i just watched a depalma that portrayed women as airhead bimbos, blacks as gangs of rapists, cops as pretty decent guys actually and transexuals as demented serial killers bro this was not bad

I’m not here to compare what’s worse between other movies.

But this is how you dissolve everything y’all saying: would YOU as a grown ass man do the same actions as Alana with a 15 year old girl? Be honest.

this is why i dont even want to have this conversation with you fam... i already said 15 and 25 is gross but youre not hearing me and asking me to rephrase it?

Maybe I missed that? But If you agree then what we discussing? Cus I don’t get the point you was tryna make about “Gary a grown man IRL”

It was the 70s bro, back then people either didn't care or didn't understand the multifaceted, nuanced and complex issues with relationships and age gaps.

This movie is a period piece -first and foremost- that highlights the crude differences between then and now. Hence the asian jokes, running for office and hiding your sexuality. And ofc the gary - alana fling.

Their entire "love story" is supposed to be very ambiguous. Alana is an adult but acts and looks younger, Gary is a teen but acts and looks like an adult. They're closer in mindset than their technical age represents. You're supposed to go: this would not fly today, but understand that back then in much more "free" america it probably could.

I don't believe the film was telling you this relationship was ok

I think she was doing the opposite of whatever grooming is but in the end couldn't resist the feeling anymore

He was portraying a different age, they didn't follow your PC rules

He's not ready to hear this

Lmao tf you mean my PC rules?

Sorry the PC rules of modern times

Nigga do not make me out to be the ignorant one for not defending this pedo ass movie.

Y’all weirdos the ones in here not ready to hear facts.

I’m good off the convo y’all can stop replying. Deadass not about to argue with what’s right and what’s wrong and how we should look passed it because “fam it’s a period piece fam it was ok back then”

Youre the one thats declaring "the film is saying this one concrete thing" when Paul has never been that easy to nail down

I don't know what interview you saw but I'm letting the film speak for itself for now

Why do you feel that the characters of a fictional film have to conform to your moral standards to enjoy the movie? Are you unable to watch any movie that has characters do things we aren’t comfortable with?

Not tryna argue just curious. Plenty of movies have main characters do morally questionable things but for some reason people get stuck up on this one

You want all movies that take place back in the day to adhere to modern pc standards thats like not caring a bunch of hybrids and cellphones are in the background of your period piece, just unrealistic to the point of pulling you out of the experience and even worse sugarcoating how ugly history actually was

Cooper was actually 17 when filming started

Not at all, not sure how much of my argument you’ve followed but I mentioned Red rocket and I like that movie. Red rocket is actually worse in what’s displayed BUT red rocket lets you know this main character is a creep and doesn’t try to make a cute romance Movie out of it.

That’s my issue that PTA took a disturbing subject matter and made a cute rom flick out of it where the chick and boy eventually fall in love in the end.

It's not because it could happen back then that we deem it to be okay or unproblematic.

It’s crazy how ignorant you really are. Like you really showing your ass rn.

If you actually read, I’ve clearly stated that it’s the fact that PTA turned this s*** into a cute romance flick. I’m all for showing “the ugly” but leave it as that, UGLY. If you remove the characters mentioning their age literally nobody wouldn’t think there’s anything wrong. And that’s due to how the subject matter was presented.

Like y’all really acting like if a nigga does a movie based back in the day they gotta include some Pedo s*** or it won’t be authentic.

There’s a way to showcase how s*** was back then while still letting your audience know “I don’t agree with this”

I disagree with your take on how he portrayed it sorry you think I'm ignorant

And also to add on, we all know homophobia was a big thing back then. Notice how PTA displayed that in the movie? In the sense that it’s wrong because clearly it is.

Did he do the same thing with the Pedo subject matter? F*** no. And we all know that’s a fact.

I've only seen it once on acid so no I don't know that's a fact

Good night twitch

I understand that criticism. Personally I find that it’s not necessarily his job to show the viewer like, hey, by the way, this is bad behavior. I think the viewer can make that decision for themselves. He’s just telling a story. I don’t see it as the movie co-signing the behavior at all, just showing characters and events that happen to them. But I do get how you feel

Ngl I think the movie does a good job of most of this with all the stuff portrayed.

The racist store owner talking to his Japanese wives,
Joel Wachs being closeted and using Alana as a beard,
The fact that no one even says s*** about Gary smoking at age 15
The comments about Alana’s Jewish features and her religion,
Alana being casually sexually harassed by
The photographer earlier on in the movie when he slaps her ass and she clearly feels uncomfortable
And just the general machismo of a lot of the men in this movie

are all pretty cut and dry and are pretty much just showing us how casual a lot of that s*** we deem as wild now was accepted back then.

The reason I like a lot of the movie is cuz I like hangout movies in general but early on in the thread when I initially saw the movie I actually said I would’ve rated the movie higher if they changed the ending.

Part of me wonders if the ending is meant to
symbolize that Alana and Gary have this “arrested development” thing going on where they both are trying to escape the need to grow up and that the relationship won’t last or something. Gary calling her his wife and her just looking at him like he’s stupid makes me consider that.

But yea I can understand someone not vibing with this movie cuz of said ending.

Lowkey I feel like if you just change the ending to them hugging platonically or making Gary 18 or something this could’ve been avoided lol