Despite the social and legislative progress of the last decades, hateful acts towards LGBTQIA+ people remain a sad reality, and are even on the rise with the trivialization of extreme right-wing discourses. Between France and Germany, this documentary compiles the testimonies of ordinary people who tell their often traumatic experiences: Charlotte and Linda, who were brutalized in broad daylight in front of their daughter's eyes; Max, a high school student targeted by an anonymous cyber-stalker; Arnaud, victim of a violent assault in the middle of Paris; Tessa Ganserer, elected to the Bundestag, exposed to transphobic hate campaigns on the Internet; Ria and Leo, confronted with "queerphobia" mixed with racism... Activists or not, they all aspire to normality, to safety and to have society stop turning a blind eye to what they suffer.
A refreshing twist is that all the kids’ powers are…kind of useless. There’s a kid who can only move in slow motion, a kid who has every power in the world but can only use them randomly, and our main character Missy who has no powers at all. The thesis of the film seems to be that it doesn’t matter what kind of powers you have, its the way you use them, which is good for the warm and fuzzies.
I think these messages and the way they are presented in this small-town in Texas are increasingly more important as the internet/ social media becomes more and more critical and judgemental every day. Love yourself today and every day because as Ru Paul always says: “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love someone else?”
The French-born director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s strategic choice to entrust the interpretation of a conventional, feminine character to a non-binary actor pays off: Corrin’s Lady Chatterley is awkward, edgy, and uninhibited at the same time.
Indie director, Niki Caro (known for 'Whale Rider') directs the live-action 'Mulan' and sets another example of strong females fighting against gender inequality.
We chat with Penelope Lawson about her short film, The Dinner Party, her experience founding her own production company, and fun cinema.
Sorry to Bother You ultimately speaks to the unfair advantages that the country’s power structures award to those with the resources to control others, as Lift’s easy access to the media allows his opinion to be the only one that matters in the eyes of the unsuspecting and easily impressed public. Moreover, it reveals the extent to which the American Dream has any true validity. It postulates how the promise of success and fulfillment as promoted by the American Dream more often than not leads to the undoing of the individual. Interestingly, in its revealing of the American Dream as merely a facade, Sorry to Bother You wisely questions whether or not anything can really be done to undo a system that has been accepted and in action for centuries.
