RENT - Look Pretty and Do As Little as Possible: A Video Essay

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Lindsay is just so good. I've been watching her videos for years and she's only gotten better. For the uninitiated, she also has excellent videos on the Phantom movie, the fall of the Hollywood musical movie golden age, and Disney's Hunchback, among others!

👍︎︎ 16 👤︎︎ u/evanorra 📅︎︎ Jan 29 2019 🗫︎ replies

I’m a fan of rent and I watched this video, she’s so concise and really helped me see a lot of flaws with rent. I am a huge fan of her videos, she really puts in a lot of effort and research into each topic.

👍︎︎ 25 👤︎︎ u/albino_oompa_loompa 📅︎︎ Jan 29 2019 🗫︎ replies

I have seen this video 3 or 4 times.

👍︎︎ 17 👤︎︎ u/WashedAwayADreamOfU 📅︎︎ Jan 29 2019 🗫︎ replies

Very poignant and thorough critique. There's definitely a lot of stuff to uncover there. I agree with her broad point: that Rent tweaks quite a lot here and there to mold a historical event into a vehicle for a popular, marketable idea. In fact, that's the main criticism I have for Hamilton, which uses this type of historical revisionism on a much more egregious level.

However, I do think that she is overly harsh on Rent here. Her criticism can be divided into three parts: 1. Rent's position as (what she calls) a "We Have Been Left Behind by the System: the Musical," 2. heinous actions of the characters, and 3. toxic nature of Rent's main themes. I have some disagreements with all three.

First of all, I don't think Rent is a faux-"revolutionary" musical. It alludes to the idea of revolution, of course. But it is by no means the main theme. The main evidence that the video gives for calling Rent "faux-revolutionary" is the musical's handling of the AIDS epidemic. Namely, how the true story of resistance against the AIDS epidemic in alphabet city became watered down into a romantic tragedy. But Rent doesn't treat AIDS in that manner because it wants to trivialize the resistance of the oppressed. It does so because, unlike what the video claims, AIDS is simply not the main narrative of Rent. What's on the center stage instead is the "artists' struggle." I think that the main narrative is whether these poor artists can maintain their "Bohemian ideal" against worldly concerns, such as rent, gentrification, and of course, AIDS. Thus, the main idea that Rent tries to market to the audience is not "stick it to the man," but rather a generic "follow your dreams" type mantra.

Second, of course the actions of the main characters in Rent are horrible and hypocritical. Causing havoc at a restaurant, not paying rent, literally stealing, et cetera, et cetera. But I have to wonder if Rent is showing some self-deprecation here, rather than just straight up condoning these behaviors. I mean, the characters' actions AND their art are all so blatantly horrible. Maureen is clearly a toxic person, and her performance is just bizarre. Mark feels no remorse in filming a homeless woman, and his "documentary" is just a bunch of unrelated footage strung together. These are things that the audience simply cannot miss when they are watching the musical. At this point, I'm thinking that maybe Roger's "Your Eyes" is also another subtle example of this self-deprecating joke. Anyways, the sheer in-the-face value of these behaviors makes me wonder if this is a method to mitigate the sympathy towards the characters, like the example of Trainspotting in the video.

Lastly, the video claims that the emphasis of Bohemian ideals and the glamorization of poverty contains an underlying sense of entitlement. Sure, but if we follow the lines of my analysis, the "Bohemian ideal" is literally the main theme of the musical, then the poverty that comes with embracing that ideas is less of a "justification of poverty" but more of a "placement of greater value in idealism." But, putting all of that aside, I find this line of criticism particularly odd. While criticizing the Bohemian idealism, the lady literally mocks Mark for quitting a job that he hates. Then, she has a pseudo-allergic reaction to the concept of "poverty by choice," and implies that if we have a choice of living in poverty versus not living in poverty, we should always choose the former, no matter what. Is nothing more important than wealth? What if we had to sacrifice our happiness in exchange for money? Or our freedom, or our health? This supremacy of wealth that this lady seems to hold is an oddly capitalistic idea, especially for someone who, in the beginning of the video, literally criticized Rent for not fitting into the Marxist interpretation of theater.

Overall, I think she's reading into Rent a bit too much. In my humble opinion, Rent is not some faux-revolutionary musical aiming to spread the bourgeois worldview by trivializing the AIDS epidemic. It's just a snapshot of naive and idealistic artists in Alphabet City, and AIDS is just a backdrop. Rent's main objective is to validate a sub-section of the theater-going public by promoting some inspirational-sounding message, so that it can sell more tickets. As the lady herself said, there is still some inherent value in that act of validation.

👍︎︎ 15 👤︎︎ u/A_Brown_Passport 📅︎︎ Jan 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Yuuuuuupppp. She makes excellent points.

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/deadnotsleeping1983 📅︎︎ Jan 29 2019 🗫︎ replies

I love this video, while I love Rent this video addresses it's biggest flaws very well.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/pokemasterchaz99 📅︎︎ Jan 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Lindsay's stuff is always top notch and this video is no exception.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/Oscarfan 📅︎︎ Jan 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

Not a Rent-head, but I find this video to be really dismissive of what some may enjoy.

I don't have to be a member of the type of person in a story to find good things in the music, characters, or ideas presented. The author here really seems to be a bit elitist in looking down on the number for not being what she wants. It's fine as it is for me.

And further, why do people "need to see this?" What recent events make one believe "Rent-heads" will "resurface" and why is that a bad thing?

