Films in Frame - Persona, Potrait of the Lady on Fire, Licorice Pizza, The Worst Person in the World, Spencer, The Double Life of Veronique, Little Women, Frances Ha, Fleabag, Run Lola Run
Probably one of the best movies of 2021. Frankly, I thought the girl was selfish, especially in that very moment she switched the lights on and stopped the world and ran away from her commitment to run towards her ‘cheat.’ But as the film progressed, I could see the tragedy waving. It illustrates the time of our lives when we’re in a state of confusion and in denial. She is perhaps a go-lucky girl with her own principles where she’s the one who makes decisions and choices for her life. I bet that things didn’t go her way because of how fate turned and ended in some kind of miserable mystery, she still looks like found her own passion.
I have no idea who this might actually reach in this day and age of tumblr being what it has become, but I felt I should fling a general recommendation out into the tumblrverse for people to see the film “The Worst Person In The World”. It’s a lot of things, most of them great, but specifically I’d recommend it to the people of tumblr because in my opinion it absolutely NAILS so much of the general opinions and emotions and existence I’ve seen people post about here since I joined up in 2011.
It explores themes about being a twentysomething woman who is measuring her life against the accomplishments of her mother and grandmother at her age, unsure what she wants to be, other than knowing what she does NOT want to be (which is most things), while also wondering overall if being anything at all is something worth being anymore. It delves into a modern openness about sexuality and sexual politics that has blossomed in the age of social media, and in my opinion particularly here on tumblr. It touches on today’s feminism, post-feminism, mansplaining, the line between sociopolitical activism and SJW overreaction, the generation gap between people who’ve spent their lives building up collections of much-loved physical items, and those only slightly younger who have no idea why anyone would want to clutter up their lives with all that STUFF. More than anything, it focuses on one’s right to be happily self-absorbed.
It has moments which seem to reference viral tumblr memes so specifically that I couldn’t help wondering if the writer is “one of us”. In one case, a woman writes a sexually explicit article trying to reconcile being a strong feminist yet still loving it when a man performs irrumatio on her. This reminded me of something I posted here on tumblr in 2015, a link to a Cosmo article entitled “I’m A Feminist, But I Like When He Comes On My Face”. It’s exactly the same sentiment. Again and again, the film keeps floating in and around subject matter and moods that I’ve grown used to being surrounded by in only one place in the world: tumblr. So I recommend that any other like-minded tumblrers out there go see this, and recognize yourself and your peers up there onscreen. Beyond all this analysis, it’s also just a really good movie.
I’m so tired of pretending everything is okay. It sucks being in so much pain. It sucks. Everything sucks. I don’t want to be a memory for you. I don’t want to be a voice in your head. I want to be happy together.
