Free Guy

 Free Guy

Finally a move with a white male protagonist. Like the hero of the story, well there are sort of three, but two are white adult males. They weren’t swapped out for some brooding Alicia Keys circa 1999 actress. An actual male, a male of European heritage, in a new Disney movie, was given a role as the hero! 

Welllllllll - sort of not really.

Let’s break it down. Ryan Renalds played Guy - the video game NPC. The script was written deadpoolish so I can see why he was cast. He did a good job. But is his character a role model for young men? Is his character a demonstration of the masculine? I’d say no not really.

Often in the movie he is referred to as being beautiful. He doesn’t really learn or develop anything - he just goes about doing what he’s told basically in order to win the affection of Millie- the female protagonist. If this was karate kid - Guy is the small child and Millie is Mr Miyagi. Except Guy is a b!tch and Millie is dressed hot, and full of masculine energy.

Then there is the real world. Millie is the girl on the outside trying to bring down the big bad boss. Played by a Maui guy which is interesting. So not the usual white guy cast as an asshole. Perhaps if they had done that then there would have been too many white guys? Disney not going to let that through.

Millies ex partner, I can’t even remember his name which goes to how unimpressive he was as a specimen and character(*i had to look it up and this guy is listed 6th down the cast list - so how f’d is that). Keys is his name, and he’s succumbed and works for the bad guy, seemingly against his own incentives, because he’s a b1tch. He created some of the programming with Millie, and it turns out Guy (RR’s character) is a love letter to her.

At the end it is Millie facing down the Maui bad guy, not Keys. 

At the end end they get out and recover the programming and Millie, Keys and some other Indian dude are working together. Indian dude is like to Keys - “make a move”. Keys asks Millie to coffee. She declines and goes into the game. Figures out from Guy that Keys made him as a love letter. Then its Millie who chases down Keys. 

I mean that ending could be a twist, something new, if it was actually a twist and something new, and not just the same bs all the time. The male protagonist of Keys again fell into the feminine role. Millie took masculine and hunted him down.

Arghhhhhh

I worry for men watching this stuff. I worry for my boy. Arghhhhh. 

This is not helpful. For anyone.

Chaos.