👍︎︎ 7 👤︎︎ u/JustGreenGuy7 📅︎︎ Jan 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

What YT channel is this? This is some well-done analysis.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/mdx308 📅︎︎ Jan 30 2019 🗫︎ replies
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ANCHOR: All were angry and many were frightened, and they converged on City Hall demanding and pleading, and more than 200 were hauled off to the station house. LINDSAY: The first cases of AIDS in the United States were reported in 1981. By 1983, there were over a thousand reported cases in the US, and by that point, already half had proven fatal. Unlike other high-mortality-rate viruses like Ebola, HIV tended not to be something one may eventually recover from once infected. Part of the slowed government response was because of the epidemic curve of the HIV virus. Unlike Ebola virus, it was gradual, with symptoms appearing in a matter of years instead of days. It's easier for epidemiologists to encourage behavior changes in a population for an in-your-face disease like Smallpox or Ebola virus; but AIDS, despite its near-100% mortality rate, was so slow-moving that not only was mass behavior change difficult to encourage, most people who spread the virus did not themselves even know that they were infected. Drug use was a risk factor; unprotected sex was also a risk factor; but many risk factors were not in people's control. For instance, the 1980s was not a great time to be a hemophiliac. But another aspect was the factor that the epicenter of the outbreak was not in middle-class straight white families, but the gay community in urban centers like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Since all of the earliest cases were discovered in gay men, it was easy for lawmakers to moralize the outbreak, not just as a sexually- transmitted disease, but also of moral degeneracy. Pat Buchanan, who was the leader of White House communications at the time, wrote about AIDS: Reagan didn't seem to understand the seriousness of the epidemic until his friend Rock Hudson announced that he was HIV-positive four years into the epidemic. But even then, it wasn't enough to get the administration to act on it. Dr. Donald P. Francis and epidemiologists within the CDC assigned to the AIDS outbreak later wrote: The CDC, with the help of Francis, developed a comprehensive plan in 1985 to help stop the spread of HIV, which had by now infected thousands, but the Reagan administration rejected it outright. The administration told epidemiologists within the CDC to: Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was explicitly banned by the Reagan administration from addressing the AIDS crisis. When in 1986 he broke with orders and did address what was by now a pandemic, he was attacked from within all areas of the administration. The powers-that-be within the CDC refused to stand up to their bosses higher up in the Reagan Administration. Director of the CDC James Mason, regarding the CDC's failure to act, later said: By the late 1980s, with now hundreds of thousands of new cases of HIV, it wasn't an issue of passivity, but of active obstruction. An increasingly popular narrative surrounding the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s was that there was nothing to be done to stop it; that the onus was solely on the infected, and there was nothing but their own behavior to blame. But the spread of HIV/AIDS in the United States was not inevitable, and had the powers-that-be acted sooner, millions of lives could have been saved. This is what happens when governments fail the people they are sworn to protect. ALL: Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! ALL: Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! So yeah, So yeah, anyway, today we're gonna talk about RENT. ♪ Let he among us without sin be the first to condemn ♪ Well fortunately, I have literally never sinned, so condemn away I shall. Okay, so here's the thing, full disclosure: I have *always* hated RENT, for basically the same reason I hate "Reality Bites." Yes, even before the movie came out, and yes, despite the fact that I lived in the East Village of New York City the first time I saw it on Broadway, and was surrounded by RENT-heads, or hell, maybe even because of that. And the other thing is the older I get, the more things I find about RENT that annoy me. Like, when I was a freshman at NYU, I was, like, surrounded by these RENT-heads who were like, "it me!" and I'm like, "Well, you know, I guess you're not completely wrong"; you know, trust fund babies. And then later, I eventually burned a bridge over someone who insisted that RENT was beyond criticism because Jonathan Larson died of AIDS. He didn't. And even if he did, He didn't. And even if he did, no. I actually won the ticket lottery for this sucker twice. So sorry, stage-show apologists, I'm not here for you. This ain't a "stage show: good, movie: bad" kind of episode, so hunker down y'all! MARK: ♪ Not to mention, of course, hating dear old mom and daaaaaaaaaad! ♪ L: The thing is, the movie does exist in a realm of bad partially separated from the stage show by virtue of adaptation sickness, and it is not a good adaptation. But a lot of my problems with RENT are with RENT as a whole. So this one goes out to all people who ask me to deconstruct RENT like I did with Schumacher's "Phantom [of the Opera]", and to you I say... like I did with Schumacher's "Phantom [of the Opera]", and to you I say... I can't. Sorry! MAUREEN: ♪ Hey mister. MAUREEN: ♪ Hey mister. She's my sister. ♪ L: And the truth about RENT's adaptation is it's not really that inept. I mean, although, there are some decisions that are like... I mean, although, there are some decisions that are like... "Wut?" ROGER, MARK [off-s]: ♪ You're what you own! ♪ L: But the thing that makes RENT the Movie fail is the same basic affliction Phantom suffered from: the filmmakers didn't know how to translate the stage musical effectively. And similar to what we discussed with the Phantom adaptation, its main failure is stripping the source material of the theatrical elements that make it flow, and replacing it with... that make it flow, and replacing it with... y'know, that make it flow, and replacing it with... y'know, mostly montages... ROGER: ♪ From the soul of a young man... A young man... ♪ L: ...some on-screen dialogue... MAUREEN: You want me to be your slave? You want me to just obey your every wish? L: ...more scenes, less singing... setting leases on fire... But in the end it has more in common with the adaptation of Les Mis[erables] than Phantom: It's just kind of a boring musical made by a boring filmmaker who never seemed terribly comfortable with the source material. And in fairness to the original work, the movie is much more... And in fairness to the original work, the movie is much more... "ungood" than the Broadway show. And it is important to note that RENT is one of the first mainstream-ish works with any