I Am Not My Opinion on Love Actually (A hot take on hot takes on Love Actually)
It's that magical time of year...where Love Actually plays on television at least once a week.
There is nothing to be said about Richard Curtis' personal masterwork on the magic of love that someone on the internet hasn't already said. I'm partial to the Christmas countdown of daily Love Actually watches by Courtney Enlow at Pajiba, personally. Christopher Orr at The Atlantic offers what came to be a pretty standard modern response to the movie, in that it is a piece of junk depiction of romance. Lindy West at Jezebel broke it down. On the 10th anniversary of Love Actually, the world learned to hate it. Michael Koziol penned an interesting piece in defence of the movie at The Gaurdian; also at Pajiba, Joe Starr with one of my favourite hot takes entitled "Love Actually is a problematic movie and ugh who f*cking cares?".
Let's focus on the more important things, people! Were we really all still wearing turtlenecks in 2003? There is not nearly enough distance between us and turtlenecks for us to be so casual about fashion. The best piece ever posted on Buzzfeed may be the definitive ranking of every turtleneck in Love Actually.
There's something about these genre blockbusters that makes them magnets for new content. Even the curation of articles about the movie is nothing new - I'm no master of that art. I would like to instead write about the phenomena of the hot take, and specifically the Love Actually hot take at this festive time of year.
The first notably Christmassy airing of Love Actually on Australian free to air television was back in early November. My mother insists on a watch at least once annually (see also: Notting Hill, the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries, Dirty Dancing). I was itching to write something. I'd been a part of the Love Actually surge, having watched it for the first time in 2013 right when everyone was falling out of love with it. When I watched it again this year, the cinema critic and creative writer in me was searching for an angle for my eventuating review.
"Love Actually watched without the lens of Christmas magic?" I grew up in a traditional Jewish household, and am generally removed from religion - how does that impact that Love Actually experience? Or what about the apparent alternate reality of Love Actually, and what that says about the society that deems it fantastical? And as I was going through all of these possibilities for angles to take as I approached this pop cultural behemoth for my irrelevant pop culture blog, I started to think more broadly about Hot Take Culture as it pertains to this specifically.
There is nothing new about the unpopular opinion, hot take, whatever you want to call it. For as long as it has been human instinct to fit in, there has been equal pride in being different. Different, but different within reason. If I were to say that, for instance, "Love Actually is a guide to life and we can learn a lot from the behaviors exhibited within," or that "Love Actually is," I don't know "a very abstracted biblical allegory with Shakespearean echoes," that's probably grounds for ostracism. Taking a formerly popular movie and underlining the parts we've become more aware of as a society to create a jumping point for a contrarian stance - Love Actually is sexist; Love Actually is fatphobic; Love Actually isn't that romantic; why does anyone watch Woody Allen movies? That last one is tangential.
But because it's the 2010s, and everyone who could say something will say something. I'm a part of that, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. A multitude of voices has lead to a multitude of perspectives, a broadening of representation, an increase in awareness of the issues that apparently the collective society used to be okay with. On a personal level, I don't give a single shit about people winging that society is too politically correct if it means that we're gradually moving away from some of the bullshit that used to pass without question in mass media. Boo hoo, you can't use your favourite slurs on television. Boo hoo, it's maybe slightly, slightly harder to make a movie that treats women like shit. You can still write your rants about SJWs! The internet is your safe space, go wild.
There's a flipside to all of that, which is that there's a weird rush to be the contrarian. When you watch something by an acclaimed director, something highly praised, something classic, or something that is just widely popular, there is a desire to be the person who exposes the truth about it. It's 2017 and we're out here exposing everything. You can like the things that are acceptably different - x indie film and x rock band who haven't sold out and x television show with dark colour scheme - but heaven forbid you like low culture without a disclaimer. You unironically watch The Bachelor? You've read 50 Shades of Grey? You're perfectly happy listening to mainstream pop music? What the fuck is wrong with you? Haven't you read every single think piece/youtube comment/felt the wrath of everyone in society who hates your taste in everything?
