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a trickle of the purest rain.
The more time I have, the less I use it for anything I should be using it for. /o\
A few days ago, I finally sat down and watched Tomorrow, When the War Began, which I had been meaning to watch ever since I learned Phoebe Tonkin was in it. (I had its IMDb page open in a tab for I don't even know how long.)
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about it, and a lot of things that were interesting about it - even the simple fact of it being set in Australia, with America as a footnote out there somewhere, was so utterly different from the American exceptionalism I'm used to. I loved that the girls were in the majority for the first chunk of the movie, and even after the group picks up Chris the numbers don't feel equal, because he doesn't do anything - except provide character growth for Ellie. Each of the girls has their own personal struggle during the movie - Robyn's, with violence, and Fi's, with the fear of fear, are my personal favorites. The screenplay is imperfect, and it wobbles back and forth between WAR MOVIE and a much more appealing moral uncertainty. (The book handles that slightly better.) And I love love love that there are women in the invading army, too.
But. SO MANY PROBLEMS. I appreciate the presence of Lee Takkam in Our Plucky Band of Heroes, but that does not undo the part where Australia is being invaded by a coalition of Asian nations whose backstory is that they are so overpopulated and angry that they want to take Australia's stuff. D: And there's more than one level of fail there, because aside from Lee, this movie is pretty much about the tears white Australians cry because it's so terrible that anyone would invade an already-populated country to kill people and take stuff. On Commem Day. Like, the irony is so thick I could fucking choke, here.
There is a half-second where the movie kind of acknowledges this, which is more than the book ever does, but that's as good as it gets. There are no characters of color besides Lee and his family and, oh, right, the giant invading evil army that shoots people in the head and blows their houses up. GOOD.
If these four girls were in a different story, I would rec it to the sky and back, and it's entirely possible that someone could write a Yuletide or Rarewomen fic about Ellie and Corrie and Fi and Robyn that I would completely love. There are a lot of things about the movie that feel dystopian, which is a genre that I often enjoy; if only it were a Walking Dead crossover, or even a war against a wrung-out Britain demanding Australia's natural resources instead - but it isn't. So I wish I could rec it for the ladies, but it's hard to when it's oblivious and the premise is so racefail.
Would it be weird to write like four stories for my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
rarewomen recip? Because: great exchange assignment, or GREATEST EXCHANGE ASSIGNMENT? I am SO EXCITE.
A few days ago, I finally sat down and watched Tomorrow, When the War Began, which I had been meaning to watch ever since I learned Phoebe Tonkin was in it. (I had its IMDb page open in a tab for I don't even know how long.)
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about it, and a lot of things that were interesting about it - even the simple fact of it being set in Australia, with America as a footnote out there somewhere, was so utterly different from the American exceptionalism I'm used to. I loved that the girls were in the majority for the first chunk of the movie, and even after the group picks up Chris the numbers don't feel equal, because he doesn't do anything - except provide character growth for Ellie. Each of the girls has their own personal struggle during the movie - Robyn's, with violence, and Fi's, with the fear of fear, are my personal favorites. The screenplay is imperfect, and it wobbles back and forth between WAR MOVIE and a much more appealing moral uncertainty. (The book handles that slightly better.) And I love love love that there are women in the invading army, too.
But. SO MANY PROBLEMS. I appreciate the presence of Lee Takkam in Our Plucky Band of Heroes, but that does not undo the part where Australia is being invaded by a coalition of Asian nations whose backstory is that they are so overpopulated and angry that they want to take Australia's stuff. D: And there's more than one level of fail there, because aside from Lee, this movie is pretty much about the tears white Australians cry because it's so terrible that anyone would invade an already-populated country to kill people and take stuff. On Commem Day. Like, the irony is so thick I could fucking choke, here.
There is a half-second where the movie kind of acknowledges this, which is more than the book ever does, but that's as good as it gets. There are no characters of color besides Lee and his family and, oh, right, the giant invading evil army that shoots people in the head and blows their houses up. GOOD.
If these four girls were in a different story, I would rec it to the sky and back, and it's entirely possible that someone could write a Yuletide or Rarewomen fic about Ellie and Corrie and Fi and Robyn that I would completely love. There are a lot of things about the movie that feel dystopian, which is a genre that I often enjoy; if only it were a Walking Dead crossover, or even a war against a wrung-out Britain demanding Australia's natural resources instead - but it isn't. So I wish I could rec it for the ladies, but it's hard to when it's oblivious and the premise is so racefail.
Would it be weird to write like four stories for my
rarewomen recip? Because: great exchange assignment, or GREATEST EXCHANGE ASSIGNMENT? I am SO EXCITE.
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