Twelve minutes in and I'm already stopping so I can start writing about how much this movie encapsulates the modern 21st century female blasé as it relates to an archaic style. It gives me a taste of maybe seeing my past life and then learning to love it.
One thing I'm learning as I begin to understand I might actually a queer feminist after-all is that women really really are still repressed. It IS by patriarchal archetypes but the method of domination has changed to relate to our modern society. In today's information overload a concept of Hell wouldn't hold as much weight as it did when it was invented around 1558 to keep peasants in place by the evil land barons. Today it would probably be something related to social media and the blending of our intimate private and public lives. This relates to the Nuns which have an invisible private relationship with Christ which cannot be outwardly known to the world, much like our internal character we portray on social media plaforms. But which reality is more real? Which truly is the more intimate one? The one where you can't see the face. By this context a relationship to God is similar, and for women who have experienced and believe in that connection, makes knowing someone in real life impossible.
The Little Hours stars Aubrey Plaza - my literal dream woman- as Fernanda, a member of the cloth in a secluded Nunnery. She is a fully formed character with no pleasantry misspent or led astray. Fernanda is mean. She is a mean girl in a habit. I immediately related to her sarcastic frame of mind.
The Little Hours is a comedic masterpiece, it's akin to other quirky movies from the 70's and 80's like Young Frankenstein or Clue. Inside of their world the Nuns are harboring some seriously repressed rage. Unable to date or express any sinful behavior resentments build up so deeply that a simple smile from a farmer became a gang-up bust-job which included racial slurs and spitting. ***Remember these are the women who beat children with rulers in Catholic school. *** My own father would tell me stories of Sister Teresa who he took piano lessons with and in my mind she is an old crone with green skin and dead eyes that you'd see in an OG Disney movie.
The cast are heavy hitters. John. C. Reilly is amazing. reminding me of my own mentor in an alternate universe. Molly Shannon also a fantastic love interest and who was a very important part of my development as Mary Katherine Gallagher.
Their relationship was important enough in the movie to give the viewers some sense that there can be deep meaningful spiritual connections made that can last throughout a lifetime, even if they don't resemble Hollywood's standards. Their romance was the truest view of the kind of romantic love I can sign my name to.
The picturesque scene opening with Fernanda character gently stroking her ass (haha, got you!! Donkey. Pervs. :^p ) and lulling a soothing tune when at the next moment there is a flash of lighting across the frame as a handsome boy with a wheelbarrow passes. The humming immediately stops, the donkey forgot to be pet, and Fernanda's deep brown eyes tracks the boy. That level of relatability made me loose it in RL. The ending made me happy to be alive and well in the renaissance of witches, nuns, and hags. I won't keep spoiling the movie for you, but if you don't watch you'll be "nun" the wiser.
=^]
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