So it goes with Love Actually. We all want to fit in, but stand out where it's deemed acceptable. So in 2013, we all wrote our hot takes on how gross and sexism filled Love Actually is. We were getting confident with problematic content. We had worked out that nothing was really that funny about, say, rape jokes or mocking someone for being fat (well - some of use had got a handle on that). We knew that some people that were great at some things were not great at others, or had done less great things in the past. Pobody's nerfect, and all that. In many ways, I think of The Fall of Love Actually as a culmination of that - that, and Your Fave Is Problematic. Without consciously agreeing on it, a group of people applied today's logic on a movie celebrating its 10th birthday and realised that - hot take - it kind of sucks, and possibly doesn't take place on this earthly plane.
Then it starts to layer up. A hot take on a hot take: it becomes contrarian to like something that has been removed from the realm of acceptable likeability. Joe Starr writes that Love Actually is problematic and who the fuck cares anyway? He does it well, thankfully, but you get my point. We can't remove work from its content! We watch movies and think "that was only a little bit homophobic for something made in the early 90s!" Everything is problematic to some extent and life is too short and let's all just be ourselves and have fun. Hot take on a hot take. Hot take on a hot take on a hot take: We can't excuse media for its context and the solution to problematic media is not to enjoy it in spite of its issues! Hot take on a hot take on a hot take on a...
Keep making those hot takes. I love articles making fun of Colin Firth's 2003 turtlenecks (both the year and the amount).
But whether or not I like Love Actually, or any other problematic piece of media (please let me watch The Bachelor in peace), I'm not defined by that. I personally have ceased watching Polanski films, but if I stopped associating with people who do, I'd be very lonely in this world. I'm tired of separating the art and the artist, but a lot of people aren't, and that's their call. So take your hot takes with a grain of salt. That's all.
NOTE: What do I actually think of Love Actually? I think that nearly every plotline, removed from the Christmassy, love-infused magic I never quite got the vibe of, reads as creepy and is insufficiently explored so as to render it the touching piece that I think Curtis was going for. There are about two plotlines in it that don't make me reel away from the screen, but I also find myself hypnotised by it, and I'm powerless to that silly musical number. It tries to do too much while saying very little, and I'm never really a fan of that. That said, I've always been okay with movies being fun just to be fun. If only I could stop thinking about all of the terrible things in order to enjoy that proposed fun.
There is nothing to be said about Richard Curtis' personal masterwork on the magic of love that someone on the internet hasn't already said. I'm partial to the Christmas countdown of daily Love Actually watches by Courtney Enlow at Pajiba, personally. Christopher Orr at The Atlantic offers what came to be a pretty standard modern response to the movie, in that it is a piece of junk depiction of romance. Lindy West at Jezebel broke it down. On the 10th anniversary of Love Actually, the world learned to hate it. Michael Koziol penned an interesting piece in defence of the movie at The Gaurdian; also at Pajiba, Joe Starr with one of my favourite hot takes entitled "Love Actually is a problematic movie and ugh who f*cking cares?".
Let's focus on the more important things, people! Were we really all still wearing turtlenecks in 2003? There is not nearly enough distance between us and turtlenecks for us to be so casual about fashion. The best piece ever posted on Buzzfeed may be the definitive ranking of every turtleneck in Love Actually.
There's something about these genre blockbusters that makes them magnets for new content. Even the curation of articles about the movie is nothing new - I'm no master of that art. I would like to instead write about the phenomena of the hot take, and specifically the Love Actually hot take at this festive time of year.
The first notably Christmassy airing of Love Actually on Australian free to air television was back in early November. My mother insists on a watch at least once annually (see also: Notting Hill, the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries, Dirty Dancing). I was itching to write something. I'd been a part of the Love Actually surge, having watched it for the first time in 2013 right when everyone was falling out of love with it. When I watched it again this year, the cinema critic and creative writer in me was searching for an angle for my eventuating review.
"Love Actually watched without the lens of Christmas magic?" I grew up in a traditional Jewish household, and am generally removed from religion - how does that impact that Love Actually experience? Or what about the apparent alternate reality of Love Actually, and what that says about the society that deems it fantastical? And as I was going through all of these possibilities for angles to take as I approached this pop cultural behemoth for my irrelevant pop culture blog, I started to think more broadly about Hot Take Culture as it pertains to this specifically.
