taylor anne photo

Hey leave me and my glamor of this movie out of this lol.

I digress but this just reminded me of a story and I needed to tell y'all about a wedding my photo partner and I shot and we were doing the family photos and we were getting the bride alone with her family and then we were gonna add in the groom so the groom tried to go in first and my photo partner was like, "You don't even go here!" and he turned to me and said, "Did I just get Mean Girled?"

I thought he had started doing like college productions and then like through the work he had done plus his father's connections then got to Sydney.

I was already a fan of Xavier Samuel before I saw this movie so to me it's just Xavier Samuel and Brunette because who cares about him? Not even me. Seriously if this had just been Robin and Xavier's movie I would've been happy.

I also don't want to speak on behalf of TLP and why they made that post, but I took it not as an age nor a mother/son vs father/daughter relationship as much as no one seems to be making a stink about this movie like they would if it were men. To which TLP replied with plenty of movies where the genders have been reversed (Lolita being the best example in my opinion as that was a step-father/step-daughter scenario) that have been made time and time again with no stink. And I believe we all know that the sex offender comment was a joke, but that does inherently then mention age. We would be required to register if this had been men but not with this one because they are women is the way I took that joke. EDIT: Obviously I could be reading into Ultimate Trekker's message all wrong. Re-reading it I am now wondering if they meant that the very nature of switching the genders would inadvertently make the message of the movie that much creepier.

Okay now we're getting into the real questions!

The very first comment is a "what if..." scenario that I think speaks to why this was brought up.

Oh I just got reminded of a small correction - When Lil and Roz say, "But fucking men!" I don't believe that it was supposed to be received as "Patriarchy!" *fist shake* I believe that we are actually supposed to take that as, "You know what we would've been great together but god damn men are so fucking hot that it kinda ruins the lesbian thing." Plenty of friends and I have jokingly discussed that if we could actually choose our sexuality then we would actively choose not to be attracted to men and then immediately go, "But fuck them for being so attractive." I believe that's what they were trying to achieve with that statement but obviously it wasn't very successful.

Oh I completely understand that and I definitely think that's supposed to be the conflict of the movie, but I think since they never actually heavily focus on that fact (like I think they only mention that twice in the whole 2 hours) it never really then was focused in my mind. I'm thinking that the real main problem of this film is that it wanted to be 2 different movies. It wanted to be a Call Me By Your Name, the genuine love story about an age gap, and then it also wanted to be a movie that really focused on that taboo of sleeping with your best friend's son. My mind keeps going to American Beauty as a comparison (which now has an extra disgusting layer added on to it that I'm not going to address because I would like to focus on the story itself rather than the fuckwad involved). But unfortunately Adore tried to be both things and while I still enjoyed watching it, it definitely sounds like it didn't work for a lot of people.

So I wanted to really wait to comment on this until I had listened to the episode because I wanted a fully in depth reason for why people didn't like this movie, and now that I have that I can relent that there are problem with the script and plot. To me, however, I still sit on the side of liking this. When I first read the synopsis I will admit that I was like "ew" because in my mind it was just straight pedophilia, but seeing the cast and knowing that Xavier Samuel (Ian) was 6 years older than me it calmed me into thinking this wasn't going to be as gross as I originally thought. Of course they still present them as 18 year olds and Tom makes that comment that they've been thinking about it for much longer which makes the audience go "ew" again, but I legit can't explain why not once during this film did I get grossed out by what was happening. Especially considering how easily I get grossed out by these kind of situations. The only thing I can think of is the fact that I still knew that both of those guys are older than me and I was already 23 when this came out. I definitely think that this is worthy of a discussion considering the climate we are currently in because after Call Me By Your Name came out there has been a lot of talk surrounding "power dynamics" when it comes to age gap romances. With Elio he was 17 and Oliver was (I believe) 24, and there is an overtone of "Did Oliver take advantage of Elio's naivete?" But with Adore while there is that still same conversation of power dynamics between the age gaps they present this story very much as the men made the decisions and took control over the situation. Obviously Roz and Lil are still the adults and still have the power to be like, "No this is wrong," but it's definitely presented differently than most age gap romantic stories I've ever seen. And that's why I think I was glamored by this movie like Kulap said she originally was as well. I believe that this story definitely would have worked better as a whole if there had been much more "this is wrong" peppered throughout because, like the gang said, there is not enough guilt in these relationships to show that they are truly struggling with what is happening which brings the audience back to "ew." In my opinion, I think that Robin and Xavier were the real romance story of this movie, and Noami and Lone Brunette dude who's name I never bothered to learn were filler, or even you can take Noami's infatuation with Brunette and create a story out of that (like Jason mentioned it would work as a thriller), but the two together don't work quite as well. Because I could actually see the chemistry between Robin and Xavier. To me they were actually working and were in love and they were both consenting adults and it worked on screen. If I'm alone in that thought then so be it because even listening to the group talk I still get that feeling. Idk this goes back to a lot of weird area and I'm not exactly sure if I'm either qualified or comfortable having that kind of conversation here. But in any way I look at it I still loved this movie (maybe now can downgrade to like now that I've admitted the flaws within it), and I do welcome discussion about it obviously because that's why we're all here. Oh also it would have been a 10/10 would recommend movie if the two women had been lesbians.

That's literally the best way to describe it omg. Also definitely shows the connection in how much I still love Kraft mac & cheese!

I figured as much after you said QOTD woke up your bisexual heart cause SAME

Excuse me I never said Batman & Robin was my favorite, just better than Batman Forever.... and maybe 1989's Batman.........

I would absolutely rather have a newborn voiced by Alec Baldwin running this country.

I have a sneaky suspicion this is gonna be like Across the Universe and I'm gonna be the one person to love a movie everyone else hates...

That's for when I guest a second time

Y'all should know by now if I were the guest we'd be covering The Day After Tomorrow

It's not really that either.... I mean maybe they were trying to be "scandalous" but what I liked about this movie was that they took the subject of two mothers falling in love with each other's sons and didn't turn it into some sex romp that highlighted the intense weirdness surrounding the situation, but rather dealt with it gently and genuinely. It's hard to talk about it without actually talking about it, but I think going in thinking, "Oh this was a Sundance favorite so what happened?" is the best way to go into it.

Honestly - spoiler alert - it's really not. It's more indie drama than romantic mystery. I think if you go in with that mindset you'll be bored.