X-Men

Magneto is right to wear a brain-cap. If some guy—a professor, in particular—is rolling around (literally) controlling our brains, I can assure you: brain-caps would be as ubiquitous as baseball hats at a NASCAR race.

Really, the politics of X-Men is a complete clusterfuck, but the film plays nicely into the present American fantasies that 1) our hopes for survival reside in superheroes; and 2) that we tolerate difference.

So:


AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN FILM-GOER

June 9, 2011

Dear American film-goer:

There are no superheroes.

Difference terrifies. Terror is the source of its appeal.

Sincerely,

Eric Treanor

Beyond that: thank you, Michael Fassbender, for bringing gravitas to being correct.

Matthew Vaughn: Prostitutes sell a feel-good message. Please get back to making satire like Kick-Ass, which was the iciest indictment of contemporary American dream-life since American Beauty. I’ve said something along these lines before: the truth is usually cruel.