Good up-to-date, male-sympathetic piece of fiction

Stephen_Morgan · 2023-11-09T15:06:35+00:00

The Hunt starring Mads Mikkelson, about a victim of a false allegation and resulting lynch mob.

ArmchairDesease · 2023-11-09T15:16:53+00:00

Aftersun (2022) is a movie about the difficult relationship between a dad and his daughter. He's divorced and depressed. She suffers his absence from her life and digs in her memories to try to understand him.

Based on the subject matter, I expected the father's character to be villanized or treated with a preachyness for not being present / a good example.

Instead, the movie shows a great deal of empathy towards him, highlighting the complexity and contraddictions of his character. It's sad that this is noteworthy (a man with mental issues being treated with love instead of being considered weak and deficient).

soggy_sock1931 · 2023-11-09T17:59:50+00:00

Kramer vs. Kramer is about family court biases.

Tevorino · 2023-11-13T00:20:28+00:00

Disclosure, by the late Michael Crichton). Both the novel and the film adaptation that was released the very same year.

I don't think such a novel would ever get the green light for a major studio film adaptation today, and it still amazes me that it got the green light in the political climate of the mid-1990s. I'm not aware of any other big budget film, from any era, that even comes close to being this critical of feminist narratives (and it's still fairly mild criticism).

EDIT: Given that this book and film are nearly 30 years old, I'll just clarify that its theme, concerning how we handle accusations of sexual misconduct, seems to be even more relevant to today's cultural and political climate than it was to the climate of 30 years ago. That is, the narratives that it illustrates and critiques have only become worse since then. In that regard, I think it's functionally up-to-date despite its age.

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