Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on Fire!
I try to keep politics out of this blog, but there are times when the movie in question prevents that from happening. At the recent presidential debate, one of the more memorable moments was, “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the dogs.” This is in reference to an incredibly racist trope about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. And it is purely racism, something that the American right wing seems to like to bank on. There is a frequent undercurrent of racism in American politics from the right, from Willy Horton to birtherism, to Haitians eating pets. And it’s where we’re going to live for 92 minutes with Soft & Quiet, a film that is unbelievably difficult to watch.
It's also worth saying off the top here that if you look up reviews for Soft & Quiet, you’re going to find a lot of negative reviews. A lot of them. The reason is twofold. One is that this is a difficult movie to watch and an unpleasant one, and a lot of people are going to have a negative and visceral reaction to it. Part of it, though, is an attempt to pull people away from the film by the people whom the film is essentially about. It’s the same reason why Bud Light got a bunch of negative reviews all at once—if there are enough bad reviews, people will stay away.
