Post by klep on Sept 16, 2019 9:48:24 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/16: Waitress
ONE HIT WONDERS WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor
Though it got good reviews upon release, I've noticed many who don't give Waitress its due. They focus more on the tragic death of Adrienne Shelley and look at Waitress as proof of her potential, but not fulfilling that potentially fully due to abrupt tonal shifts within the narrative. Well I'm here to tell you that Waitress' genius is within those tonal shifts, as they accurately represent the coping mechanisms of a woman in an incredibly disturbing, abusive relationship.
Though I find it brilliant, I never planned to rewatch Waitress because it triggered me so thoroughly upon first viewing. I was upset for a week because I saw so much I recognized in the entitlement and petty jealousy of the titular waitress' husband, Earl (played with terrifying resonance by Jeremy Sisto). I went to Waitress with my mother, who distracted herself with the positive instead of taking in how disturbing this relationship is, as she tends to do.
Rewatching the film 12 years later, I was struck as much by Earl's demanding that Jenna love him more than the baby and put him first than the scenes of physical abuse I had prepared myself for. My mother is codependent on my dad and while he's not the monster Earl is, she certainly put him first for most of my childhood. In retrospect, I was reacting to my mother using the same coping mechanisms that Jenna uses in the film as much as anything else, focusing on the beauty of the pies we just saw and the screwball chemistry between Jenna and her dreamy Dr. Pomatter.
Which is exactly what your brain does when you're in an abusive relationship in order to make it through the day. It becomes fixated on other things to allow you to survive. The sharp, painful detours into Jenna's married life aren't an abrupt tonal shift arbitrarily. They're intentionally depicting the reality of being in an abusive relationship and coping with that reality by creating a larger-than-life dream world revolving around pies.
Upon rewatch, I was struck by how many forms of internalized misogyny and toxic masculinity Waitress takes on in addition to Earl's textbook abusive husband. Jenna could not be in a more subservient position if she tried. She bakes, she helps everyone, and she serves for a living. Old Joe, who owns the pie shop she works at, goes through every trick in the cat callers playbook, constantly berating her, condescending to her, and telling her to smile. (And he's a generally positive character.)
Jenna's two fellow waitresses, Becky and Dawn, are supportive, but also take more than they give. They aren't exactly open to Jenna's repeated assertions that she does not want this baby. When they give her a present, that present is a baby book so Jenna can record everything about the daughter she resents. When Jenna says she still doesn't feel anything for her unborn daughter, they pretend she didn't say that and promptly cease the celebration.
Jenna's fixation on letting Earl get her drunk which led to her pregnancy is a classic victim blaming device that she's internalized. Later in Waitress, when Dawn's suitor represents another tenant of toxic masculinity by not taking no for an answer, Jenna responds to Dawn's assertion that she already said no to, "say no better." It's exhausting to figure out ways that women could be rejecting these men "better" as opposed to making the men in their lives listen to anything they're saying.
Though the chemistry between Keri Russell and Dr. Pomatter is charming and delightful, there are some red flags to his interest I didn't notice upon first viewing, but have since experienced firsthand. His interest in Jenna is strangely maternal and definitely quite symbolic. He doesn't see her for herself, but his interest stems from Jenna reminding him of a waitress he had a crush on as a child. When he shows up asking to be taught how to make a pie, I couldn't help but think of a similar scene between Kristin Wiig and Chris O'Dowd in Bridesmaids, which resulted in O'Dowd getting rightfully chewed out for stepping into some emotionally loaded territory.
While the ending of Waitress doesn't work for me as well as what came before it, but I'm not sure its happy ending isn't just another narrative device that ultimately emphasizes the sad reality of the situation. Just as Get Out scares the audience with the flashing red blue lights of law enforcement before revealing that they belong to Chris' friend, Waitress shows us a happy ending so unlikely, it's liable to make you cry. Right before Jenna prepares to run away with Dr. Pomatter, she goes into labor. After having the baby, a fuzzy euphoria takes over, which gives Jenna the strength to leave Earl after all these years. She rejects Dr. Pomatter upon leaving the hospital, relying instead upon her two work wives and a well-timed gift from Old Joe.
I appreciated the rose-colored glasses that Jenna has directly after childbirth, as I'm told this is a real phenomenon that occurs as your hormones attempt to trick you into ever having another baby again after all that pain. But in presenting us with this happy ending, you can't help but think of how its the opposite of what would occur. Having a baby doesn't give women the strength to leave their abusive husbands; it straps them to their abusers for life due to the resources it takes to raise one. Impoverished, abused women tend not to have kindly grumps in their lives that will die at just the right moment and leave them $270,450 to start their own pie shops either.
Shelley gives us a happy ending of Waitress is to make us think of how unlikely that ending is for so many women in relationships like Jenna's. But I wouldn't call it an abrupt tonal shift because that implies Shelley didn't know exactly what she was doing in writing it.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/23: Clue
MYSTERY WEEK!
For Mystery Week we'll be discussing cult classic Clue! Join us for one of the only good game adaptations to hit the silver screen. Clue is available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/17: Ready or Not
The current podcast pairing of murder fests based on games concludes with the new Ready or Not, about a woman who marries into a family of murderous psychos. Come join us Wednesday for our discussion! Ready or Not is still in theaters.
