Jim Carrey’s Chip also probably benefits in hindsight from the fact that Jim Carrey is almost certainly neurodiverse himself. John Travolta’s Moose was most likely sincere (Travolta had a son who was on the spectrum), but it plays like a parody of autism.
Also: Moose is far too low-functioning for any of his interactions to be remotely plausible. Travolta should be closer to Rupert Pupkin (for a dramatic turn) or Charlie Kelly (for black comedy – maybe even Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World) for this to work, but here he’s a non-ironic version of Simple Jack. The overall effect is that this plays like an 2000s Adam McKay Manbaby Comedy shot completely straight, with Travolta in the Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly role. (Although now that I mention it, I’d be game for a re-cut of The Fanatic that rescored it like a comedy).
::Entertainment clung to that hateful, transphobic conception of trans life as exotic and extreme and dangerous for decades. Those ubiquitous cliches have taken a long time to fall out of favor.::
I'm not so sure they've fallen out of favor, honestly. Certainly the likes of Donald Trump, J.K. Rowling, and John Cleese are determined to keep them alive and kicking....
At least that's on-brand for Trump, whose entire life and sense of humor involve viciously punching down at every opportunity. Rowling's harder to comprehend except as the regressive view of an older generation of "feminist" who sees transwomen as "fake women"—and as for Cleese? I doubt he's ever gotten past the notion of transgenderism as a drag act that Young Englishmen Do for a Laff at Uni, and thus nothing you should ever take seriously. 😒
Scalding hot take: I found Taxi Driver boring as hell. Maybe I just don't like movies that are that much more character-focused than plot-focused, I dunno.
Jim Carrey’s Chip also probably benefits in hindsight from the fact that Jim Carrey is almost certainly neurodiverse himself. John Travolta’s Moose was most likely sincere (Travolta had a son who was on the spectrum), but it plays like a parody of autism.
Also: Moose is far too low-functioning for any of his interactions to be remotely plausible. Travolta should be closer to Rupert Pupkin (for a dramatic turn) or Charlie Kelly (for black comedy – maybe even Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World) for this to work, but here he’s a non-ironic version of Simple Jack. The overall effect is that this plays like an 2000s Adam McKay Manbaby Comedy shot completely straight, with Travolta in the Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly role. (Although now that I mention it, I’d be game for a re-cut of The Fanatic that rescored it like a comedy).
::Entertainment clung to that hateful, transphobic conception of trans life as exotic and extreme and dangerous for decades. Those ubiquitous cliches have taken a long time to fall out of favor.::
I'm not so sure they've fallen out of favor, honestly. Certainly the likes of Donald Trump, J.K. Rowling, and John Cleese are determined to keep them alive and kicking....
At least that's on-brand for Trump, whose entire life and sense of humor involve viciously punching down at every opportunity. Rowling's harder to comprehend except as the regressive view of an older generation of "feminist" who sees transwomen as "fake women"—and as for Cleese? I doubt he's ever gotten past the notion of transgenderism as a drag act that Young Englishmen Do for a Laff at Uni, and thus nothing you should ever take seriously. 😒
::I similarly would not have spent long, often painful years watching every last stinker a man rightly synonymous with *garage* made::
I think you meant to say "garbage" here, Nabin.
Scalding hot take: I found Taxi Driver boring as hell. Maybe I just don't like movies that are that much more character-focused than plot-focused, I dunno.