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Review: The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011)

&NewLine;<p>I don’t usually write about short films&comma; but as a diehard Ari Aster fan&comma; I felt the need to review his first and most controversial project&comma; <strong><em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em><&sol;strong> &lpar;2011&rpar;&period; While Ari Aster gained mainstream fame with his two horror masterpieces&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;18&sol;review-hereditary-2018-&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&sol;"><em>Hereditary<&sol;em> &lpar;2018&rpar;<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2019&sol;10&sol;05&sol;review-midsommar-2019-&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&percnt;E2&percnt;98&percnt;85&sol;"><em>Midsommar<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; it was <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> that established his penchant for the bizarre and unspeakable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Unspeakable” is probably a word that applies best to this 30-minute familial horror film&period; Aster claims that the idea for the film came about while discussing things that you simply could not show in a film&period; The challenge of showing the unshowable and speaking the unspeakable pushed Ari Aster to submit <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> as his thesis film at the American Film Institute&period; It has since gone on to draw a lot of attention and controversy online&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> opens on a scene of a young teenage boy&comma; Isaiah&comma; masturbating&period; His father&comma; Sidney Johnson &lpar;Billy Mayo&rpar;&comma; walks into the room&period; While Isaiah is naturally embarrassed and wants his father to leave&comma; his father reassures him that it’s completely normal and there’s nothing to be ashamed of&period; As Sidney leaves the room&comma; the camera pans to reveal that Isaiah was masturbating to a picture of his father&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film fast-forwards 14 years to the day of Isaiah’s wedding&period; When Isaiah’s mother&comma; Joan &lpar;Angela Bullock&rpar;&comma; starts looking for Isaiah&comma; she finds him performing fellatio on his father&comma; who grimaces and appears highly distressed&period; Though Joan doesn’t speak of what she saw&comma; Sidney attempts to communicate with her by way of a book&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Sidney leaves a manuscript entitled <em>Cocoon Man&colon; Confessions by Sidney Johnson <&sol;em>under Joan’s pillow&comma; only to have Isaiah discover it first&period; The manuscript chronicles the years of sexual abuse Sidney has faced at the hands of his own son&period; Over the years&comma; he could never fully address the issue or reveal it to Joan&period; The manuscript is his way to finally tell his story and reveal his tortured life to his wife and the world&period; Sidney’s book infuriates Isaiah&comma; leading to a series of violent events that tear the Johnson family apart&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>It’s easy to see why many viewers find <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> so controversial&period; It addresses what cannot be addressed&colon; a father who is sexually abused by his own son&period; Moreover&comma; Aster focused his story on an African-American family&comma; which many found to be offensive in its own right&period; Nonetheless&comma; despite being just short of 30 minutes long&comma; <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> is a very uncomfortable watch from start to finish&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;07&sol;ari-aster-beau-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"Ari Aster short film" class&equals;"wp-image-1924"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> &lpar;2011&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To be clear&comma; the film never feels pornographic&semi; at least&comma; not through its intention&period; Ari Aster gives us just enough information and visual cues to induce disgust&comma; but not enough to be explicit&period; It is this balance that makes <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> so mesmerizing&period; We recoil from what we see on-screen&comma; yet we can’t look away&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> is one of the best short films I’ve seen in a while&comma; it is not without fault&period; I firmly believe that you cannot fault the film for being overly controversial&comma; as that was Aster’s intention from the start&period; However&comma; it falls short in the same way that many student films do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>» You Might Like&colon;<&sol;strong> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;18&sol;trainspotting-analysis-and-the-dilemma-of-scottish-national-identity&sol;">Trainspotting and the Dilemma of Scottish National Identity<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The acting&comma; though generally good&comma; occasionally falls flat&period; Isaiah’s character is particularly difficult to convey&comma; even if he were portrayed by a veteran actor&period; In scenes in which adult Isaiah &lpar;Brandon Greenhouse&rpar; confronts his family members&comma; the cracks begin to show&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>On the other hand&comma; both Bill Mayo and Angela Bullock do an excellent job portraying parents caught in an impossible situation&period; Joan is a mother who wants to act as though the past 14 years never happened&comma; while Sidney is a tortured father whose only hope for salvation is his own story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>From a technical standpoint&comma; <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> also does about as well as any other student film&period; That said&comma; Ari Aster shows a command for storytelling that many other amateur filmmakers simply do not possess&period; He understands that the camera is there to show images&comma; but that images do not a great film make&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>It is the empty space between these images in which the audience exists&period; Incest is at the heart of the story&comma; but it is put in the minds of the viewers through sound and implication more than anything else&period; We are shown more than enough to understand&comma; but we are never shown more than is necessary&period; The story flows seamlessly without the need for endless dialogue&period; These quiet&comma; empty spaces lead us to a climactic ending that is both tragic and horrifying&period;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;07&sol;Bill-Mayo-1024x545&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Strange Thing About the Johnsons &lpar;2011&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-image-1925"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> &lpar;2011&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Since his debut film&comma; Ari Aster has dialed back his penchant for controversy&period; This enabled his films to reach and be palatable to mainstream audiences&period; But the horror that lies just under the surface is always there&period; Aster has a knack for extrapolating the issues we can’t talk about&comma; even in his mainstream films&semi; and for that&comma; I will continue to sing his praises&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>There are plenty of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;&quest;s&equals;incest">films about incest<&sol;a> out there&period; However&comma; few of them deal with the subject matter in a way that is repulsive without being reprehensible&period; You never feel as though Ari Aster has ill intentions&semi; nor do you feel that he wants to punish his audience&period; Instead&comma; Aster treats the subject with complete reverence&period; All of the cards are on the table&comma; leaving the audience to directly confront an issue that most would rather sweep under the rug&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In this way&comma; we are all Isaiah’s mother&period; We want the story to be over&comma; or to simply never have happened at all&period; When it comes to incest&comma; we would prefer to be revisionist historians&period; You may look at a film like <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> and think that it’s grotesque&comma; revolting&comma; or unwatchable&comma; and you’d be right&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>But it’s also a necessary film&period; We should never sweep sexual abuse under the rug&period; If we can’t confront issues like incestuous relationships and sexual abuse in a fictional movie&comma; there’s no way we can confront them in real life&period; In that way&comma; I find <em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em> to be far more than an attempt to push the envelope&period; It takes us what we need to see&comma; even if we’d rather keep our eyes shut&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <strong><em>The Strange Thing About the Johnsons<&sol;em><&sol;strong> &lpar;2011&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to watch on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;sqyQMX4rwHs">Youtube<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For more film reviews like this one&comma; check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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