Pariah is a powerful and unique film following 17-year-old Alike as she explores her identity and sexuality, while receiving pushback from her overpowering mother. While Alike feels comfortable expressing herself and dressing how she wants at school, at home she hides her true self from her parents who fear she is a lesbian. With her best friend Laura, Alike goes to gay clubs to find her first girlfriend.
I found the dad an especially interesting character. His relationship with Alike seemed genuine and sweet. When she comes out to him and the mother, he’s upset, but ultimately tries to be there for her despite his initial reaction. He comes to visit after she leaves home, and even wishes her goodbye as she leaves for college. His relationship with the mom on the other hand, is much more strained. We don’t see exactly what happened between them and it’s never totally addressed, but we can infer that he’s probably cheating on her. I wanted to like the father, and it did seem as though he was trying to be understanding. However, it really hurt to watch him questioning Alike, “it’s just a phase, right?” In the end it appears that he is trying to accept her, but it’s left unclear.
It was a coming-of-age film like I’ve never seen before, focusing on a young, black, and queer girl. I found it beautiful and heart-wrenching. After Alike comes out to her parents, her mother physically beats her, and she moves in with Laura. She is accepted into an early college program across the country. Her dad comes to see her at Laura’s, and she tells him, “I’m not running, I’m choosing”. That line really struck me in particular; she’s not running, but instead choosing the path that’s best for her. She’s choosing a place where she will feel more accepted and be able to truly be herself. In an incredible and bittersweet last scene, Alike gets on the bus to college, overlayed with her reading a piece of work she had written. As she looks out the window driving towards the new and unknown of the future, the poem ends “I’m not broken, I’m free”.
I'd like to add in some discussion about the dad as a character. At the beginning of the film, I thought he was a very stale character, but by the end I had come around to him (not necessarily that I liked him as a person, but that I enjoyed his character from a story sense). We had a lot of people say they liked the dad in class on Thursday and Tuesday, but I don't think people pointed out enough the fact that he is NOT a good husband -- there isn't a specific reason why given, making it hard for us to judge him. I agree that it's hard to see him say "It's just a phase, right?" but uplifting to see him starting to accept Alike, but what's really interesting to me is the dichotomy between him accepting his daughter and being so cold and perhaps unfaithful to his wife. It's not just that he doesn't know how to act; there are some scenes that demonstrate the father as actively abusive towards his family. That, I believe, is what makes him so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the dad was definitely an interesting character! I liked that they left some stuff with the dad open-ended and didn't really say exactly what was going on. The fact that he wasn't super direct about things and didn't say things openly made him seem quite dad-like, as well. The juxtaposition between the manly macho behavior of the dad and the focus on Alike's own masculinity was interesting, as well.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really important to notice how you mentioned that this was one of the first movies you had seen with a young, black, and queer woman as a main character. There are many stories like this one out in the world yet there is very little representation in media.
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