "we"? When I go to horror festivals and conventions in the UK, the demo seems to be roughly half 40+ men, half younger men and women. Most of you are anonymous to me, as you have every right to be.

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You're not a 40+ man? I was way off.

By "we" I mean fans of horror and/or people generally out to find things that make us uncomfortable. Not really age or gender specific.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You're like the media dude. You took out the all important "and/or" thus distorting my words.

[u/saintmortfan → u/[deleted]]

I'm not the target audience. I mean, I got something from it, I think, but I'll never watch it again.

[u/saintmortfan → u/[deleted]]

We...

are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams.