Written By Sydney Meier // @ssyddknneee // (she/her)
Design by Youjin Choi // @truetotouch // (she/her)
Gone is the age of condescending, low-quality cash grabs written exclusively by 40-year-olds for teenagers. Director Halina Reijn’s latest is a slasher film called Bodies Bodies Bodies. The blend of directing, acting, and screenplay sets this film apart from its uninventive predecessors by earning and maintaining its audiences’ attention throughout the movie in nuanced and unexpected ways.
Over the past couple of years, streaming platforms have presided over theatrical releases because of the ongoing international pandemic and consequently, many of us have grown accustomed to viewing from the comfort of our homes.
Despite alterations to modes of consuming digital media, movie production practices remain unchanged. Media conglomerates still look for the easiest way to get attention, and they do this by appealing to the ever-lessening attention span of Generation Z and producing films about what they perceive to be generational characteristics.
Netflix has produced many films that are certainly guilty of this – The Kissing Booth, After, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – they are face value, low-effort, cheap productions written by industry dinosaurs desperately trying to maintain relevance.
However, with social media influencers and commentators promoting these movies to millions of viewers, these cliché films receive an endless cycle of publicity.
Given the current state of targeted generational media, Bodies Bodies Bodies could have been another Kissing Booth. And yet, it wasn’t – the movie expectations through the complete cohesion of style between directing, acting, and writing.
The trailer for Bodies Bodies Bodies was released on April 26, 2022, from powerhouse production company A24. The trailer took the internet by storm, sparking conversations about the quality of the movie and the satirical accuracy of the dialogue between characters. Some potential viewers were nervous about the possibility of another misogynistic slasher film painting another generation of women as vapid and fake with no sarcasm in sight.
However, when the much-awaited film was released after its theatrical debut, these doubts disappeared. Audiences enjoyed an hour and 35 minutes of intense horror and a satirical critique of the exaggerated characteristics of Generation Z by bottling them up in singular characters. As a woman watching this film never once did I feel as though the dialogue or characters were mocking women and their interests unique to Gen Z. With the help of Charli XCX’s “Hot Girl”, Bodies Bodies Bodies delivers on the horror, humor, and cinematography, cementing it as a defining film of the 2020s.
The women involved in the making of this movie were the reason it did not fall victim to its presumptions. In the film’s backdrop is a female director, Halina Reign, and a screenplay written by female writers, Sarah DeLappe, Chloe Okuno, and Kristen Roupenian. This left the female and feminine presenting nonbinary actors the ability to capture the humor in making fun of the exaggerated qualities of their female characters. An example of this is the line delivered by Rachel Sennott “He’s a Libra moon, that says a lot,” wherein the dialogue is not condemning a belief in astrology, but having a laugh at those who assume someone’s entire personality based on their chart. Rachel Sennott’s character, Alice, is not defending her belief in astrology in this scene but deterring any assumptions of murderous guilt from her friends towards a man she has known for a week.
Each of these characters is privileged either by their race, gender, sexuality, or class, so when the writers poke fun at Alice for mentioning her body dysmorphia, for example, the joke isn’t made at the expense of her suffering/the joke isn’t really about her mental health at all. Instead, this line pokes fun at Alice for comparing her disorder to another character’s experience being diagnosed with the same severe mental health condition as her mother, who had ultimately wound up institutionalized over her condition. This character, Bee, is the most financially underprivileged in the group and the writers never make her seem stupid or idle, rather, the wealthy people surrounding her are made to seem that way. Bodies Bodies Bodies displays the intersectionality of certain characteristics and privileges in a genre that is typically known for characters with a single identifiable trait – the virgin, the smart one, the jock, etc.
Bodies Bodies Bodies shines a fresh light of tasteful satire on Generation Z who, for far too long, have endured unfunny, irrelevant examinations of their flaws. An amalgamation of witty writing, great ensemble chemistry, and exceptional directing, Bodies Bodies Bodies make itself known as a standout in recent cinema. If you are a fan of comedic horror, a follower of any actor within the cast, or a member of Gen Z then Bodies Bodies Bodies is a must-see.
