This is a rather strange request of a review that I recently received. This would not be the first foreign film I’ve reviewed, in fact my first review is of a foreign film called the Boss of It All. This film Suicide Room, aka Sala samobójców, is in great contrast from my experience from The Boss of it All.
The subject matter is fairly obvious from the title alone, and as slow as the pacing in this film is, it definitely took a rather mature look into suicide. Though the whole internet immersion aspect is more modern. Likewise, I somewhat expected this film to take a similar approach to other films where so much as a mention of a book suddenly means that the rest of the movie is centered on that book or taking quotes from that book. However, the mention of Hamlet served more of background to sell the point that the main character Dominik is from a prestigious family who expects nothing by brilliance from Dominik. At first, I was wondering what the film summary meant by “After suffering extreme humiliation at school”, because I could not see anything that would suggest that in the beginning. In all fairness, I have seen few films that would actually work up to the humiliation. Why do foreign films seem to get that it helps more to actually get to know the character before a said event which changes them better than American films? Though, most foreign films would probably never make it to American audiences without having proven themselves first.
So what’s this “extreme humiliation”? Gay shaming. That pretty much captures the whole issue. Okay, not really, but Gay shaming seems to be such a common theme of kids who are bullied in American films. Plus, call me an ignorant American all you want, but you just don’t expect so much of this from France. Especially given they’re considered one of the most LGBT friendly countries. My sources will be listed below, and yes, I took a lot at wikipedia first. Though, this McDonalds commercial might suggest that there’s still quite some room for confusion. I have a link below, yet I’m not so sold on how “real” it really is. Since there’s another version with a very similar tone, yet ends off with a line like “come as you are”. I’ll have that one linked with my other resources.
So most times than not, the gay shaming in most films are usually centered on superficial traits that really don’t have anything to do with any form of sexuality at all. Strangely enough, this one takes a similar approach to KickAss where the basis of the assumption is more about an interaction forced onto the character or at least believed to be. In KissAss’s case it was the apposed mugging that involved the removal of his clothing, and in Dominik’s case it involved a strange judo position that just involved questionable frontal grinding until Dominik had been brought to cum. Then the same kid who brought him to cum in the judo practice commence to cyberbully him. If you’re thinking to yourself, why is the kid who’s harassing him so immune to it, but Dominik is the center of a shit storm of targeted messages. So, excuse me if I’m not completely sold on the character Dominik despite his clearly confusing display with kissing a statue is gay. Though I don’t know that the film ever intended to say that anyways. Especially considering that the ending hows that he clearly has at least romantic attraction toward a female character. What, did the film just want to play that just didn’t meet the right one card? Or is it that the character jumped to it as a release of tension from who he use to call friends insisting that he is. Sure he kissed a guy in order to see two girls kiss, while drinking with that said group of friends.
I’m not even going to be the one to say that if this was a movie clearly intended for gays, or focused on a gay character it’s clearly not for me. The demographics of those who reported being gay or lesbian might be only 1.6 % within the United States, they do deserve a media that actually tries to reach out to them. It’s pretty much expected of me to say that I’m not interested in seeing a movie that’s focused on a gay couple. Hell, most of the time, I don’t even care for films featuring hetero- sexual romances. (I’m sure that I could get to that at some other time.) I don’t really think that this population is necessarily under-represented right now, but I really don’t think they could do with continual complaining about whenever their sexuality happens to be represented in a film. Though, either Dominik is actually unaddressed as falling into a different category in terms of spectrums or so forth, the character is genuinely confused himself and frustrated to the point of acting out, or this is clearly one of those “meet the right one” stories.
But what about the actual “suicide room”? Well, I would say that it’s an interesting concept, but it’s really not. If anything, it serves more as an interpretive internet interaction with new found friends who are set to kill themselves for the injustices within their lives. The concept of the Suicide Room makes about as much sense as the chat room. It visualizes for use in a game like atmosphere. Apparently this game like atmosphere is actually expected to be much like an actual online video game, but I don’t even know if there is a signal one out there that allows nearly as many functions as this game allows, much less absolutely free to play. Though, the world works like I said as a plot point in looking at the feelings of Dominik as he’s trying to make sense of the crashing down world around himself struggling to find purpose in so much as the smallest things and investing all of that into online friend who support him in a time of psychological torment. Outside, Dominik is clearly acting out toward parents who are only expect results out of him despite his mental and physiological well-being, and partly so that they could use him to maintain status. Though it’s clear that his friends intend to only manipulate him to their own end, but by doing so, have been forced to face their actions in driving him to commit suicide himself.
I personally didn’t care for his film, but it’s far from a horrible film. I appreciate the effort involved in presenting a character driven to escapism of the internet due to the feeling of reality turning against him. Not much of this relates to me. Honestly, I’m finding the one lesson that I can learn from this is that putting a review off for two days of a movie that I really don’t care to watch again is not such a great idea when topped with consuming much of other media content and drinking Double English Ale. If there’s one thing to be taken from this. I’m not drinking Double English Ale or any variant of which ever again in my life. As promised, I have the links just below.
Wikipedia LGBT rights in France
McDonald’s “come as you are” Commercial
Wikipedia orientation demographics
nekothelazygamer 