#sometimesalien films

[sometimesalien]

spree and incel culture

good day everyone. this post talks about spree (2020) and how i interpret in a way that i don't think i have seen anyone else interpret it. i talk about incels and whilst there isn't much detail, please don't force yourself to read it if you think it is going to make you think the wrong way. tl;dr, the movie mirrors behaviours seen in incels but the movie isn't about incels. it's actually a really good movie, i recommend it.

The first time I watched Spree I was sitting on the floor in my childhood bedroom. I was in that weird stage of life where I was between exams and the next stage of my education so I sat and watched a lot of films. Spree always intrigued me, and the further I got into it the more apparent it was that, to me, it was satire. 

Satire as a genre is one of my favourites. I love The Boys and how it pokes fun at modern day America and the superhero genre. I grew up with The Simpsons. Even in the modern day with social media, satire is becoming more apparent and more mainstream. 

Spree, to me, is a unique version of satire. The main character, Kurt, desperately wants views for his YouTube channel. In his quest for views, he does crazy things and humiliates people on the internet, going as far as killing, to obtain the views and get the fame he always wanted. 

The first thing I thought about? Incels. 

Incel is the term used to describe people who are ‘involuntary celibate’, people who are ‘frustrated by their lack of sexual experience’. This term’s use has risen in the last decade, and raised awareness of the danger it can cause. A recent example is the soap opera Hollyoaks, a drama set in England where one of the characters, Eric, was an incel. This storyline, whilst not an example that everyone will know, shows that awareness of these issues will bring to light what other people could be experiencing. 

I promise I do have a point here. The obsession that Kurt has to become famous in Spree enveloped him to the point where he did drastic things to have just a smidgen of fame. Incels often do drastic things to have people sleep with them, as shown in this article from the BBC. Kurt’s obsession with fame and how far he was willing to go caused him to become obsessive, and brought about the events of the movie. 

Some examples of things Kurt does in the movie include poisoned water bottles and cold blooded murder. The water bottles were for the victims that he did on the way as it were, those he used to get the internet’s attention. The cold blooded murder came about when people tried to stop him. 

The use of satire especially in this movie is incredible. The usage of the internet and fame, which many children dream of these days, to display some horrific and terrifying behaviours in a more digestible way for audiences that they can understand. Sure, there’s some audiences that wouldn’t understand this, but the millennial and gen z generations would. 

So what am I saying here? The usage of this film to show how dangerous fame is is one thing. It displays that perfectly, and on face level without the insane analysis that only my brain does, it is a good film that demonstrates how an obsession with fame and wanting to become famous can lead people to do crazy things. However, with the internet being a crazy place and those horrible people who I won’t name turning people into raging misogynists, this film can demonstrate what incels are and how their obsession overtakes them in a more digestible manner and one that people can and will understand.

[sometimesalien]

how barbie helped me embrace my femininity

The cinema is one of my favourite places to go. Somewhere where I can sit for a couple of hours and just relax, let my mind be taken away and come out the other side having absorbed what story I discovered and how it changes my viewpoint on life. 

This has happened whilst sat in a packed cinema with no spare seats for No Way Home, sat by myself in the empty IMAX screen for Civil War but the most impactful? Barbie. 

Picture the scene, it’s the beginning of 2023 and the trailer for Barbie just dropped. I very quickly fell in love with the pink and the plasticity and how it made me feel. I had been a tomboy, hated the colour pink and refused to wear dresses. Everyone thought I would have preferred to watch Oppenheimer, as the vibes were more with what I matched. But it didn’t appeal to me. 

Very quickly the day came around, I had work. I ran out of there as soon as I could and drove over to the cinema. I went with a friend, we met up just before and went in. We left that cinema changed people. 

What did Barbie mean to me? At that time of my life I was having a personal crisis with my identity, and the ability to have something like Barbie, which is all about finding yourself in a world where there’s rigid roles and places that everyone had to stick to, really meant something to me. 

The idea that you could change and learn and grow. How it’s okay to not fall in line, and standing out is perfectly fine. 

When I sat in the cinema watching Barbie I finally felt at peace. Up to that point turmoil in my life was common, I had moved around the country and I was home for the first time in months. When I was there, there were mothers there with their daughters. Parents with their children, grandparents. The atmosphere was electric. Sure it was funny, the humour didn’t always hit but it was incredible. 

How did Barbie help me embrace my femininity? Well. 

Being a tomboy and being actively against any sort of feminine identity and lifestyle made me repress the feelings that I would enjoy femininity. I hated wearing dresses (still do now) and you would not get me in a skirt. I was (and still am) more comfortable in jeans and trousers but I’m not afraid to bring a skirt out.

Seeing the diversity of actors playing different Barbies with different careers and different styles and different everything made me so inspired and I was in awe. Only a couple of weeks prior I had seen Legally Blonde for the first time, and for a law student, that felt incredible knowing people would take me seriously.

Barbie had the same effect. I felt like people could respect me now as a feminine presenting person, and that I didn’t have to hide behind suits and trousers. I rock a suit, but all my little quirks are deemed acceptable. Fun little earrings and enough rings to make my fingers jangle when I wave my hands. Seeing the Supreme Court scene where all the Barbies reinstate the constitution made me so excited and so happy. 

My femininity has been a struggle. One that I am still fighting now, one that I will probably always struggle with. I often dress androgynous if I can, but I’m not scared to change it up a bit. 

Seeing people so excited to see this movie and then seeing it myself was so fun. Laughing and crying and feeling a rollercoaster of emotions whilst learning about myself was an experience I will probably never recreate. However, it’s made me appreciate myself more, proud that my body has gotten me this far.