kind of substantial LGBT representation. And hey, this is also one of the rare representations of a bisexual character, although she of course is the Slutty McSlutter Slutterson who wants to slut it up with every living human, she, of course, is the Slutty McSlutter-Slutterson who wants to slut it up with every living human, because “bi." MAUREEN: There will always be women in rubber flirting with me! RENT was a step. It was a step in helping to humanize the LGBT community and urban centers to a... broader audience who might not have humanized them otherwise, you know? I'm not here to deny that. That said, I don't have much nice to say about RENT. So if it was, like, integral to your childhood or something, you probably might want to sit this one out. (Alright.) If there was one wrong directorial choice to embody the counter-cultural discontent of the youngs, it was Chris Columbus, fresh off voice-of-a-generation, avant-garde tentpoles like Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the first two Harry Potters. L: Hell, maybe that's why Benny the alleged sellout is, unlike the stage show, easily the most sympathetic character in the movie. Columbus is like, "Here's a guy who knows what's up!" BENNY: You want to produce films and write songs? ♪ You need somewhere to do it! ♪ L: "Invest your money wisely, Benny! And use that money to fund your passion project five years from now! And meanwhile your old friends will still be poor and wondering why the cruel, cruel world is forcing them to pay rent to live in a building." Anyway, I can't speak to your local community theater production of RENT, but the problems that most people have with RENT are not necessarily unique to the movie. VOICEMAIL: (beep) Mark! You there? Are you screening your calls? It's Mom! Hi, just wanted to call and say we love you. But they are certainly more pronounced! MARK: There are times when we're dirt broke and hungry and freezing, and I ask myself, "Why the hell am I still living here?" And then they call. And then they call. L: F*ck you, Mark. God, this fucking movie wakes the inner walker-wielding granny in me yelling at these kids to get off my lawn. And these "damn kids" are from the generation *before* mine. So yeah, the reason why RENT the Movie fails has a lot in common with why Phantom the Movie did not work, but, you know, we've already covered that ground. I'm more interested in RENT as part of the grander counter-cultural canon. Do you feel left behind by the system? A system that, say, doesn't take your art seriously, or maybe failed to act on an epidemic before it became a *pandemic*? A system that profited off life-saving drugs, that failed to fund research? PETER STALEY: There are over 140 drugs out there that the FDA has identified as possibilities. L: That stigmatized the sick, that looked the other way when hundreds of thousands of people in our own country were dropping dead? I think we'd all like a generation-defining musical that really takes the system to task... I think we'd all like a generation-defining musical that really takes the system to task... but RENT ain't it. [silly, arrhythmic kazoo sounds] ♪ Mama who bore me, Mama who gave me, no way to handle things, who made me so sad! ♪ L: The stage musical is a popular format to try and capture the discontent of the... L: The stage musical is a popular format to try and capture the discontent of the... something. ♪ It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again. ♪ L: There's a lot of those. But RENT is literally based on the first "We Have Been Left Behind by the System: The Musical". RODOLFO: ♪ Ho uno zio milionario ♪ (I have a millionaire uncle) ♪ Se fa senno il buon Dio... ♪ (If the good Lord is considerate...) L: La Bohème was the original... L: La Bohème was the original... that. Puccini's La Bohème was arguably the start of the mainstream counter-cultural "fighting the man" musical. It is the basis of not only RENT, but many modern films and musicals, most notably Moulin Rouge which, although based on La Traviata, borrows arguably more from Bohème than Traviata, or the film from which it takes its name, but not its exclamation point. or the film from which it takes its name, but not its exclamation point! I'd summarize the plot, but it's basically identical to RENT; swap out tuberculosis with AIDS, the Latin Quarter with Alphabet City, the 1840s with the 1980s, and American-ify the characters' names a bit. ♪ I'm Roger. ♪ L: Puccini's Bohème was popular because its characters were relatable and the story was emotionally charged. The real revelation here is that his opera is about an underclass; he isn't writing about kings or dukes, but about starving artists who feel that they've been left behind. It is truly a universal story translatable to any era. Phantom of the Opera also draws a lot of inspiration from Bohème in that it goes a long way with raw, simple, shallow emotionality. - PHANTOM: Sing for me! - [Christine belting] L: But the difference between Phantom and RENT is, Phantom wasn't trying to make a grand statement about society. And the truth is, La Bohème isn't either. Not really. It exists more in the same vein as Moulin Rouge. MAN: You're the voice of the Children of the Revolution! L: But what is the Revolution? I mean, it's not a socialist revolution or a class revolution or... ♪ Yeah, Freedom, ♪ Yeah, Freedom, Beauty, ♪ Yeah, Freedom, Beauty, Truth, and ♪ Yeah, Freedom, Beauty, Truth, and Looooove! ♪ Oh, okay. See, they use terms like "revolution" in Moulin Rouge, but really it's about emotionality with an artistic movement set as the backdrop. Shows like this have romantic ideas in the guise of revolution, but none of them challenge any existing power structures in a way that might alienate the wealthy audience, especially as portrayed in the movie. MAUREEN: ♪ In Cyberland MAUREEN: ♪ In Cyberland we only drink [cowbell] - Diet Coke. - [audience chuckles] Yeah, that'll show "the man". Look at those monocles popping everywhere. Every decade sort of had its own: the 1960s had Hair, the 70s had Jesus Christ Superstar, 80's had Les Mis, 90s had RENT. 2000s... *wanted* to have Spring Awakening (but really they had Avenue Q). They all tried to capture the voice of the class of youngs that feel left out of the system, although all of these are what George Ishikawa has called "bourgeois" or "finished theater". [thundering applause and cheers] In other words, they frame themselves as revolutionary, but continue to push the voice, worldview, and values of the status quo; in this case, middle-class white kids who want to pass off their home movies as "true art." MARK: From here on in, I shoot without a script. L: Without a script?! Oh Mark, you visionary! ◔_◔ See, this is what I meant when I say that RENT's primary purpose is to validate a certain sub-sect of the theater-going public, rather than bring any "Theater of the Oppressed" to the masses. This is an idea developed by revolutionary Brazilian dramatist