(May 2, 2023 ● Oslin Pierrette)
What I got from this film was Likability vs Expertise. You have one character Tom, who can be a dunderfart sometimes, but has a likable image. Then you have Jane, she’s obsessive, passionate, and consumed by her craft. Two completely different people and paths, but they landed in the same place. One through hard work, and putting in a sleepless insane amount of effort. And the other just landed there based on their likability, and nothing else really. That’s the growing dilemma in the film and in the real world. The guy is very confident and personable, but even he understands he is absolutely incompetent in the field he takes up space in. Jane and Tom are both completely confused by Tom’s placements in such prestigious roles, that one would think requires expertise, but the complete opposite is true. Why should someone put their heart into the craft their obsessive about, and be beat out by this no good incompetent socialite, it’s a smack in the face of craft lovers, and people who put their blood, sweat, and tears in it. Especially when the other person, someone like Tom doesn’t even really care for the craft or have full knowledge of what he takes up space in, the audacity. But he appreciates the surfaceable benefits of the position, but doesn’t care about the foundation or why people really do what they do in that space. That’s the growing dilemma that’s taking over media and network, this growing cheapness of the craft.
At least if you’re wrongfully going to get the position, appreciate the position you’re in. Put some care into your work, and bring respect to the others that truly operate in that space based on their merit. That’s one thing that was good about Tom, he wasn’t completely incompetent. I wouldn’t say likability is a true skill, but it is a natural talent that can be utilized and others can learn from. One thing about socialites, they are great at being presentable, they are great at creating a better image for themselves. It’s like their natural marketer skills. They create a strong engagement that you can’t deny. So they aren’t completely non-valuable people.
They can make a great pairing with someone with expertise, expertise plugs in all the ideas, directs everything, then the likable mouth pieces recites like no regular person can, creating this magical electric pairing. They make great figure heads. That’s why their value can be so inflated or unreasonably high. They are a star power that many are attracted to. You can’t just deny that on the guise of it’s not expertise. But it’s about how you want to honor the craft in a respectful manner.
I really liked how that played about in Jane’s love life. With Tom vs. Aaron, Flash vs. Substance. Extroverts vs. Introverts.
Many introverts are amazing, they have so much depth to them, where you can connect with so much beautiful passionate essence. Maybe some of the greatest potential vulnerable, intimate, and fruitful bonds you can have. It’s just hard to communicate that, to develop the skill set for people to see that. That was Aaron, you can tell that deep intimate connection that he and Jane shared. To the point, Jane asks where they should go to eat, and he responds, “remember that thing we did at that place,” and she understood completely. They share a beautiful bond. He also had expertise for his positions. He just struggles to spark that fiery engagement that Tom is good at, but Tom is empty at mostly everything else. And Aaron felt a lot of resentment from his feelings of rejections from his love life and positions he felt he earned, and getting beat out by these empty dumb charmers.
He expressed his resentments a lot in his very snarky remarks, he wanted to show how incompetent people were, not because he’s inherently an asshole, he’s just hurt and jaded by his career and love life. Just wanted to feel like he won somewhere. It made him an unlikeable character though.
Tom is more of a beautiful act, it feels magical, but how real is it. A magic trick can be overwhelmingly amazing, maybe some intense transient feelings. But for how long would that truly last, that fiery magical pleasure. If you watched that same magic trick 100 days in a row, after a while you’ll get the trick, and that it’s all a trick, an illusion. And that’s a lot of what Tom was. He was an amazing magic trick that got Jane feeling fiery, but those flames were obviously doomed to extinguish. That’s what many extroverts represent. They can be great presentations, they put on great performances, and acts. But many times, that’s all they end up being, just an act and nothing else more. Many of them never really had to be much more than that, they were never challenged to, just rewarded for the empty act they were. They’ve gotten by on nothingness. Jane is a woman of substance, expertise, and cares for her passion. That’s who she truly is. Tom doesn’t fit inside of that world.
This was such an amazing film about the media and network industry. With how incompetence leads to budget cuts, also what kind of people get cut, and what people get chosen to stay or get promoted. A sentiment that is so very true to this day. It feels like this creative industry throws expertise to the curb and positions are filled by incompetent socialites.
So many people are jaded by the amount of incompetent people who hold prominent positions of expertise, it’s mind boggling sometimes. It’s like, you know very little to nothing about the craft. Why are you getting chosen? There are so many Tom’s in the industry, even worse. People that exude no care or expertise in these creative roles. And many of these incompetent socialites feel a heightened sense of importance in their role, ones that obviously exude a lack of knowledge, care, and passion for the craft, ignorantly holding this snarky arrogance like the spaces they occupy need them. That’s why there are so many Aaron’s that don’t like them. It brings a heavy feeling of cheapness to the industry.
And it brings up another great conversation, about maybe it’s best to disband these corporate creative structures. These heads are so cruel, and they don’t seem to care about the quality and ethics of content. They only value profit, and you don’t need quality and ethics to be profitable. You can use very cheap tactics to achieve profit. The problem with that, they can destroy the cachet of your respective industry, but they don’t see, or care to see that. And that’s why you’ll see things like budget cuts of entire departments. Then still incompetent decisions being made of socialites and incompetent people being chosen over the people that actually brought value to the company, made it viable. That’s why I like Aaron saying, the time to leave for him was evidently years before, he didn’t listen. He shouldn’t have waited till it was too late. At least he has some options available to make something for himself. But for so many more like him, they are in serious trouble, just fired and left with nothing to their name.
I really like how I stumbled onto this film with everything that’s been going on. I really didn’t intentionally stumble onto this. This was very informative of things that are going on today, and it just makes it more clear the crash of the media industry was doomed to happen.
This was such a naturalistic depiction of the human experience. I really loved how free, loose, and natural it felt. Great performance and amazing writing. I really loved what it was speaking to.