You know, people of the UK, I often wonder why you put up with folks from the United States. Think of what you have given us, in terms of entertainment, over the last few years: Lily Allen, Sasha Baron Cohen, Idris Elba, Daniel Craig as James Bond - the list goes on. Yet what has America given you in return? Well, here's one answer: Observe & Report, which opened in cinemas - for the British, anyway - recently.
On behalf of my nation, I would like to apologise.
Observe & Report has already caused quite a stir, containing as it does a scene in which the hero, Ronnie (Seth Rogen) rapes an intoxicated and unconscious woman by the name of Brandi (Anna Faris). The scene is played for laughs: after a series of scenes in which it's shown that Brandi has eaten handfuls of anti-depressants, downed massive amounts of tequila, and is unable to walk, maintain consciousness, or form a coherent sentence, Rogen drags her into her house, and the movie cuts to a shot of Rogen humping Brandi's passed-out, vomit-spattered body. He stops for a moment. She mutters "Why'd you stop," without opening her eyes or moving. Cue audience laughter!
The thing is, at the showing I attended (ah, research), that was the only point in the movie at which the audience laughed. Observe & Report, aside from being misogynist and racist - the only people of colour with real speaking parts are crack dealers, a mall thief, and Aziz Ansari, who stands up to Ronnie briefly before being triumphantly punched out - is offensive to depressed people, security guards, movie ticket-buyers, and the concept of comedy itself.
The feminist backlash is, yes, merited. If there's one thing this movie, with its coy little pretense of edginess and ambiguity, seems to honestly stand for, it is writer/director Jody Hill's anger at women (and, really, the human race: the female thing stands out, though). Aside from the rape, women's distress at being threatened by a flasher is also played as a joke, and Ronnie and his friends, those scamps, are not above peeking into changing booths and snapping pictures of the naked ladies therein. Sure, Ronnie goes on drug binges and orgies of violence, but those are self-consciously and laboriously presented as "dark": nothing is quite as light-hearted as the assault of ladies.
Observe & Report has sparked many conversations about date rape. On one side, you've got people arguing that it wasn't rape because Ronnie didn't beat Brandi up, or because Brandi is a "slut", or because Brandi was drunk, or because Brandi let Ronnie take her home. (Again: she's clearly passing out on the way there, he has to drag her into the house, why are we talking about this?) On the other, you've got what I like to refer to as "smart people," making the point that rape is rape is rape is, you guessed it, rape, and that putting your penis in a woman who is unconscious and/or too intoxicated to resist or even realistically know what's happening is definitely rape, no matter what she mutters in her stupor. This point, coincidentally, has the law and/or basic definitions of the word "consent" on its side. The other, not so much.
We need these conversations. Yet: the lady-hatred is right there in the trailer. The rape scene is in the trailer. The value of context is, in this case, absent. The magical thing about this conversation is that you do not have to see Observe & Report to take part in it. Nor should you.
Rape is, in the real live world, an enormous problem, and a threat that every woman lives with on a daily basis. Rape Crisis (England & Wales) reports that about 23% of women and 3% of men experience sexual assault, and that sexual assault is hugely under-reported, so before you spring to the defence of funny rape scenes in movies, think of every woman you love. Think about the fact that at least a quarter of them have probably been assaulted. You don't know which quarter: you may never know. The lines people use to defend Observe & Report are the very lines used to keep these women silent, ashamed, and unwilling to bring their attackers to justice. Think about whether you want to do that to those women. Think about whose side you want to take.
There. See? You just became a better person than Jody Hill. Congratulations!
Yes, the fact that I saw a movie that promotes rape, with people who guffawed at a rape scene, was upsetting. However, far more upsetting - for Jody Hill and Seth Rogen - is the fact that the theatre was almost empty. Observe & Report has bombed in the US: if there's one thing I hope to accomplish with my life, it is to spread Observe & Report's non-stop campaign of failure to your distant shores. Luckily, this won't be hard: in its opening week Observe & Report limped into eighth place at the UK box office.
Like your mama always told you, ignore them and they'll go away - and, in this case, unlike most, your mama was right. Ignore them, by which I mean, "do not give them money," and they will go away, by which I mean, "will not have money, and also their film and/or careers will die an embarrassing, public death." That, I think, is something we can all believe in.
