Hollywood loves to preach to audiences.
Writers, directors, and producers constantly infuse leftist politics into their storytelling.
But one “woke” movie is so bad that even liberal critics hate it.
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 spurred Hollywood to get even more political in its storytelling.
A spate of nakedly leftist movies came out, and pretty much all of them flopped.
The latest lead balloon was a film called They/Them, which is a horror movie set at a conversion therapy camp for LGBTQ+ kids.
The film—by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter John Logan making his directorial debut—does not even attempt to hide its political message.
Logan, who is openly gay, said that he did a lot of research for the film and found that “the extent that it wasn’t always religious, really surprised me. I assumed there would be a religious patina over most so-called ‘gay conversion.’ And it’s not, necessarily. Sometimes it’s couched in other terms.”
Nevertheless, Logan’s messaging did not save him.
They/Them was pilloried on movie review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s not surprising that audiences rated it at an abysmal 18%, but it’s more surprising that the professional film critics—who are probably the most left-wing writers in media—only rated it at 30%.
Indiewire wrote:
“Kevin Bacon runs a gay conversion therapy camp in this queer thriller that’s light on scares and long on self-loathing…Studios began to shove political commentary into every horror movie, whether it was ‘The Forever Purge’ pitting Mexican immigrants against gun-toting MAGA gangs, or the latest ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ turning Leatherface into a displaced victim of tech gentrification. Horror fans can sense when films force satire into a bloodbath and it’s annoying: They’re being sold a market trend and usually all they want is good clean bloody fun.”
Daily Beast critic Coleman Spilde was even harsher.
Spilde wrote, “THEY/THEM is out today. it is not remotely scary, but it does boast a cast of almost entirely queer actors, which is fantastic. it also contains the worst, most cringeworthy scene of the year. finally we can all witness this and I don’t have go through this pain alone.”
THEY/THEM is out today. it is not remotely scary, but it does boast a cast of almost entirely queer actors, which is fantastic. it also contains the worst, most cringeworthy scene of the year. finally we can all witness this and I don’t have go through this pain alone pic.twitter.com/pjB9bFmo0z
— coleman spilde (@colemanjspilde) August 5, 2022
In a true example of the left eating its own, Spilde took aim at Pink, the “woke” pop star whose song “F*ckin’ Perfect” was being sung by the kids in the scene.
Splide explained:
“What’s more, [that song] is from P!nk’s greatest hits album, which is boldly entitled, Greatest Hits…So Far!!!, … that album also features a little song called ‘Stupid Girls,’ the hottest slut-shaming song of 2006. So forgive me if I am not one to sympathize with P!nk’s perspective on apparently living an embattled life when one of the most popular songs in her oeuvre was hellbent on tearing women down for shopping and dating. Or what about when P!nk got on stage at an event held by the Human Rights Campaign (already questionable) and began her speech by saying, ‘I’m gay…actually I’m not.’ Personally, I think it’s very cool and fun to treat coming out like a silly little joke. Let’s throw a couple thousand dollars of film royalties her way as a thank-you.”
Nobody is ever pure enough for the left.