I gave A Quiet Place a glowing review. I stand by that review. It's a great film.
One person took umbrage.
This wasn't just some random person who I randomly added on social media. She worked at my film lab in DC. We actually went out on a couple of dates.
Still, I posted a positive review of A Quiet Place and she broke down.
She broke down because she was under the false impression that hearing actors were playing deaf roles.
After she posted her first comment attacking me, which I didn't see for several hours after the onslaught because she was still on the East Coast and I had moved to the West, I tried my best to defend her.
It wasn't easy to defend her.
The people who were calling her an "idiot" weren't completely wrong. Her beef with the movie had to be held out of ignorance. There's no way that a person saw the movie and thought that hearing actors were playing deaf characters. There's no way that anybody who read anything about the production of the movie still thinks that hearing actors were cast in deaf roles. Hell, even my words in my review praised Millicent Simmonds for her performance as a deaf actress playing a deaf character.
Still, this person decided to cut ties with me forever as a result of this clash.
I don't hate this person. I don't think that she's actually seeking to cause harm to anybody. I also don't feel like I'm missing anything substantial by not having her in my life. I'm happy that I didn't stick my dick in crazy.
Still, this is consequential.
It's not uncommon to have a Brian Griffen pop up with loud opinions about a book or a film that he or she hasn't seen; but, he or she has read commentary about the film or book and he or she, "Doesn't approve - sir."
This is the same bullshit that I got when I said that I was reading Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier. Can any of you who shat on me for reading that book honestly say that you've read it yourself?
I read the Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, and The Wealth of Nations during my freshman year of college, and my roommate didn't feel the need to call the authorities on me. If I had been roomed with half of the leftists I know now, I would have been expelled in two weeks for daring to open a fucking book out of curiosity.
There's a reason why I don't dump people who disagree with me. I don't want to be that person who shouts a bunch of clap-trap about something that I can't back up.