Can We Ever ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW? ***SPOILERS***

I will admit that I fell asleep at some point while watching Escape From Tomorrow, but not due to its lack of appeal, it was due to exhaustion, and quite frankly if I sit down for any extended period of time in a dimly lit room, I will most definitely probably fall asleep.  Which is partly why I would actually like to see Escape From Tomorrow for a second time.  The other part being, it’s actually just a really decent avant-garde and thought provoking film.

When first finding out about writer-director Randy Moore’s debut of an exclusively American fantasy-psychological horror film, I could not help but be all sorts of intrigued, particularly by where Moore chose to film – on location at both Walt Disneyland and Walt Disney World, without getting consent from The Disney Corporation.    

The few online reviews I had initially all read or seen were from the male perspective only (and as of yet, it still remains to have been read or seen – any type of review of this movie by a woman).  Based on those male reviews I erroneously steeled myself for disappointment, but instead found fascination. 

This film, its most horrific aspect is that it blatantly announces the elephant in the room which is—we don’t really know what real reality really is anymore.  It’s been altered, mechanized, mass produced, mass consumed, reflected, refracted, manipulated, reversed, discolored, dressed up, covered up, spun, turned inside out, and upside down.  The amusement parks of corporations is what your quaint bedroom suburb actually is, your desolate commute and lack of community all the side effects of ill begotten gains of soulless multinational mega-conglomerate “organizations” that leave disorganization in their wake, both literal and figurative.  Moore shoves this concept into your face like one would shove a puppy’s face in the fecal Pollock it created on your zebrawood custom floor at $18.00 per sq. ft.  It’s dark.  The black and white suits the film, it brings with it all the nostalgia of film finery and even alludes to David Lynch’s Eraserhead (which was really about alienation in America).  The film was very reminiscent of a David Lynch’s focus on alienation, only it made more sense.  It certainly made more sense than Upstream Color, or Lady in the Water, or The Last Mimzy.  Those three movies are so bad their plots can be summarized in one sentence apiece: If you like yourself, don’t watch it.       

That is not the case with Escape From Tomorrow, a brilliant film about a collapsing and failing patriarch.  One that cannot provide for his family, earn the respect of his son, honor his wife, or effectively protect his daughter.  It’s as if he’s losing his mind because he’s losing control.  Something about the actual filming was raw, it was like a stripping away of layers of reality and you start to realize that “the happiest place on earth” was dingy and dated and honestly did not look like very much fun.  It’s not Paris darling, it’s just mouse ears in hell.  To watch the darkness churn in the fathers mind when he became obsessed with some “girls” of an unsubscribed age was spellbinding.  Always the same girls in every shot, sure, but with the angles and lighting they could have been anywhere from 12 to 22.  Darting in and out of scene, the father traipsing about after them, seemingly always welcomed and even encouraged by the girls.  The patriarch becomes emboldened in the pool approaching one of the girls and the camera focuses sharply, suddenly, it appears that she’s even far younger than 12, maybe even closer to a tall 9 year old.  She looks uncomfortable and frightened, while the elder girl motions for her to vacate his presence.  It was a legit reality shift.  I too felt uncomfortable and frightened.  Were they ever even speaking French or was that part of his…fantasy? 

The Disney princesses are all whores for Asian business men, and that’s a wow symbolism for me.  What a huge statement right there.  You whore the mind of your children, the girls turn pink, turn into prey for a floundering patriarch struggling to keep its stranglehold, while Cambodia and China make a bunch of pink crap you can buy your loin princess so she can feel special, so she can grow up into Princess Bitchface, turn into a “12 year old slut”,  get raped by 14, have her body plastered all over some subreddit only to be told that erape doesn't exist, when at 16 she can’t even get a job at McDonald’s—who sells bits of pretty pink plastic to complement the hypnosis—because she’s just too damn sexy but when she turns into a junkie fluffer that needs a handler in California, well, that’s her fault or her parents fault only, right?

We are spellbound, it is a syndrome. Every year that we leave regulations in the hands of others to moderate and monitor common decency, an even lower standard of ethos erodes.

        

Something about Disney has always been reminiscent of a hologram.  Turn it one way you see family values, never ending childhood, love…  …but turn it another way and you see sin, money, and profit mongering.  You see hypocrisy.   

That was the role the wayward father played in Escape From Tomorrow, one of a hypocrite.  Which is why I felt so compelled to write a review, too many male critics were dwelling on the role of the mother as a harpy—that is not the impression I received.  I saw a woman exasperated by an uncommunicative and unreliable husband.  Consistently it’s shown she’s actually raising three children, not merely two.  The scene when the wife finally confronts the husband about following the French Girls all day is intense, extremely well-acted.

I went t-shirt shopping for my boyfriend online yesterday for Christmas and I could not believe some the prints I was seeing on roadkilltshirts.com (the prints were so awful I eventually did a search for reviews on the quality of the product prior to purchasing from the site and once reading that they were more so iron-ons of a cheap variety, I went with my original order from thinkgeek.com for him, he’s worth the extra cost of decent quality, both in fabric and graphics) but you should see the images for purchase under the category “hilarious”, but hey, don’t forget about the categories of “funny”, “humorous”, and “offensive”.  Here is a small spattering example of some of those t-shirts I had to wade through yesterday and I didn't even click on "offensive": 

(Entire caption: "Cool story babe.  Now go make me a sandwich).

