Force Majeure (2014)

Very uncomfortable movie. It’s interesting to me that when I saw Triagle of Sadness, where class was at the center while gender is at the fringe, I thought the wit of the film was cutting and delicious. With this film almost exclusively focused on gender, the same incisiveness felt almost a little mean. 

At the end of the day Tomas is a very small man. Unable to face up to his own cowardice in the face of imminent danger, he gaslights, grovels, and manipulates. But does he come off this way because he failed the standard of what we expect masculinity to be, or because he is just a shitty person? Do we judge every shitty person by how they react and the immediate aftermath of their reactions during their most vulnerable moments? On the off chance that his breakdown is real, who is responsible for it? Should we expect his wife to care for it, despite having just had to pull teeth to get a fully grown man to acknowledge reality? On the other hand, as much as I loathe to defend a gaslight, you never humiliate someone into being vulnerable. We don’t know how Tomas would have reacted if she had addressed this with him privately first instead. Gender really is messy. 

Surprised but elated to see Tormund yet again representing the big ginger himbo genre of men, single handed demonstrating that even a (mildly) fragile ego can be adorable as long as you are not an asshole about it. Where does one get models like this? Asking for a friend.