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Full Version: K Stewart says the era of self-conscious queer films is done ("F--ing soapbox" style)
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Cynic's Corner: In addition to an actor avoiding being typecast as a poster-child for _X_, I guess what she's saying is that it's time for films about marginalized population groups to move out of preacher mode. Where the characters would instead live stories like the "regular" people of movies (however fantastic or unrealistic the latter itself can be at times). Instead of consisting of valiant victim portrayals and subtle lectures that evoke sympathy from mainstream audiences.

The former of which moral slash social justice institutions can wax intellectually over and feel virtuous about themselves for doing so. In the course of issuing awards to the directors, cast, production crews for giving the establishment an opportunity to alleviate its overwhelming sense of guilt.

Not that most LGBT+ and ethnic minority cinema releases haven't perhaps already long since broken out of that soap-box status, as she herself suggests (i.e., I don't know what particular circuit of Hollywood hell Stewart may have been wandering around in and enduring prior to this).

Personally, I got all of that "save the whales" stuff out of my system back in childhood and teen years. In terms of weeping about the socially oppressed protagonist being subjected to one onslaught of bigoted horrors and "life isn't fair" ordeals after another (which never happen to the privileged categories of humans).

Today, it's just as torturous for me to watch a secular-preach film topic as it would be to watch an actual religious movie. I could probably handle the equivalent boredom of an unpretentious, contemporary imitation of a monster B-flick from the 1950s (with an inclusive, diverse cast) better than either.

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Kristen Stewart says the ‘Era of queer films being so pointedly only that is done': I shouldn't ‘have to stand on a F-ing soapbox'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/...14e2&ei=16

INTRO: At the Berlin Film Festival press conference for her new film "Love Lies Bleeding," Kristen Stewart said she thinks the era of queer films "being so pointedly only that is done," adding that it's time for films to focus on "sidelined perspectives" while "not making it all about the reasons that they're sidelined."

"Love Lies Bleeding" stars Stewart as reclusive gym manager Lou, who "falls hard for Jackie (Katy O'Brian), an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream," the film's synopsis reads. "But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou's criminal family."

When asked if filming the gory and twist-filled "Love Lies Bleeding" had changed her perspective on how queer stories are centered in cinema, Stewart sounded off on the topic.

"I think we can't keep doing that thing where we tell everyone how to feel and sort of pat each other on the back and receive brownie points for providing space for marginalized voices, and only in the capacity that they are allowed to speak about that alone," Stewart said. "We've all been there the whole time. I think the era of queer films being so pointedly only that is done, it's over. Maybe they'll keep happening, but I think it's sort of inherent to how we're all moving forward." (MORE - details)
I think she's right. We see in films like Moonlight and The Whale the making of mainstream Oscar worthy films where being LGBT is sort of incidental to the character's story. There are movies now where the issue isn't so in your face and the variety of being a noteworthy human who happens to be queer is being explored more. The issue of it's acceptance by a mainstream public is less a thing in itself and is becoming sort of assumed as fully as heterosexual relationships are. LGBT is just another part of the human experience. And it's about time it was affirmed in film as such without being patronizing or preachy.