Augusto Boal, who developed the idea of Theater of the Oppressed. And Boal takes a Marxist reading to pretty much all theater on the subject, so bear that in mind. Echoing Marx, Boal argues that the dominant art is the art of the dominant class, who control the means to disseminate art; in this case, Broadway shows. All of these shows revolve around the social discontent of some underclass, but the shows did not reach the mainstream because some underclass propelled them there. RENT did claw its way up from off-Broadway, yes, but only because it found success with the people who had money. MAUREEN: ♪ Only thing to do is jump over the moon! ♪ L: Hamilton is a perfect example of this phenomenon in action right now; high demand and extremely limited quantities mean that only the wealthy control access to the stage show. A lottery system does exist that sells tickets for $10, but there are 21 of these tickets *per show*, and thousands of entrants; real access comes in the form of people with thousands of dollars to drop on tickets. And because Broadway shows are so uniquely expensive in terms of consumable art, they have to walk a fine line between being trendy and maybe even a little edgy, but not enough to put the people with money outside of their comfort zones. It presents a multi-culti hip-hop narrative about the life of Alexander Hamilton and the foundation of the country, but it is ultimately really, really reassuring about the American experiment. ALL: ♪ Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? ♪ L: Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? L: Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? The ruling class does. GEORGE III: ♪ You remember you belong to me. ♪ L: If you want people to hear your message, it first has to get the okay from your wealthy patrons. I mean, it's no coincidence that the first hip-hop musical to become a huge hit happens to be about the whitest thing ever. And Hamilton is excellent, don't get me wrong, y'know? It's just not here to challenge any ideas on American exceptionalism or start any revolutions. BURR: ♪ I'm with you, but the situation is fraught ♪ ♪ You've got to be carefully taught If you talk, you're gonna get shot! ♪ Does every musical need to necessarily challenge the culture it's trying to sell itself to? God, no! I mean, how else would I see Phantom for the 20th time?! - VALJEAN: ♪ One day more! ♪ - MARIUS, COSETTE ♪ I did not live until today ♪ L: But anyway, not every musical, even the ones with explicit revolutionary text, needs to be trying to tear down the system. But what would a revolution look like if it had been included in RENT rather than the subtext being "reject the system" instead of "change it"? Well, probably what was going down in Alphabet City, in the 80s, in the real world. ANCHOR: Thousands of demonstrators demand that New York City do more to help those suffering from AIDS. L: Protests, societal upheaval, all those unpretty things that were very much going on during the AIDS Crisis. They were not designed to make the type of person with hundreds of dollars to drop on a Broadway show ticket comfortable. REPORTER: Do you think you've really accomplished a great deal? PROTESTER: Yes, I think we do! What else can we do? L: But Les Mis does not position itself in opposition to the culture it is trying to sell itself to. Neither does Hamilton. ALL: ♪ Hey yo, I’m just like my country I’m young, scrappy and hungry ♪ ♪ And I’m not throwing away my shot! ♪ L: ...but RENT does. ALL: ♪ We're not gonna pay last year's rent! ♪ And if your musical spends its entirety dressing down the phoney-baloney culture while at the same time kind of being its very embodiment... at the same time kind of being its very embodiment... then we may need to have words. [silly kazoo rendition of "Rent"] L: RENT the Broadway Musical was met with much more universal acclaim than Bohème a century prior. It wasn't for another couple of years until we started seeing pushback against RENT. The movie was what made society as a whole really start to turn on RENT; so thank you for that, movie! :D ROGER: ♪ I rent! ♪ L: See, RENT's heyday came and went, and a few more years passed, and then another few more years passed, and then, uh... they threw another few years on for posterity, and then they made the movie, with the original cast. So by the time the movie comes out, it's like, yeah... Um, sure. Um, sure. Sure, you're in your 20s. ◔_◔ ROGER: ♪ I should tell you, I have always loved you ♪ L: And they went hard trying to keep the original cast, y'know, which was just weird. Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms are the only people who seemed happy to be here; everyone else is in their 30s, and you know they've moved on with their careers, but here they are, pretending to be in their early 20s, and it's weird. Many of the songs are cut and turned into dialogue, which makes for an even draggier experience than it might have been. Even with the opening number, when they are asking themselves, "How we gonna pay? How we gonna pay next year's rent?" ALL: ♪ Rent, rent, rent, rent, rent! ♪ L: Rent-rent-rent-rent-rent-rent-rent. -_- The music is arranged similarly to the show's, which is a group number. But in the show, everyone in the neighborhood doesn't all collectively decide to stop paying rent at the same time; it's more like a Greek Choir type thing, unlike in the movie where it appears to be a riot. So, Benny turns off their heat, right? So they have to burn their precious art creations for warmth. This is also lifted directly from La Bohème; this is how that starts. "Burning our art for warmth"; it's like an irony thing. But then they throw it out the window...? CHORUS: ♪ How can you connect in an age where... ♪ I mean, the whole thing is full of adaptive changes that don't really stand up to modest scrutiny. Joanne and Maureen's relationship never gets resolved in the movie; like, they break up and then... are together again at the end when they find Mimi; I guess they get back together off screen somewhere...? This works better in the show because they break up and get back together constantly, and that's the joke. ALL: ♪ Five-hundred-twenty-five-thousand, six-hundred minutes ♪ L: The movie starts with Seasons of Love, which is an odd decision, as the whole point of that song is that it happens *after* intermission to impart that a year has passed; so at the front of the movie, it's just, like, a song... that's there... but people know it, so let's start with that, I guess. Lots of 2005 vehicles here in 1989. Nobody has 80's hair. Mark's camera has no sound-recording apparatus. Why are we taking a train to Life Support if everything's in Alphabet City, a neighborhood with no train access? Roger returns to Manhattan from Santa Fe via the Williamsburg bridge. Some of the worst CGI cold-weather breath in the history of moviedom. Lazy, uncreative use of your setting, or just strange use of setting. ROGER, MARK [off-s]: ♪ You're what