Rule-breakers.
WinWin media columnist Athena Bellas finds inspiration in those who are making expression their own.
F-bombs and explicit content ahead, obviously!
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The Regrettes
The Regrettes second album, ‘How do you Love’ follows their rage-filled, passionate single of 2018 called ‘Poor Boy’ (a powerful protest against accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh), and their 2017 feminist punk rock album ‘Feel Your Feelings Fool’. The new album maintains the same punk spirit of this previous music, but turns its attention from political issues to the deeply personal — but no less universal — experience of romantic love and heartbreak. With lyrics written mostly by eighteen-year-old lead singer Lydia Night, the record takes us on a journey from the giddy feelings of falling in love, to realising it might not work out, to the sting of lost relationships, and then finally imagining the possibility of a future romance.
Whether The Regrettes are singing about important social issues or the intensity of human emotions, they get us thinking, dancing, and feeling along with them.
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‘How do you Love’ is streaming on all major platforms.
Cover: Alan McCarthy; Above: Claire Marie Vogel
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Shrill
Adapted from Lindy West’s memoir of the same name, Shrill follows the story of Annie (Aidy Bryant), a young woman trying to find joy and success in a world that tells her she doesn’t deserve these things, by virtue of her gender and her size. From her arrogant boss (John Cameron Mitchell), to her clueless boyfriend (Luka Jones), to cruel internet trolls, Annie gets put down and shamed a lot. But things start to shift in Annie’s life: she starts publishing articles about fatphobia, makes her needs known to her boyfriend, faces her trolls (literally!), and befriends other fat women who bring liberating fun and solidarity to her life.
This is a show that fights against diet-culture and misogyny with wit, nuance, and beautiful images of fat women living, loving and taking up the space they deserve.
As Annie says in one particular moment of clarity: “I’ve wasted so much time and energy and money; for what? For what?! You know? I’m fat. I’m fucking fat? Hello! I’m fat, you know?” Shrill has been renewed for season two, which is due to be released in 2020, and I honestly can’t wait!
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Season one of Shrill is now streaming on SBS on Demand and Hulu.
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Booksmart
Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, Booksmart, is one of the best teen films I’ve seen in quite a while. There are just so many things to love about it. Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are straight-laced, straight-A students who, on their last day of school, realise they ‘haven’t broken any rules.’ So that night, they set out to break a bunch of them as they make their way across town to a popular kid’s party. Their night of rule-breaking is both incredibly hilarious and beautifully sad, striking a perfect balance between laugh-out-loud fun, and touching moments of vulnerability and bravery.
This movie breaks so many stereotypes about teens, and refuses to use many of the overused depictions of ‘mean girls’ in movies.
These girls are politically engaged, clever, messy, confused, and honest. This is a movie that changes what teen heroines look like, desire, talk about, and aspire to be.
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Booksmart is in selected cinemas nationwide.