We're The Millers
Sep. 22nd, 2013 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_nightSaw We're The Millers. To put it simply, I felt that the whole thing was "unfunny," even for a dark comedy. I guess since Jennifer Aniston was in it, I figured it wouldn't be that bad. I also hadn't researched what the movie was really about, which was my fault - I thought it was going to be about a dysfunctional family. Stupid? Yes, but not offensively so. It definitely was, however. For those of you who also didn't research it, it's about a guy who has to smuggle drugs to Mexico, and gets a bunch of people to pretend to be his wife, daughter and son respectively. Hijinks ensue. Except not really.
One of my biggest issues was how it dealt with white middle class privilege, in that being white and seemingly middle class (though none of them were) pretty much allowed the so-called "family" to smuggle drugs over the border. Meanwhile a hippie gets beaten up for having a joint, and a few illegal immigrants get shot at. It was hard to tell if the movie considered these things funny, or if they were trying to make a point. There's more things like that. There's also a scene where an eighteen year old is almost coerced into having sex with an older man by his (admittedly pretend) father figure. The eighteen year old in question acts more like a twelve year old boy, which makes it all the more uncomfortable. (They emphasize this by saying he's never been kissed, which is actually a pet peeve because... seriously, an eighteen year old not having been kissed does not make him childish. But that was the least of this movie's issues.)
I'll throw the movie a piece of bone by saying it probably was trying to make fun of white upper middle class family vacation movies. At the end of the movie, the "family" goes into Witness Protection, and by that I mean they "have" to live in a big house with a white picket fence. (Where they grow pot in the garden.) But what really happened was that it just became a road trip film with drugs, guns and really awkward incest jokes. Like the white privilege, it wasn't clear where the joke began and where it ended, or how any of it was funny in the first place. We also don't really get to know the characters - the movie seems to want us to see them as being something other than a pot dealer, a stripper, a naive eighteen year old, and a teen runaway, but at the same time that's all they're allowed to be. We never learn why they chose that path or what other life ambitions they might have had at one time, or might still have.
Did I mention that these people who apparently are so poor they have to live their miserable lives can afford plane tickets for five people and new hairdos, by the way?
In short, learn from me - just because a movie has some actors you like in it doesn't mean it's any good - research it first. I wish I could get my money back. See Little Miss Sunshine instead.
One of my biggest issues was how it dealt with white middle class privilege, in that being white and seemingly middle class (though none of them were) pretty much allowed the so-called "family" to smuggle drugs over the border. Meanwhile a hippie gets beaten up for having a joint, and a few illegal immigrants get shot at. It was hard to tell if the movie considered these things funny, or if they were trying to make a point. There's more things like that. There's also a scene where an eighteen year old is almost coerced into having sex with an older man by his (admittedly pretend) father figure. The eighteen year old in question acts more like a twelve year old boy, which makes it all the more uncomfortable. (They emphasize this by saying he's never been kissed, which is actually a pet peeve because... seriously, an eighteen year old not having been kissed does not make him childish. But that was the least of this movie's issues.)
I'll throw the movie a piece of bone by saying it probably was trying to make fun of white upper middle class family vacation movies. At the end of the movie, the "family" goes into Witness Protection, and by that I mean they "have" to live in a big house with a white picket fence. (Where they grow pot in the garden.) But what really happened was that it just became a road trip film with drugs, guns and really awkward incest jokes. Like the white privilege, it wasn't clear where the joke began and where it ended, or how any of it was funny in the first place. We also don't really get to know the characters - the movie seems to want us to see them as being something other than a pot dealer, a stripper, a naive eighteen year old, and a teen runaway, but at the same time that's all they're allowed to be. We never learn why they chose that path or what other life ambitions they might have had at one time, or might still have.
Did I mention that these people who apparently are so poor they have to live their miserable lives can afford plane tickets for five people and new hairdos, by the way?
In short, learn from me - just because a movie has some actors you like in it doesn't mean it's any good - research it first. I wish I could get my money back. See Little Miss Sunshine instead.
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Date: 2013-09-22 01:13 pm (UTC)