2019: The Year of
Toxic Masculinity in Film
by Nate Brennaman
In the
article, “Toxic Masculinity at the Movies: This Year’s Awards Season Is All
About Bad Men,” written by Eric Kohn, he writes about how many movies this year
deal with toxic masculinity. Kohn says, “More than any Oscar race in recent
memory, the top candidates to date settle on fragile men repressing their
insecurities with tough-guy shielding, denying themselves the support systems
at their disposal” (Kohn). Among these films are Joker, The Irishman,
and Marriage Story. Of these three films, I have only seen Joker,
as the other two have not been released wide yet. Kohn writes that Robert De
Niro’s character in Scorsese’s The Irishman “spends much of the movie
operating under the assumption that he knows exactly how a man should behave —
in a patriarchal, domineering fashion that ultimately alienates his offspring.”
Many of Scorsese’s pictures deal with toxic and violent masculinities,
including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas. The
fact that many movies this year have themes of masculinity, specifically toxic
masculinities, shows that as a society we are beginning to confront and deal
with these issues.
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/11/toxic-masculinity-at-the-movies-joker-irishman-oscars-1202187285/
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