As Vigilantes

This movie popped up on my Instagram feed and I wanted to check it out. Kiersey Clemons, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Ezra Miller. This was a stellar cast in my book, so for that I wanted to see what it was about.

It was good intent, good actors, and I loved the messaged. I'm a believer of vengeance and this movie is perfect for that. Not really a good idea to do what these ladies did but it may help if you watch them do it (Very Batman)

Its delivery does not click like I should. All the actors give a good performance but it's not coming together. It gets to a point where I start to lose interest.

But I still liked it.

I've seen many movies similar to this - the biggest and most popular recent one being Promising Young Woman - that have invoked the modern day revamp of rape-revenge flicks. Sometimes focusing on teenagers, Sometimes young women.

The film uses plot points from the ABC series Dietland, the more lighthearted feminist queer comedy Itty Bitty Titty Commitee and the heightened world of PYW.

And have made an unoriginal, piss-poor attempt at creating something interesting and thought-provoking.

The characters here are wafer thin cardboard cutouts and box checkers designed to make you feel sympathy for them, cheer for them or at the least find them charming and inspirational. That promise is not delivered.

Mark Vanderhill whines about women and minorities being "superstars by default" Sadly, that's exactly whom you're supposed to root for. POC protagonists who should indeed bring an interesting depth, yet are thinly layered, along with the main antagonists.

It basically boils down to: men are bad, toxic assholes and the women are traumatised angry victims who resort to violence and intimidation.

What's upsetting is that these things are really happening to women all over the world. To see these complex issues watered down yet again is disappointing.

It's no good to just shut down sexist behaviour as soon as you see it. There has to be an exploration as to why these men are the way they and try to prevent it in future.

I'm glad I didn't let the negative reviews stop me from giving this a go.

Yes it's low budget, but it was still a decent movie.

I understand some people may not find this movie relatable, but for me it was.

I could relate to quite a few of the different characters and what they went through happens to multiple women every day. Perhaps their reaction wasn't true to life, but perhaps it is.

I hope that people watch this and keep their minds open.

The movie moves quickly, a lot happens in a short amount of time. I almost felt like it could have been fleshed out into a mini series.

I guess it's the sort of movie that will make you feel a sense of empowerment or make you defensive and angry, depending on your point of view.

No pun intended - the premise of the movie or the message or whatever you want to call it ... well it is a fine cause. It does point to something that is relevant to say the least. It is something our society has not been able to get rid of. I am not sure how the future will look like and how genders are going to treat each other. I do know that there is way too much toxicity in many aspects of life and unfortunately some have made it almost fashionable to be mean to others and not even apologize for it.

Of course there were other instances where it went the other way altogether ... still the amount of abuse women have to endure in general ... not cool. The title also is a pun by the way ... no one is asking for it obviously. The movie does go a bit in a different direction that I suspected not showing us the victim side too much, but the reaction to it ... there is potential in this or rather was I reckon ... depending on how able you are to suspend your disbelief, you will like this more or less.

As a contributor to female education around the world & other human rights issues I found this vigilante movie to be dishonest. Very stereotypical generalizations that are seriously misleading if not plain wrong. We have mostly Black female vigilantes fighting back at white males who are shown as female subjugators, rapists, female genocide perpetrators, and police (all white) as rights' abusers. Black males were shown as female rights' protectors. White male quote while firing his gun at target: "Every species on the planet does it. The male exerts dominance over the female." White males form a MFM (Men's First Movement) organization to "fight" for control. Cheaply made production dominated by numerous & pointless scene disrupting photo flashing montages.