you own! ♪ L: Is he about to try to sell me a really manly truck?? There are a lot of problems with RENT that are movie-specific, but my interest is more comprehensive. And it starts with the fact that... [silly kazoo rendition of "La Vie Bohème"] MARK, MIMI: ♪ Why Dorothy and Toto went Over the rainbow to ♪ Blow off Auntie Em! ♪ L: RENT is a musical about selfish, horrible people, framed like freedom fighters. They show *profound* entitlement over other people's rights and property, but it is framed like romantic rebelliousness. A restaurant owner begs them, "please don't patronize our restaurant, please." MANAGER: Please, no, no, not tonight. Please leave. They then ignore him when he asks them not to move the tables around. - MANAGER: Please don't move the tables... - Hey Rosie, let's put the tables together! MANAGER: No. No! No no no! L: Maureen is an emotionally abusive cheater who gaslights all of her partners. Angel comes into wealth at the beginning by killing a dog. ANGEL: But sure as I am here, that dog is now in doggy hell. L: Mimi is a self-destructive, codependent enabler. Collins honors the memory of his dead lover by hotwiring a local ATM to dispense cash for him and his friends when you plug his name in. COLLINS: I rewired the ATM at the food emporium; now all you need is the code: A-N-G-E-L. L: And Mark, sweet Mark... L: And Mark, sweet Mark... you might be the worst thing to have ever happened. - LIFE SUPPORT COACH: And you are...? - MARK: I'm just here to... L: "...to appropriate your tragedy for my art without having obtained permission; I hope that's cool." RENT the Movie really has two stories that don't mesh when you give it more than a passing thought: the story of the tragic AIDS-havers, and the love triangle between Joanne, Mark and Maureen. And these two things have nothing to do with each other besides that they know each other. But really, Mark and Maureen, while they feel bad for the AIDS-havers, I guess, their stories are more about their "poetry" and their "art". MAUREEN: Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Got to, got to, Got to, got to, got to, got to, Got to, got to, got to, got to, Got to, got to, Got to, got to, got to, got to, Got to, got to, got to, got to, L: Mark has his aimless documentary, and Maureen her terrible performance art. Both have loving support structures and come from wealthy families, and none of these people have AIDS or have really any reason not to pay the rent, other than the fact that they feel they shouldn't have to, because "art" and "selling out" or something. MARK: And I ask myself, "Why the hell am I still living here?" L: FUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU You know that song "Common People"? Aw, look Mark, someone wrote a song about you. In the show, it's more obvious that Maureen is terrible and kind of a narcissist, and this is really a pastiche of bad performance art. MAUREEN: ...to, got to, got to, MAUREEN: ...to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got-- [stops to catch her breath] got-- [stops to catch her breath] Got--! L: But in the movie, it is played *dead* f*cking straight. MAUREEN: *sluUuuUUuUuuUuUUurp* L: And the suits are in the audience, blown away by how real she is. MAUREEN: Moo with me. - [Audience moos] MAUREEN: Let 'er rip!! MOOOOO!! L: "Th... th-they're mooing with her!" Now, the fact that they are horrible need not be a problem. ANGEL: ♪ I need your help to make my neighbor's yappy dog disappear! ♪ L: Or even that their horribleness goes unexamined by the characters; that is, after all, a condition of human behavior. But the problem, like the faux-revolutionary subtext, is with the framing; the show doesn't really go anywhere with this. This type of character is much more effectively explored in Trainspotting. In Trainspotting, you are meant to relate to the characters, sure, but it makes no pretense of them being idealists or good people; it much more successfully dresses down the phoniness of the society that they reject. RENTON: Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television! Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers! L: But at the same time, it doesn't dress them up like they are legitimately too good for society; they are very obviously not. So RENT presents us with a worldview that validates the characters rather than challenges them. And romantic validation is part of what made RENT so popular, y'know, similar to Bohème before it, but there are ways that this sort of thing can be maybe a little contradictory. [silly kazoo rendition of "Another Day"] COLLINS: ♪ To marijuana! ♪ L: "Yes, we are *so* countercultural, like in this scene." The nadir of the film, where they dance on the table while the pearl-clutching suits are scandalized by the interests of the Bohemians. ANGEL, MIMI: ♪ To Huevos Rancheros, to Maya Angelou! ♪ L: Like Huevos Rancheros. MIMI: ♪ Short careers, eating disorders! ♪ L: Yeah! Eating disorders! L: Yeah! Eating disorders! *Woo!* \o/ RENT's primary theme comes from the conflict between Bohemian ideals and selling out... for financial security. - MARK: What rent? - BENNY: This past year's rent, which I let slide. L: Yeah, they don't want to pay rent because their friend who owns the building has reneged on a deal he made with them that they can live there rent-free. But there is this underlying entitlement that these guys have, that they shouldn't have to pay rent, 'cause they're artists, and they don't sell out, and GET OFF MY LAWN. MARK: Because working for a show like Buzzline is completely selling out. L: Mark has among the worst resolution to his subplot, particularly frustrating for those of us working in journalism today. INTERVIEWER: Start at... $3000? L: He works for a sort of proto-TMZ-style news organization and makes bank doing it, but he doesn't like having a job in his chosen field of study because "selling out". MARK: Sold my soul. L: Oh poor baby, you have to work your way up from a job you don't really like in your chosen field, that pays really well, as a starting point for your career? MARK: If I need to finish my own film... I quit! Mark, you are the worst. There is a big homeless subplot, much bigger in the stage show than the movie. ALL: ♪ No! Room! At the Holiday Inn! Oh no! ♪ L: But the big thing that is pointed out by this character, but goes oddly unexamined, is the fact that none of these people really care about the homeless. WOMAN: Who do you think you are? I don't need no goddamn help from some bleeding-heart cameraman; my life's not for you to make a name for yourself for! ANGEL: Easy, sugar, easy, he was just trying-- WOMAN: Just trying to *use* me to kill his guilt! L: Mark getting called out on it doesn't prompt any change in behavior. Maureen really doesn't give a shit about their plight. She only cares about her performance space not being taken from her; the tent city is just a backdrop. Problem with the theme of selling out for security vs. adhering to your