The Wrong Margaret Got the Oscar
by jhoberman.
What then to say in the sober aftermath of an Oscar night that was not only set up to be the most retro in recent memory but the most consecrated to conventional wisdom? Read more…
What then to say in the sober aftermath of an Oscar night that was not only set up to be the most retro in recent memory but the most consecrated to conventional wisdom? Read more…
Many thanks for promoting this gem! I finally caught it at FSLC and it filled me with anger and anguish and suppressed tears.
To me, the most memorable line is the one from the Colombian gentleman about violence used by the ruling class and the ruled–the line that probably costed him his life. Although not exactly original, that line places Lisa’s battle onto a larger picture that most characters refuse to see but the film strives vigorously and relentlessly to present.
History repeats itself in large and small ways–the Holocaust, Middle Eastern conflicts, 9/11, wars against terrorism, police injustice and legal absurdity, dead-end classroom debates and dinner table arguments–Lisa’s frustration is but one tiny case in which “we” (everyone of us) refuse to listen to each other or consider each other’s perspectives, blinded by our sense of entitlement or sense of victimization. Though Lisa starts as one of the “ruling class” (not only rich and privileged, but alive and able to utter her voice), the tragedy allows her, and us together, to catch a glimpse of the perspective of the oppressed and repressed, those “others” claiming our moral responsibility. Even the final catharsis of the film does not purge the sense of our failure.
I think the film is brilliant in incorporating viewpoints and readings like this in a coming-of-age tale of “one of us” that everyone can relate to.