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Dinner in America micro analysis

maybe i’ll do another one later because there’s a lot to this film

I watched Dinner in America, and a lot of people seem confused about the "uncalled for" racism in the movie’s opening scene. However, I think some are missing the point. Every single character in the film is a caricature. We focus so much on how weird the main characters are that we forget to analyze the behavior of the background characters and see the bigger picture.

The film satirizes the American Dream and people trapping themselves in a system. All the families depicted are different stereotypes of white middle-class American families from the 1960s and 70s. The first family, for example, is a joke about the stereotype of a racist, football-loving dad, a clueless jock son, and a mother who stirs up drama to distract herself from her shallow and boring life.

To understand this, we need to reconstruct the idea of the American Dream as the film portrays it—a Christian family that’s strict, “normal,” and ironically, only "normal" from the perspective of the American Dream. The film reveals how absurdly flawed this "normal" is. Even the bullies fit this stereotype, perfectly embodying a version of small-town American life that feels trapped in caricature. Most of the characters are so isolated within the confines of this "American Dream" that they don’t know anything beyond what they’ve been spoon-fed about being "good Americans" (like when Patty’s mom asks her dad if he knows what a rave is).

Naturally, within this limited worldview, their behavior is racist, ableist, close-minded, and fearful of anything new. The movie mocks this system, the propaganda that forces people into a box, living a false dream of being “normal.” The main characters are the opposite of that. One actively rejects being liked by people stuck in the system, while the other physically can’t fit in, even if she wants to.

The whole meaning of the movie is captured in its soundtrack, “fuck everybody else but us.” If you live for others, afraid of being judged, you’ll end up living a boring, joyless life, where you’ll only have time to judge others.

Overall, I LOVED the movie. I think it was more of a statement in itself, though the filmmaking lacks some details that could have been added, like working more on storytelling through objects and other subtle elements. However, it delivers well enough when it needs to.

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this is Carl he/him

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“Love like a hungry child, I want to swallow you whole and become one, but we’re two different people. We’re two different people.

it makes me want to puke what’s little left in me, and never see your face again.

feel like you only love like what’s on the outside, when i’ve been loving you with every fiber of my body.

but can i really blame you? i’ve never really showed you my guts.

Can i even say i love you?

at the end of the day we’re two different people”

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I want to take all his pain and hold it in my hands

i want to put all his hurt inside of me and heal it for him

I could deal with my own for so long, I could do it for him as well

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I’m so afraid to let people know me I feel like everything i’ve never said begins to rot inside my ribcage

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most sane car seat headrest fan

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So we all know that Bill is really insecure and weak mentally, like, he needs validation so bad just to exist and because he doesn’t get it he drinks himself stupid just like his father.

A good demonstration of how he’s unsure of himself is in their interaction with Javier when he mocks him by how “dumb” he is

“why you look so confused Bill, like someone asked you where the sun goes at night”

something along those lines, and he defends himself only when Javier already turns around to leave, but when something actually starts and Javier comes back into Bills face he tenses like he’s about to jump if Javier raises his hand, and when he can’t lean back anymore he sits back looking down. Bill tries to pose as a though masculine and strong man but as soon as he gets the response his body language gives him away, and he tries to control it by not “actually” stepping back, but it still shows how afraid he is.

and it’s highlighted even more by the fact that he’s literally twice as big as Javier, and the only conclusion is that he’s a coward, scared of any confrontation, and he knows it, that’s why he tries to hide it, like a dog that barks only when the fence is closed.

edit: Also just wanted to add that when he jumps right in to the fight in the saloon with Arthur Charles and Javier is because he KNOWS that boys will back him up. He’s so loyal to the gang (later it’s just Dutch) because it’s the only thing that he can be sure in when he can’t be sure even in himself. So in what i described above he doesn’t have that sense of security which leads him to act the way he did.

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yeah dawg, i love drawing dawg, sometimes i don’t but sometimes i do dawg, yeah!

yeah dawg this song is blasting

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healing is going from

to

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My headcanons below

So i don’t think they’d have that conversation irl, because cmon what year it is.

But anyway, I think in this ship Alden doesn’t suppress himself and not as shy about his emotions, unlike Bill who is so insecure about his (plus years of denial and forcing himself into a closet for safety) which make me think that he absolutely can’t fathom that you can actually communicate your feelings(🤯🤯🤯)

so here he just let it fly over his head without understanding/trying to understand what the men actually talks about. Bcuz “fuck you mean talk about feeling, a real though men doesn’t have feelings, he’s an outlaw and not some sissy boy to explain what makes him upset, bottling up until this sadness transforms into anger”

and if they were longer into knowing each other he’d definitely listen more and mayyybe open up just a little, but rn he’s just trying to avoid going into this topic, agreeing just to move on

but i’m also sure as hell Bills is not that hard to change if he’s getting validation he needs (and will get from Alden and they will live happy ever after maybe not as lovers but as a good friends and and….

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watching adventure time with my dog on my lap, drinking cold lemonade on a summer afternoon really makes me think - maybe after all the world isn't on fire anymore and I do have all the time I need

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Micah got vibes that he’s permanently exhausted, like he moves along the day ignoring it but once it’s night and he doesn’t have to do anything he just goes numb

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Today at a park I got “free advice from a puppet”, I asked why can’t I care about my education, because I know I’ll ruin my own future.

Puppet said - you can’t care enough about your school from a lack of curiosity or are you afraid that if you try and actually put effort in something, when you fail it will be that all your efforts still wasn’t enough instead of saying “I’ve never tried in a first place”

and something so small have send me into a spiral, rethinking all my behavior making me realize i’ve been afraid my entire life. And how much shame is inside of me that it’s spills out and i’ve never even noticed.

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Russian creators stop white washing characters and making their entire personality something they are not just for “ha ha this is so cute he’s such a smoll bean” challenge (impossible)

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I swear I’ll start writing fics as soon as I get to my computer, and I will be unstoppable and the fics are gon be bad asf but idc

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Real men cry watching As You Are not because the film is sad. They cry from an overwhelming envy and jealousy that they didn’t had the chance to truly experience cis boyhood that characters had