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13 Reasons Why (2017)
A mix of useful social commentary, suicide glamorization and toxic messages.
Like most of the other viewers, I also finished the whole series very quickly, being curious and anxious about what was going to happen next. All of the characters seemed generally realistic to me and the themes the series tackled were, at first glance, timely and urgent. But when I got into a conversation with some friends about the way the series approached its delicate subject, I realized a few things and my - already mixed - feelings about it worsened significantly.
But first let's just appreciate what the series got right. It is well directed, well written and the acting is impeccable. But more importantly, it has come to alert us. It has come to tell us that actions and words we consider unimportant and trivial could seriously harm other people, who have a different worldview than we do. It also sheds lights on rarely-touched topics, like teenage rape and female objectification, with bravery and clarity. But scratch beneath the immensely attractive surface and you will find that the majority of the show's messages are in fact toxic.
On other reviews, people heavily criticized the personalities of several characters, especially Hannah's and Tony's, for a variety of reasons, most of which I find to be logical. I too came to dislike Hannah for being narcissistic, but I think the real problem is the show's attitude towards her, and more importantly, towards suicide. Suicide is not a painful way of getting revenge and potentially scarring for life other people you consider responsible for your demise. It is a painful way of dying. Yet the show does nothing to remind viewers of the consequence of Hannah's decision. She pops up every now and then, either in flashbacks or in Clay's fantasy and we get the sensation that she's alive and omnipresent, watching justice(?) being served as some objectively mean and disgusting people (Bryce) get punished, alongside with some others who had pretty serious problems and were potentially more tragic than Hannah (Alex, Justin), and others who didn't really do anything, meant well and got emotionally harmed for no reason (Clay).
On the other hand, suicide seems the only way for our heroine to overcome (?) the difficulties she faces. After her action, the spotlight is permanently on her, everybody who harmed her is punished and she seems to be around to see it unravel. Now if that does not turn suicide into a rational option for a mildly unstable teenager watching the show, and above all glamorizes it, I cannot possibly imagine what else it could be doing, or trying to do.
Finally the show teaches a lesson that is, by any means, infuriating. That the opinion other people have about you matters more than anything in the world. It is even more important than your own life. Your self esteem must be directly associated with the opinion of others about you. The world can be an evil place though, and that's not likely to change soon. Many people will try to harm you, consciously or not. If your future depends on them, you are guaranteed to be destroyed. Those people are deeply appalling and should change; they're solely responsible for Hannah's and many other teenagers' suicides. That's what the show says. What it does not say is that before trying to make the world a better place, you should adapt to its current form, so that you can learn to fight back, to care less about their vile criticism and be more skeptical about it. Hannah does not fight back. She is passive; she gets repeatedly slapped by society and still hinges on it, waiting for it to magically become a better place. Unfortunately, that is virtually impossible.
Personal Shopper (2016)
Go for it. There's no way to tell whether you'll like it or not before you see it.
I watched this one at the Thessaloniki film festival and I was once again impressed by the filmmaking skills of the Great Olivier Assayas, who is as self assured as anyone could be while writing and directing this cinematic riddle. But let's start with the basics. The film is about a young woman Maureen (Kristen Stewart), who works for an eccentric and spoiled celebrity, serving as her personal shopper, but also doing other irrelevant chores. Three months after her twin brother's death, who died from the same heart malformation that she has, Maureen still spends her free nights at her old family house, waiting for her brother to send her some sort of message from the afterlife. She believes that she, like her brother, is a medium and that she can have contacts with the spiritual world. But when Maureen truly opens herself to this world, whose very existence she doubts, her life gets more and more complicated and the boundaries between reality and what may be her dark fantasies (?) or the spiritual world (?) grow even harder to tell apart. The film can be interpreted as a parable about the way in which our belief in supernatural factors highly complicates our lives and after a certain point, as we begin to interpret even the most tedious and unimportant events of our routine as miraculous interference of a greater force or being. But even if you approach it plot-wise only, it is still extremely engaging and unexpectedly terrifying, as you are filled, like the film's protagonist, with uncertainty about the future. You simply cannot predict what is about to happen, because the film is like the mysterious entity that keeps messaging Maureen; it is impossible to safely say which its intentions are. What may actually cause hate and dislike towards the film from most people is how much it relies on the decisions of the audience. After the brilliant texting sequence, which had me on the edge of my seat, it is entirely up to you to say what is really happening. You even get to decide if a character is living or dead, real or unreal, which to my mind is thrilling, but to many a man it will be unimaginably tiring and pointless. But then there is a career - best performance by the electrifying Kristen Stewart and Assayas' masterful direction which, along with a script that demands attention and inspires countless conversations, render "Personal Shopper" an unforgettable experience.