("Donkey Punch" is when a male is having anal sex with a female and he punches her in the back of the head as he's having an orgasm so her anal cavity will tighten more and enhance the male orgasm further). 

(Does this imply *her* beaver is shaved?)

(The site depicted block people engaged in numerous sex acts, usually a female assuming the doggy style position.  This one not only makes fun of battered women, it also sexualizes them and implies that the wearer is more interested in giving you head instead of a black eye). 

(He's probably 4 inches flaccid, amirite?)

(In your head probably).

What do disgusting t-shirts that people who probably play Beer Pong on the regular have to do with Escape From Tomorrow, you might ask?--well, everything.  Allow me to proceed a bit further, tongue in cheek.  Yesterday I also saw something on a friend's Facebook page, he's extremely creative, tech savvy, hilarious, and all around talented, he had taken a screen shot of another friend's comment about how he thought grown men who had cats were weird, it progressed to how he'd rather spend time with a cat than his baby momma, but not after he called our mutual friend out on doing what he perceived as being a "bitch move" (exposing his dislike for cats?), another mutual friend inquired of the cat-hater how does one "choose a baby momma?"  Cat-hater blatantly stated that he had "only chosen the pussy".  At that point, I started putting my two cents in, reminding the cat-hater that babies are a product of dicks that spew and that the pussy had to be receptive, thereby making the "choosing" mutual.  I also judged him and asked him how he thinks his child would feel if they knew he was talking about their mother in that way and said that if it's a daughter, I feel really bad for his kid and that if it was a son, I felt bad for everyone else's daughter.  Seriously, what a jackass to think it's remotely permissible to just announce on Facebook for anyone, or any gender to read that you "choose the pussy".  

In Escape From Tomorrow the father figure chose pussy over family.

All the t-shirts above compartmentalize sex and plainly project that a female's mouth is not for forming words to listen to, it's just another delightful hole to stick your dick in.  And that girl prancing about in those awful t-shirts announces to any spectator that she shaves her pussy, is sexually active, is willing to allow men to do depraved fetishistic acts to her body, at her expense for their physical gratification.  

How did this happen?

Aren't both genders more then their prospective sex or gender stereotypes?

(Found this by Google Image via search words "Disney Gender Stereotypes").

(That's how this one was found as well).

At a time in history when "The Disappearing Male" is a topic of discussion in certain academic circles.  At a time in which intellectual Anita Sarkeesian is fingering the gender inequities in this culture (and I want to showcase her latest 'Ms. Male-Character' here, because it's so good, especially the bit about "Eve" being the original Ms. Male-Character).

           

You can't help but wonder, why is such a vastly inaccurate portrayal being portrayed?  One of male perfection and imperialistic domination, one where women are devolved to the periphery of society useful only as caregivers and sexbots?  How meaningless is life really when it's allowed to become such an empty dichotomy of vag and cock?  Is it just because THAT many people don't want more because they don't bother to take a pause and think of it? They're happy with pellet pelt sex?

Here's an idea, your average human is probably easier to control and manipulate if they're sexually frustrated and/or distracted.     

Escape From Tomorrow outlined a man that was too sexually distracted to successfully give his family priority.

His break in reality is most cinematically profound when one of the French girls approaches him and spits water in his face.  This one scene lead to a huge debate between my boyfriend and myself later.  It could have been seductive, more likely a warning to fuck off and stop stalking them, and was most definitely how the dad contracted the deadly "cat-flu" that was plaguing the park.  I take the "cat-flu" as a metaphor for the internet actually.  The corporate stranglehold on us can only be cut through intellectual pursuits and collective communication.  What best is the internet known for than cats?  In fact, the PBS Idea Channel had an episode asking "Is The Internet Cats?"  See for yourself, if curious.  As a cat would be.

The nurse in the movie foreshadows the dreaded "cat-flu", saying it has been plaguing the park and killing tourists.  All while the father ogles her body and she seems on the verge of crying hysterically any nanosecond.   

The son knowingly kills his father at the end, or at the very least, knowingly denies him aide while also preventing him from seeking assistance from anyone else.  He's dying at the toilet from cat-flu and the son just shuts the door after the father inquires of him for help.  Literally denying the will of his father.  

The ending was a reality twist not unlike what David Lynch does with the blonde and brunette in Lost Highway.  The father is checking into the hotel again with some idealized family right before a pair of Tinkerbells tell us it's The End.  I don't know if it's an urban myth or what but 13 years ago when I was going to various social events, it had been relayed to me that Tinkerbell is an adopted lesbian symbol.  I've never tested the symbol out but in my circle of friends at the time, it was a given common knowledge, Google searches on the internet aren't really panning out all that well.  Pun totally intended.  And if they're really sisters, why not make them twins, Disney?

             

It seems a befitting ending because it does appear that we're watching a New Mother Nature take over.  Weather we like it or not, our tomorrows will not be like our yesterdays.

(The end).