Beauty and the Beast

Why Beauty and the Beast (2017) is Classist Trash

36Written by Tom
People seem to really like the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast. I don’t; it was my least favourite film of 2017. Seen as I’m in the minority though, I suppose I should justify myself.

When the credits starting rolling at the end of Beauty and the Beast, I shouted “Thank fuck!” and little more than stormed out of the cinema. I was furious. I still am. Because Beauty and the Beast is a vile, classist piece of work whose political subtexts are nigh-on indefensible in the current political climate. This is not the usual reading of this film though, so I’m probably going to have to justify myself a bit here. And before I can accuse it of classism, I firstly have to accuse it of sexism.

You see, the Beast is a horribly abusive man. He kidnaps Belle’s father, imprisons Belle, becomes angry and aggressive when she isn’t immediately receptive to him trying to be nice, and just generally acts like a terrible human being. I mean, his whole backstory is that he was a privileged asshole who a witch put a curse on because he was such a prick. The guy’s not nice.

But that’s his character arc, argue the people who are overly invested in Beauty and the Beast because it formed a large part of their childhood; he starts off as a prick but only needs the love of a good woman (Belle) to bring out his nicer side. Which is fair enough, but does Belle need to put up with the Beast’s asshole behaviour long enough for that good side to come out? Let me remind you: he locked her father in a dungeon and imprisoned her in a jail cell he has in his attic. If there is a moral line beyond which someone stops being an acceptable romantic prospect, then the Beast crosses over that line pretty much immediately. Once Belle first escapes from her cell, her priority should be to run as far away from this monster as she can.

I have heard it argued that the reason Belle stays with the Beast is because he hurt himself protecting her from the wolves. This shows that he has a more caring side to him and justifies her sticking around a bit longer to get him back into good health. So OK, you repay the man who locked you in a cell for saving you from some wolves by taking him back to his house, nursing his immediate wounds and making sure that there are people around him to keep making him better. Having done all this, then you run away from the scary man who locks people in prison cells and can kill wolves with his bare hands! Run away from him!

I mean, just consider this plot as a metaphor that’s meant to apply to people’s lives for a few seconds. The proper reaction to an abusive partner is to stick with him because he’s actually a good person inside and you can change him? This is the exact same logic which makes women stick with their abusers for years. It absolves the man from all responsibility for his actions and blames his victims for them – apparently the guy couldn’t help it, the women around him were just insufficient enough to stop him becoming an asshole. It’s ugly and vile and the idea of this being a love story makes me sick to my stomach. (more…)

The Best to Worst Films of 2017 – According to Tom

So 2017 is over, which means it’s time to rank everything, leaving us a clean slate leading into the new year. As such, here is a ranked list of everything I’ve watched this year, organised from best to worst:

The Top Ten020

1. My Life as a Courgette (French Version with Subtitles)
A French stop-motion film in which a child accidentally kills his alcoholic mother and is sent to a children’s home, wherein he gets into fights, makes friends, falls in love and mourns deeply. It’s a small, melancholic, wistful thing, and is truly, deeply beautiful. Not only the best cartoon of 2017, it’s the best film of 2017.

2. My Life as a Courgette (English Dub)
I loved the original language version of My Life is a Courgette so much, I ended up going to the same art house cinema the next day to watch the English version. The big bonus it has over the original is Nick Offerman who gives a more multifaceted performance than his French counterpart does. It does censor some of the riskier jokes though, somewhat lessening the raw honesty of the original script. That said, you can’t really go wrong with either version: both are masterpieces.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
This is just balls-to-the-wall fun. A hedonistic space opera about the need to combine masculinity with emotion, told through racoons, baby trees, David Hasselhoff, ELO… It’s Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who done as a two-hour spectacle using more money than the BBC spends in a year. The best Marvel movie I’ve ever seen, and (with the exception of Thor: Ragnarok) quite frankly the only good one.

4. mother!
The love-it-or-hate-it film of the year, mostly because it’s an art film that got sold as a horror film, resulting in a certain amount of understandable buyer’s remorse from certain sections of the audience. Taken for what it is though, it’s a fascinating, unique and clever piece of work. I don’t wish to spoil anything about it; just know that it was great and you should give it a go with as open a mind as you can.

5. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Visually stunning, cleverly directed, character-driven drama with some surprisingly cutting political bits in the second act. You know it’s doing something right because the alt-right and the fanboys are furious about it. (more…)