Safe Spaces

There is a good story here. How a family pulls together during a trying time, despite their differences, conflicts and foibles to love and care for each other. There is nonsense here that I fear may be an all too real ultra sensitivity that pervades liberal campuses. While the traumatic difficulties that one may face in their youth may be regrettable, there is no way that the Jennifer Mann character will be able to function in real life if she thinks she can live in a bubble of protection from someone hurting her delicate sensitivities. In some ways this is a powerful contrasts. There is family where there is acceptable and strengthening of backbone and character by the sibling rivalries that persist. Without realizing it, perhaps this movie is a meaningful criticism of the politically correct culture that weakens our fiber and a call to family to strengthen it. Put the challenges Agatha and her story of escaping Nazi Germany, learning a new language and a new life, and facing death and the strength she showed in contrast with the "triggered" response of students seemingly can't deal with the simple realities of seeing another person feel bad to the point of threatening a professor's job. A normal human being would simply experience the class, discount the remarks that the professor made, perhaps utter a "meh" and go one with their own life. The contrast of Agatha to the youth of today is damning.

I was a little worried by the low score of this movie and the one positive review, but I always like Justin Long and the trailer looked good. The director and or actors obviously have some people who dislike them regardless of their output as this film is an expertly written and performed piece of film making that hits on many levels. If you're rating this a 1 like 20% of the voters then you didn't watch the movie and your vote is a personal vendetta of some kind.

Anyway, on to my thoughts on the film.

This was a really moving and entertaining look into the lives of a family we can all relate to around the last days of their loved Grandmother (Mother, Great Grand Mother).

The acting was exceptional, and for anyone who hasn't yet been through the passing of a loved one passing from old age and general body failure, this is exactly how it goes. The film dealt with and touched on so many details of it, it felt real, human and heart felt. My eyes welled up a little but I think I'm just tired, or there's some dust in the air, or something....... But it wasn't dealt with a some sad tear jerker of a movie, it was simply a slice of this family's life and the movie centered around well formed characters with well formed personality quirks and importantly some insights in to the difficulties of modern life.

I did really like Justin's predicament as an impassioned professor trying to engage his class in the good old 60s/70s movie way, and how that back fired because of the world we now live in. And there was humor through it all, it was always funny even when it was about the sadder moments, what a fantastically well balanced and enjoyable movie this is to slip out without any fanfare.

This movie is really a 9, but I thought if I put that in my rating you'd think I was one of the film crew hyping a rubbish movie. This movie is so not that, it's a masterfully written acted and edited work of modern film making that perfectly hits its mark for all of its 93 minute run time.

I'll be watching out for the directors next movie and it's great to see Justin is choosing his projects well. Also good to see Fran Drescher doing a great straight role. Wasn't expecting that. She was perfect. They all were.

I just had to respond to one of the reviews. All gen exers are over 40 now. The main character was a millennial and his students are post millennials.

This is a great comedy that reminds a little bit of standup comedy. The scenes would be hard to do in standup because they involve a setup with circumstances and other characters - but it resembles standup in that each scene and the dialogue almost completely make up the substance and humor of the film. You have a well-intentioned millennial named Josh played by Justin Long who despite his best efforts simply cannot avoid putting his foot in his mouth. A large part of the humor deals with overly-sensitive and politically correct people, who Josh simply cannot avoid enraging - this comes out through taboo topics like sexual abuse, overly protected children, sexual philandering, and death. It's just hilarious to watch each scene spiral out of control with Josh coming out with mud on his face looking like the aggressor or bad guy, even though his intentions are good. He tries so hard to deal with each situation but just falls on his face and can never say the right thing, even when nearly one else has no problem doing so. So this dynamic is the setup for comedy; a series of blunders. I can see it compared to Woody Allen, mainly in Josh's hasty dialogue and frantic, victim mentality. But it's a little different, probably more like Amy Schumer - this is a little more of satire with dark, awkward, and deadpan humor. Josh has no redeeming qualities to speak of whereas Woody Allen's early characters seemed to be more cunning and find a way out on top. You won't get much of a story but if you like this type of humor you will be laughing out loud.

An interesting look at the intersection of millennial culture and academia. Justin Long and his character's family are an interesting study.