#also something about this + the general weirdly sexually charged bullying

[youandthemountains]

#i say 'only' but we all know whose side is really better#and whose side will try to murder him for losing gracefully (via @deputychairman)

"The next semifinal will determine who will face the defending champion."

[mothermaidenclone-blog]

Flatliners or They Almost Said The Name So Many Times!

Well, it’s safe to say that Flatliners didn’t fall flat for me. I want to start by saying that I’m well aware this is a remake, but I have not seen the original, so this is an analysis purely of the newer film. I think having expectations in the minus numbers probably helped, so keep that in mind when I say that this film was full of surprises. The first being that I didn’t have a heart attack and explode - I’m prone to panic attacks that manifest as palpitations and thinking that I can��t breathe, so I’m personally very proud to have survived a film that revolved around people defibrillating themselves to death, then back to life, followed by pulling big massive tubes from deep in their throats. Anyway, far more importantly, the women in this under-advertised horror/sci-fi B-movie were actually pretty fantastic.

*Flatliners spoilers follow*

The film opens with two women - Courtney (Ellen Page) and her younger sister Tessa (Madison Brydges). One of them dies almost immediately, which is obviously not so good, but a flashback to the loss of a sister to serve as plausible character motivation is at least somewhat better to murdering a developed female character as an “excuse” for a man to feel emotions. This scene is then closely followed by the first conversation of the film, between Courtney and her fellow med-student Sophia (Kiersey Clemons), who talk about the stresses of school so it seems that Flatliners passes the Bechdel test. Not that that’s the be all and end all of feminist representation, but it’s a good start. As long as we’re ticking boxes, the main characters form a gang of five, three of whom are women, so well done again Flatliners.

After this great introduction, there were a couple of moments that gave me the impression that this film was going to be gross - the introduction of Jamie (James Norton) in general, I can’t even remember what he did but he made some primal part of me bristle and want to get away from him; Dr Wolfs (Kiefer Sutherland) putting crazy pressure on all the students, feeling the need to physically assert his authority by whacking his cane around the place and Courtney’s initial resuscitation becoming weirdly sexual and about male strength when Jamie is told to, “get in top of her if you must” and straddles her.

However, these were the exception rather than the rule. We were shown a variety of female relationships - the aforementioned sisterly bond, however brief, as well as positive platonic friendships. On the other hand, less healthy relationships were also shown, such as Sophie’s fraught relationship with her mother (Wendy Raquel Robinson) and Sophie’s past bullying of classmate Irina Wong (Jenny Raven). That women are allowed to exist all along the spectrum of morality, to make questionable choices in a variety of stations as well as being exemplary, paints them as more three dimensional characters. Furthermore, Irina’s forgiveness of Sophie is an emotional and powerful moment, displaying  different kinds of strength in both women - the courage and honesty to ask for redemption and the selfless benevolence to give it.

The way that women interact with men is also unexpected as, for the most part, they ware in control - save for a couple of examples such as Marlo (Naria Dobrev) having to leave the fun and games as soon as she is silently summoned by the arrival of her brother (Steve Byers). Courtney uses Jamie by allowing him to believe that she wants to meet him for sex, when really she just needs someone with a huge ego and very questionable morals to kill her for her experiment. She adapts his worst character traits to her purpose. Courtney herself defies gender stereotypes by being a reckless intellectual, she is a risk-taking instigator working in the name of science. Interestingly enough, the counterpoint role to this, that of a more reticent care-giver, falls to a man, Ray (Diego Luna).

In no way is this more passive portrayal demeaning, Ray is definitely my favourite character. His reluctance to take part does not come across as cowardice but as common sense - it’s so refreshing in a horror film to see someone say, nope, you’re all idiots, there’s no way I’m doing this, and then actually stick to their guns. Not only does he not join in with the stupid experiment, but he stays to competently care for everyone when he could so easily wash his hands of the whole thing and leave everyone to their, arguably deserved, sticky ends. He goes as far as to say, “whatever happens to all of you happens to me.” It’s good to see a male character’s empathy portrayed as a strong kind of loyalty, rather than weakness.

Ray continues to be outstanding by immediately respecting Marlo’s consent; the moment she shows hesitance about their sexual relationship, he instantly stops. This sounds so basic, but how many times have you seen a film where a woman asks a man to stop kissing her, but he carries on and eventually she goes with it and we’re just supposed to believe it’s because they’re so in love? Marlo does then decide that she wants to pursue this with Ray, but this pause just reinforces that the decision is entirely hers, and she retains her sexual autonomy. Unfortunately, during the other moment of female sexual conquest my tiny bladder failed me, so I missed Sophie’s conquest of Jamie, but it was described to me as exactly that - Sophie needed release and Jamie was there and happy to be used, she was in charge. Feel free to call me out on this if I’m wrong, but I thought it would be remiss of me not to mention it.

Jamie’s journey to redemption is also worth mentioning as an unusual male story. He starts of as an egotistical playboy who enters medicine for the fame and fortune. However, through his conscience haunting him in the form of a woman, Alicia (Anna Arden), he becomes a better person. He doesn’t defeat or conquer this ghost in the traditionally dominant sense that he outwits or destroys it, as she is a living woman from his past that he has seriously wronged - he got her pregnant, convinced her to have an abortion and then failed to show up at the clinic with her. He chooses to seek her out, ask for her forgiveness and attempt to take responsibility for the son he finds out he has. He does not “win the girl” - no sexual or romantic relationship is implied between him and Alicia - but he abandons his celebrity goals to take up a position closer to them. Furthermore, this is not in a breadwinner, head-of-the-family, patriarchal kind of way. From what we see he does not attempt to control this new family, rather he wants to try to support it, and be a part of it if he can.

Overall, Flatliners was a surprisingly egalitarian film in terms of gender. Both women and men were allowed to occupy spaces not usually awarded to them in film - women could try to build strong careers in a competitive world and men could form emotional attachments. Obviously this is a fairly reductive assessment, but as always with a mainstream movie, it’s good to just see these traits being normalised. Regardless of gender, the message of this film seemed to be to just be a good person and try to face and fix your mistakes, which is something I think we can all get behind.

And now for some asides:

What kind of crazy budget did this hospital have that is had another entire unused hospital underneath it? That’s where my suspension of disbelief ended.

A spooky child version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”? Come on, even I, the world’s biggest wimp, wasn’t scared.

There must be easier and less damp rich-boy affectations to adopt than living on a yacht.

I love the Rubik’s cube as a metric of hyper-intelligence, if that’s all it takes, I’ll have one PhD please.