The Other

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2004)

My objection to this movie is political. I believe that these conditions exist, I believe that the movie was well-made, I believe that the intentions of those who made the movie were to break open the situation and ask that it be addressed.
Unfortunately, it also invites a prosperous white audience to sit safely while being pleasantly horrified by dark people. For people living stuck lives in bland surroundings, this is a very spicy meal. It is a kind of porn.
We have a major meth problem here on the idealized prairie. It is worse than cocaine, which few around here can afford anyway. The people who are attracted to meth will love this movie because it glamorizes and mythifies meth behavior, unreasonable violence against even family and friends. The dark ones will say, "Oh, this is us. It's in us wherever we are." The light ones will say, "I've only been experimenting a bit. I'm not as bad as those people."
Anyway, where is the story of the women in this film? The stories of their babies?