There is nothing new about the unpopular opinion, hot take, whatever you want to call it. For as long as it has been human instinct to fit in, there has been equal pride in being different. Different, but different within reason. If I were to say that, for instance, "Love Actually is a guide to life and we can learn a lot from the behaviors exhibited within," or that "Love Actually is," I don't know "a very abstracted biblical allegory with Shakespearean echoes," that's probably grounds for ostracism. Taking a formerly popular movie and underlining the parts we've become more aware of as a society to create a jumping point for a contrarian stance - Love Actually is sexist; Love Actually is fatphobic; Love Actually isn't that romantic; why does anyone watch Woody Allen movies? That last one is tangential.
But because it's the 2010s, and everyone who could say something will say something. I'm a part of that, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. A multitude of voices has lead to a multitude of perspectives, a broadening of representation, an increase in awareness of the issues that apparently the collective society used to be okay with. On a personal level, I don't give a single shit about people winging that society is too politically correct if it means that we're gradually moving away from some of the bullshit that used to pass without question in mass media. Boo hoo, you can't use your favourite slurs on television. Boo hoo, it's maybe slightly, slightly harder to make a movie that treats women like shit. You can still write your rants about SJWs! The internet is your safe space, go wild.
There's a flipside to all of that, which is that there's a weird rush to be the contrarian. When you watch something by an acclaimed director, something highly praised, something classic, or something that is just widely popular, there is a desire to be the person who exposes the truth about it. It's 2017 and we're out here exposing everything. You can like the things that are acceptably different - x indie film and x rock band who haven't sold out and x television show with dark colour scheme - but heaven forbid you like low culture without a disclaimer. You unironically watch The Bachelor? You've read 50 Shades of Grey? You're perfectly happy listening to mainstream pop music? What the fuck is wrong with you? Haven't you read every single think piece/youtube comment/felt the wrath of everyone in society who hates your taste in everything?
So it goes with Love Actually. We all want to fit in, but stand out where it's deemed acceptable. So in 2013, we all wrote our hot takes on how gross and sexism filled Love Actually is. We were getting confident with problematic content. We had worked out that nothing was really that funny about, say, rape jokes or mocking someone for being fat (well - some of use had got a handle on that). We knew that some people that were great at some things were not great at others, or had done less great things in the past. Pobody's nerfect, and all that. In many ways, I think of The Fall of Love Actually as a culmination of that - that, and Your Fave Is Problematic. Without consciously agreeing on it, a group of people applied today's logic on a movie celebrating its 10th birthday and realised that - hot take - it kind of sucks, and possibly doesn't take place on this earthly plane.
Then it starts to layer up. A hot take on a hot take: it becomes contrarian to like something that has been removed from the realm of acceptable likeability. Joe Starr writes that Love Actually is problematic and who the fuck cares anyway? He does it well, thankfully, but you get my point. We can't remove work from its content! We watch movies and think "that was only a little bit homophobic for something made in the early 90s!" Everything is problematic to some extent and life is too short and let's all just be ourselves and have fun. Hot take on a hot take. Hot take on a hot take on a hot take: We can't excuse media for its context and the solution to problematic media is not to enjoy it in spite of its issues! Hot take on a hot take on a hot take on a...
Keep making those hot takes. I love articles making fun of Colin Firth's 2003 turtlenecks (both the year and the amount).
But whether or not I like Love Actually, or any other problematic piece of media (please let me watch The Bachelor in peace), I'm not defined by that. I personally have ceased watching Polanski films, but if I stopped associating with people who do, I'd be very lonely in this world. I'm tired of separating the art and the artist, but a lot of people aren't, and that's their call. So take your hot takes with a grain of salt. That's all.
NOTE: What do I actually think of Love Actually? I think that nearly every plotline, removed from the Christmassy, love-infused magic I never quite got the vibe of, reads as creepy and is insufficiently explored so as to render it the touching piece that I think Curtis was going for. There are about two plotlines in it that don't make me reel away from the screen, but I also find myself hypnotised by it, and I'm powerless to that silly musical number. It tries to do too much while saying very little, and I'm never really a fan of that. That said, I've always been okay with movies being fun just to be fun. If only I could stop thinking about all of the terrible things in order to enjoy that proposed fun.
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