precious ideals while living in poverty, with the backdrop of a massive homeless subplot (which was not there in La Bohème, by-the-by) is that it infers that poverty is a choice, and a noble one at that. Which, sure, Mark has a choice as to whether or not to live in poverty; pretty much all of the characters do, except Angel and Collins. But the homeless do not choose to live on the street in order to uphold their Bohemian ideals. So right there we have Thematic Dissonance #1: choosing to live in poverty and romanticizing it, while surrounded by those living in poverty who do not have a choice and are repulsed by your romanticizing their tragedy, Mark! WOMAN: Hey, artist! You got a dollar? Didn't think so. L: Yeah, this prompts no change in him, and is the last time it gets brought up. The second major theme is that of affliction. La Bohème is set against the backdrop of tuberculosis; RENT, of AIDS, which afflicts far more characters in RENT than TB did in Bohème. So when you have Theme #1 over here, and Theme #2 over here... this is where we really start kind of running into problems. Mark Cohen's character arc, played up in the movie to the point where, unlike in the show, he is the explicit protagonist, reminds me so much of Lelaina in Reality Bites; they both exploit their parents, neither want to sell out their precious art or play by the rules of fucking society, *steal shit*, know they'll get away with any rules broken because they're white kids who come from wealthy families, and their approach to documentary is just... [unintelligible "singing"] L: ...shoot whatever and call it art, because "it exists, and I made it." MARK: From here on in, I shoot without a script. L: To quote Nathan Rabin, "Last time I checked those are called home f*cking movies and nobody thinks that's high art." So we suffer in the cold and ignore our loving families, because suffering equals art, and the homeless are suffering, and we like them because suffering equals art, and as long as they don't expect us to recognize their needs as humans and, hey maybe they don't think suffering is all that artistic, you assholes. So in RENT, poverty, despite being confronted on how shitty it is to try to appropriate someone else's suffering, despite being confronted on how shitty it is to try to appropriate someone else's suffering (Mark!), is always justified because "art". And capitalist society is always out to consume you, which is why you own nothing; you rent. Therefore you are always justified in taking anything you can from society. COLLINS: I rewired the ATM at the food emporium. L: It's not stealing, because you're an artist, and the rules don't apply to you. You know, poverty is not romantic; just throwing it out there. Anyway, let's tie that back in with the theme of affliction. [silly kazoo rendition of "Another Day"] MIMI: ♪ No day but today! ♪ L: A big theme in RENT is presented in the 'No Day But Today' motif, with the central conflict of Mimi and Roger's relationship being planning for an uncertain future vs. living for the now. Problem here is, RENT doesn't try to find a balance, but rather the planning for the future thing tends to be painted in a more negative light, especially where Benny is concerned. BENNY: You make fun, yet I'm the one, ♪ attempting to do some good. ♪ ♪ Or do you really want a neighborhood where people piss on your stoop every night? ♪ L: The 'No Day But Today' motif is seen in the Life Support group... ALL: ♪ No day but today! ♪ L: ...and in the interactions between Roger and Mimi, a bad idea of a relationship that at least one of them gets some bad Juju about, but here we go anyway. - ROGER: ♪ Your smile reminded me of... ♪ - MIMI: ♪ I always remind people of. ♪ L: ♪ It's almost like I have a type and I'm drawn to self-destructive addicts. ♪ See, Roger's ex-girlfriend committed suicide after finding out that both she and Roger have AIDS. The suicide part's not clear in the movie, by-the-by. MARK: ♪ His girlfriend, April, left a note saying "We've got AIDS", ♪ ♪ before slitting her wrists in the bathroom. ♪ L: So the first time we see the 'No Day But Today' motif is used at Angel's Life Support meeting. In the very next scene, we see it again when Mimi is trying to get Roger to do drugs with her. MIMI: ♪ Forget regret, or life is yours to miss ♪ L: There is an honesty here, like, that Roger wants to be with her but isn't allowing himself to because he's afraid to live and Mimi's trying to get him to open up. However, this doesn't really work because of this very simple framing: the fact that Mimi is on the side of the Life Support people, and therefore in the moral right, is undercut by the fact that she's trying to enable a newly-clean person to do drugs with her. ROGER: ♪ Take your powder, take your candle Your sweet whisper, I just can't handle! ♪ L: The film frames it like Roger is refusing to live, when in reality he has a very good reason not to want to spend any time with Mimi, mainly that of staying clean, and in that regard has much more in common with the people at the Life Support meeting than with Mimi. ROGER: ♪ Excuse me if I'm off track, But if you're so wise, then tell me ♪ ♪ Why do you need smack?! ♪ L: Their 'No Day But Today' accepts that any day could be their last, but that doesn't mean they're not going to take care of themselves now. Mimi's attitude is that you should live for today instead of taking care of yourself and planning for the future, because you can die at any moment, so you may as well live for the moment and do whatever. MIMI: ♪ I'll live this moment as my last! ♪ L: The show does this too, perhaps more pointedly, because rather than Roger's buds plus Mimi being the chorus (a choice which makes no logical sense by the way, since Mimi doesn't really know any of these people except Angel, but whatever), in the stage show, the chorus is the entire Life Support group! - L.S. GROUP: ♪ No day but today! ♪ - ROGER: ♪ Take your powder, take your candle! ♪ L: So the show does the same thing only, you know, more. Roger does eventually help Mimi get clean, but that doesn't last long and eventually contributes to Roger leaving New York altogether (for like five minutes), before coming back and finding that Mimi has disappeared and fallen down a deep addiction hole. But they find her, and Roger sings at her, and love saves the day. ROGER: ♪ Mimi!! ♪ L: It should be noted that Mimi nearly dying is not brought on by chance, like with Angel, but by her own decision to give up on life. She goes back to doing drugs, stops paying her rent, lives on the street, stops taking her AIDS medication, and nearly dies of exposure. And still -- AND STILL! -- she survives. MIMI: And she said... MIMI: And she said... "Turn around, girlfriend... MIMI: And she said... "Turn around, girlfriend... ...and listen to that boy's song." And I'm not gonna be a total cold-hearted monster and say that there is no value in that. Y'know, only mostly. Because I realize that RENT was not