Please go see Mad Max

soundssimpleright:

rustypolished:

Fury Road is, quite simply, an absolute master class in action film making. It loudly, brutally, violently obliterates the notion that high octane action camp and progressive, solid narrative structure are mutually exclusive. 

But beyond that, Mad Max is, quite simply, a love letter to every girl who grew up feeling alienated from the objectified, male-gaze and love interest oriented female action heroes of the 90s/00s. 

Mad Max takes women who are disabled, who are young, who are old, who are feminine, who are masculine, and grants them the agency to be heroes, real action heroes, in ways that are unique and specific to each of them. 

And it does it all in ways that are not only over the top explosive but also SHOCKINGLY tasteful. Somehow, Mad Max manages to express the sheer brutality and extremity of life in an apocalyptic wasteland full of fire tornados and nitro-boosted war machines without ever fetishizing the gaze of the viewers. The audiences is invited readily to experience the thrill and the joy of the chaos and the over the top violence, but never invited to violate or to sexualize the characters themselves. It’s an INCREDIBLY fine line to ride and I’ve never in my life seen it accomplished so artfully without ever feeling frustratingly withholding. The movie never censors itself, it restrains itself from allowing anything that doesn’t directly service the story or the world to appear on screen. 

There is, at it’s core, a profound respect and understanding for the uniqueness of womanhood and what that uniqueness means in a setting like the wasteland. 

Fury Road is, to borrow an analogy from my friend, like being given a steak after eating a lifetime of hamburgers. You won’t be able to fathom how you were ever able to accept anything less once you’ve had it. 

It’s absolutely the standard to which all action movies should be held. 

I watch and enjoy a lot of movies. I’ve never been this absolutely delighted by one until now. 

Well, glad I didn’t cash my “one movie a year” in on AoU, then. *drags husband to the theaters*