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intertribalSo yesterday at work (yes, I know, but I can ~multitask~) I used Netflix Watch Instantly to watch Grace, which I'd heard about previously when it was selected for Sundance. It's about a young woman, Madeline, who gets into a car crash with her husband while she's very pregnant. The husband and the baby die, but Madeline - who has already had 2 miscarriages, and clearly really wants/needs a baby - won't go to the hospital to get induced. She has the baby and holds it, saying, "please stay," until she wills it back to life. Madeline clearly didn't read Pet Sematary, because what happens is classic "sometimes death is better" - the baby smells, and attracts flies, and only wants human blood. Madeline shuts herself in the house to try to supply the baby's "special food," eventually getting anemia and cabin fever and a new set of social norms. Meanwhile, her mother-in-law, who's always disliked Madeline, has become convinced that in order to get through the pain of her son's death, she needs to get custody of the granddaughter. I know this might sound like a really terrible, exploitative B-movie, which is why I'm including the teaser trailer for Sundance, which more accurately portrays what the movie's like: meditative, subtle, creepy. The progression to violence is slow and it is not portrayed lightly.
Obviously, though, I don't recommend anyone this to anyone who's pregnant or even has young children, tbh.
This movie actually affected me, and I think it was partly because certain aspects of it hard core reminded me of the situation women are in in The Novel. It's a post-apocalyptic, claustrophobic setting, and the pressure to have children is very high (this is not a 28 Days Later/ Atwood-esque situation, though, I hasten to add - this is not quite dystopia). Unfortunately, there are a lot of miscarriages, and infant-maternal mortality is uncomfortably high (certainly higher than one would expect in the American heartland). Thus there is a lot of anxiety surrounding childbirth and more broadly, child-rearing, particularly for the female characters. It's essentially their version of the war that the men carry out defending the perimeters.
Obviously, though, I don't recommend anyone this to anyone who's pregnant or even has young children, tbh.
This movie actually affected me, and I think it was partly because certain aspects of it hard core reminded me of the situation women are in in The Novel. It's a post-apocalyptic, claustrophobic setting, and the pressure to have children is very high (this is not a 28 Days Later/ Atwood-esque situation, though, I hasten to add - this is not quite dystopia). Unfortunately, there are a lot of miscarriages, and infant-maternal mortality is uncomfortably high (certainly higher than one would expect in the American heartland). Thus there is a lot of anxiety surrounding childbirth and more broadly, child-rearing, particularly for the female characters. It's essentially their version of the war that the men carry out defending the perimeters.
