Sucker Punch is a Weird Film

Happy Easter, everyone! Can't wait for that chocolate to go on clearance tomorrow. Anyway, convoluted story ahead: 

I was listening to Lords of Acid and I found a music video for the movie Sucker Punch, which featured an instrumental version of their song Crablouse. As an aside, please don't look up anything related to Lords of Acid at work unless you want to get fired. Anyway, I remember when Sucker Punch was released back in 2011 and people kept recommending it to me because on paper it had all of the things I liked - spooky insane asylum theme, pretty girls kicking ass, Emilie Autumn steampunky/Victorian/whatever aesthetic, fantasy elements, lots of schlocky goodness - but I never actually watched it. The reviews were terrible, too, so I'm glad I didn't see it in theatres. I did get the soundtrack, though! It's awesome.

Instead of studying for my exams, I put the movie on while I cleaned my house. I'm not sure what to think of it, to be perfectly honest. It has an interesting premise, but the execution is...ehhh. 

 Visually, the movie is stunning, and as I said before, the soundtrack is great. Some of the effects look dated and uncanny in the same way that all CGI-heavy movies do, but the grungy vintage-inspired environments are imaginative and awesome. I really loved the dream-within-a-dream concept, the look of the rundown asylum, and all of the crazy scenarios they ended up in. Dragons? Samurai? Mechs? Steampunk robo-Nazis? This movie has it all! Except for a coherent plot, sensible dialogue and character development.

It's really obvious when a man is writing a supposedly "empowering" film featuring "strong female characters" (every time I see those words I want to scream) because the over the top "grrl power!!!" elements always come across as hollow. Yes, it's a female character being a badass, she's still being portrayed as a sex object, and the target audience is straight men, not us. It's so one-note. I'm not saying that strong female characters have to be ugly and frumpy in order to be valid...it's just that it takes more than being hot and violent to make a strong female character. The characters have no actual character, personality, or motivations outside of being hot and violent. None of the emotional or tense moments hit home because the characters are really just vehicles for cool fight sequences and battle lingerie. But nobody is watching this for the plot, right?

Aside from that, the overt sexualization of the patients and the weird brothel theme, knowing full well that real mental institutions were rife with cases of sexual abuse, just feels kinda off to me...especially considering that victims of sexual abuse would be institutionalized for showing any inconvenient symptoms of trauma. The movie doesn't ignore that fact, but brothel thing feels like it was played too straight. Was it trying to be some kind of commentary by being completely over the top? If there was an underlying message about the oversexualization and objectification of women, then I guess I missed it among the gratuitous panty shots.

I absolutely love the costuming (the bejewelled seifuku!!!) and character design choices in a vacuum, but the context makes it a little weird. I mean, I like girls, and I like watching pretty girls doing cool stuff.  I just feel like in Sucker Punch, it sort of missed the mark. It's enjoyable as long as you turn your brain off - there's absolutely no shame in wanting to see a fantasy action movie featuring hot girls parading around in silly outfits as long as there are no illusions that it's anything deeper than that.

I've always been fascinated with the history of medicine and psychiatry, especially psychiatric hospitals. I'm glad I was born when I was - my generation has a far better attitude towards mental health than my parents' did. As a member of the glitchy brain club, had I been born 50 years earlier, I very well may have ended up in a psychiatric facility.

I have a little collection of old medical illustrations and psychiatric medication ads. Everyone cracks up at the ones from the early 1900s that were basically just telling you to buy speedballs to put a little pep in your step, but I find that the mid-century ones are by far the most disturbing. The clean, minimalist  pastel graphical styles and illustrations juxtaposed with the cold, clinical, almost dehumanizing text was really jarring to me.

I'm particularly fond of these unsettling black-and-white ads from the 1960s and 1970s. They look like they could be horror movie posters.

They didn't even try to hide the fact that they believed that ADHD should be defined by how inconvenient you are to others.

Side effects may include hallucinations.

Not sure how I feel about psychiatric patients being depicted as enemy combatants...

 

So after all that, in keeping with the theme, I decided that I wanted to do a spooky nurse coordinate with my Violet Fane Asylum skirt.

Blouse: Atelier Pierrot

Apron: Lief

Skirt: Violet Fane

Hat: Gothlolicloset

Tights: Violet Fane

Bag: Vivienne Westwood

Shoes: Na+H

Accessories: Violet Fane, Lief, Victorian Maiden

 

I haven't worn lolita since...November, I think? It's the longest break from the fashion I've ever taken. Granted, it's less of a "break" and more a case of extenuating circumstances - it's not like I don't want to wear lolita anymore, I just really don't have many opportunities to. I'm getting my second dose of vaccine in July so hopefully I'll be able to go to (socially distanced and masked) meetups with vaccinated friends soon. I miss having a life!

 

I also wanted to share some selfies. Today's makeup look clocked in at 8 minutes, half because I want trying to see how fast I could do a passable blended eyeshadow look, and half because I was too lazy to keep going. Turns out it's sort of hard to speedrun your makeup, especially when you don't have contacts on.

 

Anyhow, that's it for now. Hang in there, everybody!

[Current Music: Depeche Mode - Behind the Wheel]