ONE HIT WONDERS WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor
Though it got good reviews upon release, I've noticed many who don't give Waitress its due. They focus more on the tragic death of Adrienne Shelley and look at Waitress as proof of her potential, but not fulfilling that potentially fully due to abrupt tonal shifts within the narrative. Well I'm here to tell you that Waitress' genius is within those tonal shifts, as they accurately represent the coping mechanisms of a woman in an incredibly disturbing, abusive relationship.
Though I find it brilliant, I never planned to rewatch Waitress because it triggered me so thoroughly upon first viewing. I was upset for a week because I saw so much I recognized in the entitlement and petty jealousy of the titular waitress' husband, Earl (played with terrifying resonance by Jeremy Sisto). I went to Waitress with my mother, who distracted herself with the positive instead of taking in how disturbing this relationship is, as she tends to do.
Rewatching the film 12 years later, I was struck as much by Earl's demanding that Jenna love him more than the baby and put him first than the scenes of physical abuse I had prepared myself for. My mother is codependent on my dad and while he's not the monster Earl is, she certainly put him first for most of my childhood. In retrospect, I was reacting to my mother using the same coping mechanisms that Jenna uses in the film as much as anything else, focusing on the beauty of the pies we just saw and the screwball chemistry between Jenna and her dreamy Dr. Pomatter.
Which is exactly what your brain does when you're in an abusive relationship in order to make it through the day. It becomes fixated on other things to allow you to survive. The sharp, painful detours into Jenna's married life aren't an abrupt tonal shift arbitrarily. They're intentionally depicting the reality of being in an abusive relationship and coping with that reality by creating a larger-than-life dream world revolving around pies.
Upon rewatch, I was struck by how many forms of internalized misogyny and toxic masculinity Waitress takes on in addition to Earl's textbook abusive husband. Jenna could not be in a more subservient position if she tried. She bakes, she helps everyone, and she serves for a living. Old Joe, who owns the pie shop she works at, goes through every trick in the cat callers playbook, constantly berating her, condescending to her, and telling her to smile. (And he's a generally positive character.)
Jenna's two fellow waitresses, Becky and Dawn, are supportive, but also take more than they give. They aren't exactly open to Jenna's repeated assertions that she does not want this baby. When they give her a present, that present is a baby book so Jenna can record everything about the daughter she resents. When Jenna says she still doesn't feel anything for her unborn daughter, they pretend she didn't say that and promptly cease the celebration.
Jenna's fixation on letting Earl get her drunk which led to her pregnancy is a classic victim blaming device that she's internalized. Later in Waitress, when Dawn's suitor represents another tenant of toxic masculinity by not taking no for an answer, Jenna responds to Dawn's assertion that she already said no to, "say no better." It's exhausting to figure out ways that women could be rejecting these men "better" as opposed to making the men in their lives listen to anything they're saying.
Though the chemistry between Keri Russell and Dr. Pomatter is charming and delightful, there are some red flags to his interest I didn't notice upon first viewing, but have since experienced firsthand. His interest in Jenna is strangely maternal and definitely quite symbolic. He doesn't see her for herself, but his interest stems from Jenna reminding him of a waitress he had a crush on as a child. When he shows up asking to be taught how to make a pie, I couldn't help but think of a similar scene between Kristin Wiig and Chris O'Dowd in Bridesmaids, which resulted in O'Dowd getting rightfully chewed out for stepping into some emotionally loaded territory.
While the ending of Waitress doesn't work for me as well as what came before it, but I'm not sure its happy ending isn't just another narrative device that ultimately emphasizes the sad reality of the situation. Just as Get Out scares the audience with the flashing red blue lights of law enforcement before revealing that they belong to Chris' friend, Waitress shows us a happy ending so unlikely, it's liable to make you cry. Right before Jenna prepares to run away with Dr. Pomatter, she goes into labor. After having the baby, a fuzzy euphoria takes over, which gives Jenna the strength to leave Earl after all these years. She rejects Dr. Pomatter upon leaving the hospital, relying instead upon her two work wives and a well-timed gift from Old Joe.
I appreciated the rose-colored glasses that Jenna has directly after childbirth, as I'm told this is a real phenomenon that occurs as your hormones attempt to trick you into ever having another baby again after all that pain. But in presenting us with this happy ending, you can't help but think of how its the opposite of what would occur. Having a baby doesn't give women the strength to leave their abusive husbands; it straps them to their abusers for life due to the resources it takes to raise one. Impoverished, abused women tend not to have kindly grumps in their lives that will die at just the right moment and leave them $270,450 to start their own pie shops either.
Shelley gives us a happy ending of Waitress is to make us think of how unlikely that ending is for so many women in relationships like Jenna's. But I wouldn't call it an abrupt tonal shift because that implies Shelley didn't know exactly what she was doing in writing it.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/23: Clue
MYSTERY WEEK!
For Mystery Week we'll be discussing cult classic Clue! Join us for one of the only good game adaptations to hit the silver screen. Clue is available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/17: Ready or Not
The current podcast pairing of murder fests based on games concludes with the new Ready or Not, about a woman who marries into a family of murderous psychos. Come join us Wednesday for our discussion! Ready or Not is still in theaters.