As I said in the title, general thread, so if you want to post whatever thoughts you have about the movie unrelated to my question, it's all good
In the part where Owen is an adult and rewatching The Pink Opaque, Owen comments that the show is nothing like they remember, and it's cringy and embarrassing. The "new" version of the show we see is a lot more juvenile and corny than what was shown earlier in the movie, which I think a lot of people, trans or not, experience when revisiting shows they watched as a child.
But one thing I noticed that was drastically different in a way that couldn't be misremembered was that the characters were completely different. Instead of two teenage girls, it's four young kids, three girls and one boy. Also all four kids are white, while Isabel/Owen are half-black, and only one of them seems to have the "pink opaque powers". If that one girl with the pink opaque powers is supposed to be the analogue for Tara, then the show Owen sees as an adult is missing an analogue for Isabel. I believe this is what causes Owen the distress we see in that moment, and not the simple fact that it's cornier than they remember. But what aspect of the trans/genderqueer experience is this supposed to represent?
Maybe I'm just reading into it too much, but it feels like there's something significant there, especially since so many other parts of the movie have small details that people who have ever questioned their gender identity can recognize as symbolic of their experiences, and completely replacing what the pink opaque (as a group) is supposed to be when Owen rewatches the show seems like a big detail. I just don't get what was going on with that, if anything.
Since you said it's a general thread I have a couple questions.
What does Mr Melancholy represent? And why does it become "too late" for the main character?
Mr. Melancholy represents the cynicism of a cishet society. The monsters that he sends to Isabel and Tara are children's imagination (ice cream man) turned into nightmares. He ultimately sends Isabel to the midnight realm where she is forced into Owen who has to watch her own self be buried alive. He is the cruelty required to maintain cis-heternormativity in a capitalist society.
I'd argue it never becomes too late. Tara (Maddie) scribbles down "There's still time" and Owen finally discovers Isabel trapped within him at his point of deepest despair. Director Schoenbaum said that they didn't choose to write a explicitly "happy ending" because the trans journey for Isabel has just started as Owen can't exist anymore.
Fuck me, I'm not crying I'm not crying!!
societeee
I hate society