{"id":451,"date":"2006-08-03T09:56:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-03T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/churchofthemasses\/2006\/08\/little-miss-crass-and-vulgar\/"},"modified":"2006-08-03T09:56:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-03T15:56:00","slug":"little-miss-crass-and-vulgar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/churchofthemasses\/2006\/08\/little-miss-crass-and-vulgar\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Miss Crass and Vulgar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong century. I don\u2019t tend to think that things that lots of other people today laugh at are funny. <\/p>\n

A case in point is the indie movie now in theatrical release called
Little Miss Sunshine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. I just listened to fuzzy Gene Shalit give it a rave on Today<\/em> as being an inspiring, delightful family romp (or words to that effect). This film was all the rage at Sundance this year. I didn\u2019t see it there because word was it had gotten picked up for distribution, and so I knew I could catch it later in theaters. But it was the same at Sundance. Folks there kept saying it was a charming, quirky, inspiring comedy.<\/p>\n

INSPIRING? INSPIRING?!?!?!<\/p>\n

Films like Little Miss Sunshine<\/em> are inspiring in the way that Roseanne Barr once said her TV show Roseanne<\/em> was fascinating for people: \u201cOur family is so bad, that it makes people feel better about the hell holes that their families are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see. Inspiring moments from Little Miss Sunshine<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2013 the film spends a lot of time setting up the father of the family, played well by Greg Kinnear, as a total assh*le. He spends the whole film talking about the difference between winners and losers, and seems oblivious that he himself is a loser. This fact is obvious to his teenage son who describes living in the house as hell, and has dropped out from any interaction with the hypocritical jerk parents who feed and clothe him.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t find ridicule inspiring. I don\u2019t find it really humorous. I think it subverts what comedy should be. Comedy should make us feel humble. Ridicule leaves the audience feeling superior.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think post-modernism is an excuse to break the Fourth Commandment. But, I know, lighten up, right?<\/p>\n

\u2013 This same shaggy-haired teenage son wears a T-shirt that proclaims \u201cJesus Was Wrong\u201d, and makes the film\u2019s most profound philosophical speech declaring, \u201cGoing to college? F*ck that. Getting a job? F*ck that. Making a living? F*ck that. F*ck it all. F*ck everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somewhere out there, I suppose Nietsche was very inspired. The audience I was with roared in approval. I didn\u2019t think it was funny. The moment was played as a profound epiphany. But it isn\u2019t really profound, is it? Don\u2019t tell the audience. They were ready to elect the character to Congress for speaking the truth. What truth is that?<\/p>\n

I find this to be predicable of GenX and the Millenials: They say things alternately banal and profound, but they don\u2019t know the difference.<\/p>\n

\u2013 a grandfather (played by the talented Alan Arkin, who must be really, really desperate for work) who is a cocaine addict and a sex addict. He buys porn and makes the film\u2019s most vulgar speech to his grandson, chastising the fifteen year old for not getting lots of sex, and then exhorting him to \u201chave sex with lots of women. Lots of them. Not just one. Gets lots of sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, the audience was in stitches. Especially when the grandfather noted that in the rest home he used to live in, he got \u201cthird degree burns on my Johnson\u201d from all the sex. The more the old man spoke filth, the funnier it got for the audience. But, I didn\u2019t think it was funny. I thought it was gross and shameful. <\/p>\n

\u2013 a seven year old who does a protracted burlesque dance as sexualized as possible. Now, I get that the scene was meant to be satiric commentary on the whole little girl beauty pageant world. I get that. I just hated watching a seven year old do a strip tease. Or, using the film school jargon for which I paid thirty grand, I found the method of filmic satire, more problematic than the social ill it was critiquing. <\/p>\n

Again, however, the audience was falling off its seat laughing at this scene. How funny for them to get to watch a seven year old actress mimic an exotic dancer? I didn\u2019t think it was funny. I thought it was perverse. I don\u2019t care what the filmmaker was trying to do. He doesn\u2019t get to use a seven year old to make his frickin\u2019 statement!<\/p>\n

I would say those three moments are the vulgar lowlights of the film. The rest of it involves a family in which the father is an ambitious jerk. The mother is an impotent whiner. And, OF COURSE, the only really compassionate, intelligent and caring member of the family is the gay uncle Frank, who is recovering from having slit his wrists. (And he is the sane one.)<\/p>\n

I found during the movie that the audience was laughing at moments in which the family\u2019s shame was particularly exposed. The humor was to point at the people in the family and sneer, \u201cWhat an assh*le!\u201d or \u201cWhat a hypocrite!\u201d<\/p>\n

I feel absolutely sure that a legion of critics \u2013 and certainly Christians! \u2013 will passionately defend this film. They will relish its \u201cfresh satiric critique \u201d of post-modernity. They will say things about how wonderful it was for the family to end the film accepting each other in a stirring moment of loyalty and love. They will say that this movie is clearly just not my kind of taste, and that engaging culture means that we shouldn\u2019t get stuck on little things like vulgarity, profanity, crassness and the exaltation of meaninglessness.<\/p>\n

They will be absurd. Swallowing camels of human degradation and straining out gnats of \u201cniceness\u201d. <\/p>\n

Pass on Little Miss Sunshine<\/em>. It won\u2019t make you a better person. It won\u2019t make you love your neighbors more. It will fill your spirit with cynicism and sneering. Pass. Pass. Pass.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong century. I don\u2019t tend to think that things that lots of other people today laugh at are funny. A case in point is the indie movie now in theatrical release called Little Miss Sunshine. I just listened to fuzzy Gene Shalit give it a rave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLittle Miss Crass and Vulgar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong century. I don't tend to think that things that lots of other people today laugh at are funny. 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