meant to be a cautionary tale. More than anything, it was intended to give hope to a portion of the young population that felt like it had no voice, as well as to get a broader audience to empathize with that population. RENT is not endeavoring to be realistic; it endeavors to provide hope, which it did for many, many people, hence the 'No Day But Today' attitude being encouraging to those in dire straits. Just because any day could be your last does not mean life is not worth living. MIMI: ♪ I'll live this moment as my last! ♪ However! However! However. Roger is doing the actual hard work of self-care, on which Mimi is an unquestionable drain, which goes completely ignored once we've decided that love is the most important thing. Love at all costs, love will save the day. And again, I'm not saying that all relationships portrayed in things need to be healthy, but it's kind of like Twilight; the work doesn't exactly frame it like it's a no good, very bad idea. EDWARD: I like watching you sleep. BELLA: Do you do that a lot? EDWARD: Just the past couple of months. [silly kazoo rendition of "Rent"] L: RENT's biggest departure from La Bohème is the ending. See, Bohème ends like this: RODOLFO: ♪ Mimi!! ♪ [choked sob] L: ...and RENT ends like this: ROGER: ♪ Mimi!! ♪ [Mimi coughs back to life] L: And yes, the play ends this way too. MOVIE MIMI: I was heading towards this warm white light... STAGE SHOW MIMI: And I swear, Angel was there... MOVIE MIMI: And she looked good! L: And also, this one great song that Roger's been trying to write this whole show, and he finally writes it and sings it, and it's like the worst one. ROGER: ♪ How'd I let you slip away when I'm longing so? ♪ L: [laughs] But it saves her from the AIDS. Anyway, she's fine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ PARAMEDIC: Her fever's breaking. L: And I have wrestled over this. RENT changes fundamentally so little from La Bohème, such to the point that it hardly feels relevant to the late 1980s. So why change this? Why does Mimi die in La Bohème, but miraculously gets an AIDS reprieve because Roger sings a song at her? ROGER: ♪ I have always loved you ♪ L: Okay, in La Bohème, Mimi is a symbol of innocence and purity, and she just can't survive in this tough new Bohemian world. That's the price of... and she just can't survive in this tough new Bohemian world. That's the price of... Bohemia, I guess. But she is not that innocent in RENT; she's like a druggie and a stripper, so killing her, I guess, doesn't have that... meaning about, like, innocence lost or something that they were so into in the Victorian Era, so might as well let her live and get some, like... empowerment out of her being a survivor, right? MIMI: Angel was there... and she looked good! L: But I don't think that is really the end of it. I think in RENT, it's Angel who is the Mimi because Angel gets the angelic Mimi death. Angel gets to be the embodiment of goodness where, in RENT, Mimi is not that at all; she is flawed, and therefore Angel dies instead of Mimi, which is noteworthy because Angel's counterpart Schaunard does not die in La Bohème. In the show, it does depend on the actor, but there is a more fleshed out character. For instance, she's a compulsive placater who really does not like conflict. ANGEL: People! Is this any way to start a new year? Oh, have compassion! L: And there's a much bigger sense of active agency. But Chris Columbus's interpretation does not exist as a character in her own right; just to be inspiration for everyone else, and act as like a spirit guide after she dies. MIMI: Angel was there... L: Chris Columbus' embodiment of goodness and humanity is more of a prop than one of the main f*cking characters. You know, it's like in Pocahontas, where they were so obsessed with being respectful that she has literally no character flaws or... that she has literally no character flaws or... character, period. And I think part of that is that Chris Columbus never seems entirely comfortable with this character, just from a cinematography standpoint. Take the curious decision to shoot 'I'll Cover You' as boringly as they did. L: Eh, let's just walk down the streets, good enough. I mean, look at this, it looks like it was shot by an undercover P.I. from across the street. This is handled better in the show which, since it's more of an ensemble, Angel is more of a character on equal footing with everyone else. And, uh, yeah, she does make money killing a dog, and we are supposed to be charmed by this. ANGEL: But sure as I am here, that dog is now in doggy hell. L: Well, this is actually an element from La Bohème, where instead of a dog, it's a parrot, so let's ignore that. So rather than Mimi, who in Bohème is the embodiment of goodness and innocence, in RENT, she is the waif who needs to be saved from herself, in RENT, she is the waif who needs to be saved from herself, with "luv", and Angel, well... Angel becomes the tragic figure of goodness and love dying, because the world is too cruel and corrupt for her. So Angel's story is resolved with her becoming (heh) an angel. And at the end of the day, both in the stage show and in the movie, Angel is the character with the least of an arc, and she just kind of goes quietly into that good night, nobly, not mad about it or anything; no one is mad at the system that has failed them. And here's the thing about the theme of affliction: in the 1840s, no system was going to save you from Tuberculosis. So, while it was a problem that they romanticized it the way they did back then, the same rules didn't apply. So these two themes didn't really conflict, as they do in a story about the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s. [Silly kazoo rendition of "Tango: Maureen"] ANDY: ♪ Man, I'm not gonna let you poison me I threw it on the ground! ♪ So, I want to talk a little bit about, uh... ANDY: ♪ I ain't gonna be part of your system! ♪ ...that. ANDY: ♪ Put that garbage in another man's face! ♪ L: There's something kind of disingenuous when we have a narrative about the AIDS crisis, and the machine we're raging against isn't the FDA, or pharmaceutical companies, or an indifferent political machine, but gentrification; namely, gentrification that affects the privileged white characters. And the face of the encroaching gentrifying class is a black man who is pricing out the white boys, which is another issue altogether that reflects basically zero of reality of living in New York to this day, and I don't like it. Oh god... Oh god... Ugh, there's just so much to hate. ANDY: ♪ So many things to throw on the ground Like this, and this, and that and even this ♪ Anyway, this whole theme of, y'know, 'poverty vs. selling out' rings pretty hollow when you have all these worried parents calling constantly. - ♪ Roger, where are you? ♪ - ♪ ¡Mimi, chica! ♪ (Mimi, girl!) - ♪ Roger, where are you? ♪ - ♪ ¿Dónde estás? ♪ (Where are you?) - ♪ Roger, where are you? ♪ - ♪ ¡Tu mamá... ♪ (Your mama...) - ♪ Roger, where