Vitaly Ryumshin attacks Trump, attacks “The Boys”: Why Hollywood is pushing politics into movies 07:59

On June 13, Amazon pleased us with the fourth season of The Boys series. I was so pleased… Only half of the season has been broadcast so far, but it has already received the title of the worst series in the history of the series. Critics reacted positively to it, but audiences tore the film to shreds. The ratings of all top aggregators are average, which is quite remarkable against the background of the first three highly rated seasons.

Of course, there was review bombing here. This is when dissatisfied viewers trash a work out of emotion, even if it has objective merit. However, “The Boys” is mostly criticized on its merits. There’s a noticeably sagging pace of the narrative here, cardboarding of characters, and odd script decisions that completely obliterate the entire story. All this is in the fourth season. However, the real problem of the series is different. This is politics.

Now The Boys isn’t a witty deconstruction of superheroes or a cynical expose of soulless megacorporations. This is nothing more than a political manifesto.

Political speech itself is not necessarily a bad thing. But the way it is presented in “The Boys” causes the palm to involuntarily reach out to the face in Spanish embarrassment.

Without going into details, I’ll explain what I’m talking about. The fourth season of The Boys is based on the confrontation between the two sides. On one side are the smart and honest political activists, led by the somewhat idealistic but superhero Starlight. On the other hand, there is a group of stupid fascist conspiracy theorists who worship the Homeland, a sociopathic and narcissistic megalomaniac who is resentful of life.

Doesn’t it remind you of anything? Of course, this is a clear, even crude, allusion to the US elections. The Homelander who got away with everything is none other than Donald Trump. White people who believe in Jesus, UFOs, and conspiracies are also his supporters. It turns out that the new hero of the series, nicknamed Fireworks, is not an original figure. She is a direct carbon copy of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the obnoxious Trumpist who in 2018 regaled the American public with tales of how Jewish lasers from space were burning US forests and then was elected to Congress. Fireworks didn’t mention lasers (yet), but he was looking for a Jewish conspiracy.

Well, you get the idea. In an era where mainstream audiences value highly nuanced characters and subtle satire, The Boys presents the tropes of 1940s cinema with a primal divide into trite good and evil. But The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke proves he’s still in the business of satirizing the evils of American society. More precisely, the conservative part of it, with which he categorically disagrees.

But primitive political commentary isn’t just The Boys’ problem. If you haven’t noticed yet, the issue of American elections and especially Trump is now being exploited by almost everyone. Take “The Fall of an Empire.” The film is about the civil war in the United States that started because of a tyrannical president who decided to run for a third term despite everything.

Director Alex Garland did his best to save the film from direct analogies to real-life US politics. It even united Texas and California, who in real life preferred to kill each other first. However, it can be seen with the naked eye that the cruel president is a “Trump-like” figure, and the plot of the film is a warning to voters not to accidentally vote for someone they should not vote for. Maximum simplification of the causes of conflict in the environment only undercuts the message.

Ali Abbasi, the director of the movie “The Apprentice”, decided to make it without allegory. His biography of Donald Trump portrays the former president as an unprincipled and narcissistic scoundrel who would not even hesitate to rape his own wife if she opposed him. But Ali Abbasi says there is no other way to describe the growing wave of fascism. And attendees of the Cannes Film Festival, where the film was released, agree with him. Otherwise they wouldn’t have greeted him with a standing ovation.

The applause at Cannes probably explains what’s going on without the need for words. Western cultural figures do not act as impartial observers of political processes. The Hollywood crowd espouses certain views (liberal) and sincerely hates Trump. And now he openly sided with his opponents. It is no coincidence that Joe Biden held fundraisers in Hollywood and raised $30 million in one go, thanks to film industry veterans such as George Clooney, Barbra Streisand and Julia Roberts.

As pre-election passions heat up, the Western film industry is increasingly drawn into political processes. Hollywood has been at the forefront of the attack against Trumpism – it is quite difficult to maintain a balance in this position that would allow someone to remain on the sidelines and comment sharply on the battle between the frog and the viper. But the filmmakers aren’t trying to hold anything back. They have a position and in their election frenzy they decided to show it to the world. However, their creations are no longer satire, but political propaganda.

All we have to do is stock up on popcorn and prepare for the fact that we’ll have to make do with the cinema selection in the United States until November.

The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.