Diversity Without Pity #25 | The Invitation | Design is within the fibers.
“California Style”, “California architecture”, “Karyn Kusama”, “The Invitation”, “Get Out”, “Jordan Peele”, “directors of color”, “women directors”, “Emayatzy Corinealdi”, “Logan Marshall-Green”, “interracial couples in film”, “white men with black women”, “Tammy Blanchard”, “middle class living”, “west elm”, CB2, “The Shining”, “Eyes Wide Shut”, “Funny Games”, “The Manchurian Candidate”, “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Guess Who's Coming To Dinner”, “The Lobster”, “Cabin in the Woods”, “Deliverance”, “The Shining”, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, “Night of the Living Dead”, “The Stepford Wives”, “Being John Malkovich”, “Barry” “diversity without pity”
3702
post-template-default,single,single-post,postid-3702,single-format-gallery,mkd-core-2.0,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,,burst-ver-3.0, vertical_menu_with_scroll,smooth_scroll,transparent_content,blog_installed,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-7.9,vc_responsive
 

Diversity Without Pity #25 | The Invitation

17

Feb

Diversity Without Pity #25 | The Invitation

[responsivevoice_button voice=”UK English Female” buttontext=”Listen to Post”]

It’s the week of Valentine’s Day. This mini-series within Diversity Without Pity addresses how couples of diverse backgrounds face challenges in unexpected ways.

At this point, I have to imagine that you think I have a pretty perverse idea of what “romance” means. That is true. I would rather spend Valentine’s Day with someone I would kill for, and they would kill for me.

The Invitation, directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Æon Flux), tells a seemingly simple story of a dinner party among friends. Will and Kira (played by Logan Marshall-Green and Emayatzy Corinealdi) are a new couple, and only beginning to trust one another. Will is also one-half of a divorced couple to Eden played by Tammy Blanchard. But as the story progresses, it’s clear there is more going on under the surface, and past trauma will come to define these relationships.

How romantic.

California Style as a Way to Disarm and Endanger

What I found very striking about this movie was the easy aesthetic that disarmed both the guests in The Invitation and the viewer. The appearance of openness belied the reality. The ornate fixtures on the windows were actually bars that wouldn’t allow anyone to escape. There’s a lot of wide shots dedicated to making you feel at ease. Even on repeat, I have trouble believing what will happen by the end.

Yet, there is a slight unease with how the movie jumps from the past to the present. It refers to Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut or The Shining.

UPDATE: I recently saw Get Out, the Jordan Peele-directed horror/thriller that has a striking resemblance to The Invitation (and Funny Games, The Manchurian Candidate, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, The Lobster, Cabin in the Woods, Deliverance, The Shining, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Night of the Living Dead, The Stepford Wives, Being John Malkovich, and Barry). The Invitation is so much better because it’s less cynical about interracial relationships, has more emotional depth, and uses the trappings of upper-middle-income ease to disarm and distract in a much more subtle way.

Diversity Without Pity is a blog series from IDSL, highlighting media that uses smart design, and considers the diversity of it’s casting without selling the viewer or consumer, short.

Print
Architecture, Diversity Without Pity, Interior Design, Set Design


| Aa | എ | አንድ |