are you? ♪ - ♪ ...está llamando! ♪ (...is calling!) L: And honestly, the show is way worse for this, such to the point where I wonder if it isn't trying to highlight our heroes' hypocrisy, as *everyone* but the two adora-gays has family to go back to. And they're also the only characters who really seem to have anything to do with AIDS activism, Angel in the form of his support group, but with Collins, the best we get is this: COLLINS: They expelled me for my theory of actual reality. L: Which we can infer has something to do with AIDS activism because of this: ALL: Actual reality! Act up! Fight AIDS! L: He also hints that this is why he got expelled from MIT. And this is all just lines in subtext; this isn't really explicit. And this line in 'La Vie Bohème' is the last we see of it. And in the end, Collins honors Angel's memory, not by doing anything useful, but by robbing ATMs. COLLINS: I rewired the ATM at the food emporium; now all you need is the code: A-N-G-E-L. L: Yeah, *that'll* get those extortionate drug prices down. ◔_◔ Hey, how are every single one of you able to afford AZT, anyway? Wasn't it, like, $8,000 a year in 1989? MIMI: AZT break. L: Do you Bohemians all just have really good health insurance, and nobody's talking about it because you don't want to admit you're a part of the system? ANDY: ♪ I'm not a part of your system! ♪ L: Or that you're getting government assistance, and you don't want to talk about *that*, because "system bad"? I know that shit didn't just fall off the back of a truck. - BIGWIG: Sisters...? - JOANNE, MAUREEN: We're close. L: RENT's idea of a revolution is a purely symbolic one. And that's kind of the point; it's built to reinforce worldviews, not change anything. Because the reality of the AIDS epidemic was not a romantic tragedy a la Mimi's inevitable fate in Bohème. It was not Manic Pixie Dream Gays going quietly into that good night, but it was *fighting*, and *scratching*, and *clawing*, and *quilting*, and *demanding* that their humanity be recognized, and not devalued on basis of sexual orientation, which it very much was in 1989. The reality of the AIDS epidemic does not work as a "fuck the system" musical, because rejecting the system was not what eventually changed it; what changed it was holding the system to account. TOM BRADEN: You have the FDA giving you a drug. So far, you've got AZT. Why--? PETER STALEY: Which I can't take, because it's far too toxic. TOM BRADEN: The FDA says there is nothing else that is worth anything. L: That does not mean that there is no place for RENT, or that you're a bad person for liking it, or that the music isn't catchy. But if you care about the subjects that it champions, RENT is hardly representative. And that's the real problem with RENT; it and its narrative has overshadowed and sanitized a painful, terrible, uncomfortable history that we still live in the shadow of. Go read 'Stage Struck' by Sarah Schulman (it's on Amazon), or go watch 'How to Survive a Plague' (it's on Netflix), or 'Angels in America' (it's on HBO GO), or even f*cking 'Dallas Buyers Club' which, yes, has its own problems, but actually acknowledges the criminal shortcomings of every power structure in place during the height of the AIDS crisis. A light, user-friendly sort of anarchy does not work in a narrative about the AIDS crisis, because there's nothing noble in extolling the virtues of quietly giving in to your disease when there is a system right there that *can* help and is actively, even aggressively, failing you, but you reject it because "fuck the man, I'm not a part of your system!" ANDY: ♪ And threw it on the ground! ♪ L: "I don't need your protease inhibitors!" And that is what RENT the Movie ends up being: sympathetic to an underclass that was violently screwed by the system, but ultimately the embodiment of the voice of the ruling class. That is why a story about homelessness and the AIDS crisis ends up being about not selling out. It advocates for no revolution, other than the revolution of whatever makes *you*, as an individual, feel good. It reinforces a worldview in which the only way to rebel against the system is to reject it. And it might feel good to throw it on the ground, and throw the rest of the cake too. ANDY: ♪ Welcome to the real world, jackass! ♪ L: It gives you a sense of power in a world that makes you feel powerless, but in reality the only thing it fosters is actual powerlessness, because in rejecting the system, you are not only failing to tear it down, you are also forfeiting any voice within it. RENT takes an inherently political issue and de-politicizes it to create something comforting and consumable. RENT looks pretty and does as little as possible. - CHORUS: ♪ La Vie Bohème! ♪ - MARK: ♪ To starving for attention ♪ ♪ Hating convention, hating pretension ♪ ♪ Not to mention of course, Hating dear old Mom and Daaaaaaaaaad ♪ LARRY KRAMER: *PLAGUE!!* LARRY KRAMER: *PLAGUE!!* We are in the middle of a fucking *plague!!* And you behave like this!! MARK, MIMI: ♪ Why Dorothy and Toto went Over the rainbow to ♪ ♪ Blow off Auntie Em! ♪ *PLAGUE!!* *PLAGUE!!* 40 million infected people is a fucking *plague!!* RENT CAST: ♪ Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens, Carcinogens, hallucinogens, ♪ All we can do is field a couple hundred people in a demonstration?! That's not going to make anybody pay attention! That's not going to make anybody pay attention! Not until we get *millions* out there! RENT CAST: ♪ You! To people living with, Living with, living with ♪ - RENT CAST: ♪ Not dying from disease ♪ - CROWD: Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! - ♪ Let he among us without sin ♪ - [Protesters chanting] - ♪ be the first to condemn ♪ - [Protesters chanting] LARRY KRAMER: And I say to you in Year Ten the same thing I said to you in 1981, when there were 41 cases. when there were 41 cases. - PROTESTERS: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! PROTESTERS: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! PROTESTERS: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! LARRY KRAMER: Until we get our acts together, all of us... LARRY KRAMER: Until we get our acts together, all of us... we are as good as dead. - RENT CAST: ♪ Viva! La Vie! Bohème! ♪ - RENT CAST: ♪ Viva! La Vie! Bohème! ♪ - CROWD: Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! CROWD: Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! CROWD: Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right! Healthcare is a right!
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Channel: Lindsay Ellis
Views: 2,543,777
Rating: 4.8881202 out of 5
Keywords: lindsay ellis, lindsay ellis videos, lindsay ellis video essay, lindsay ellis rent review, rent musical review, rent movie musical review, lindsay ellis rent essay
Id: q0qfFbtIj5w
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Length: 45min 54sec (2754 seconds)
Published: Sat Dec 31 2016
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