THE MISOGYNISTS: Making Sense Of The Mess We’re In

On that fateful night in November 2016 that radically changed the American political landscape, there was a rightful feeling of anxiety and uncertainty for the future. In some circles, there was at least one constant through it all: at least great art will be made out of this.

Throughout several rough patches in history, the rise in artistic resistance is an element that’s lasted longest as Orson Welles’s famous quote about the Italian Renaissance from The Third Man states. Recent works of art that were made in resistance to Trump often end up operating under an allegorical guise, sometimes set during a past event to give a revisionist look at history. At worst, the issues raised aren’t handled well and the film melts into obscurity.

Prolific independent filmmaker Onur Tukel threw his hat into the ring the morning after the election, writing the first draft of a screenplay that would eventually become his new feature The Misogynists. In this brief single-location burst of satire that wouldn’t be out of place on a stage, Tukel sought to magnify the complex emotions of a nation on its way to a radical change, and while he gets a few minor punches in towards certain circles, the film is somewhat lessened in its director’s comfort zone of post-mumblecore sensibilities.

A Suite Divided

Taking place right as the results of the election settled in, The Misogynists centers around businessmen Cameron and Baxter (Dylan Baker and Lou Jay Taylor, respectively), two Trump supporters with differing levels of zeal, celebrating their victory. Cameron is unapologetically vocal about his soon-to-be President, explaining how he’ll usher in an “Age of Truth,” and espousing the same confrontational platitudes that got the man in the Oval Office.

Baxter is more reserved, always a skeptic towards Cameron’s political theories and off-color rants on everything from women to political correctness. One might peg him as a centrist, as he’s just as skeptical towards the anger of his liberal wife Alice (Christine M. Campbell) towards Trump and his camp.

Throughout the night, the men encounter others with their own views on the election, all unafraid to share them in the midst of alcohol and clashing personalities. To the film’s credit, there is a multifaceted aspect to our leads. Cameron is a supporter wanting to unleash chaos, anticipating the exciting division it will cause. Not to say he has no genuine agreement in the candidate, but it barely comes up compared to how much time he spends poking the proverbial hornet’s nest.

Baxter and several other moderate types in the film show that no one can come out of this event unscathed. It’s a film that has a finger to point at everyone, and when it comes to the left, one can sense the massive disappointment Tukel has in them, whether it’s an apathetic millennial room service attendant, an opening scene of Alice being called out on her hypocrisy by her own daughter, or a sequence of two call girls Cameron ordered who berate a Muslim cab driver for how his faith treats women.

The motives are ulterior in every line of dialogue, and the one shared element is that everyone wants to find some way to distract from the most glaring topic. Failure to do so always ends with someone flying so far off the handle that everything spins out of control.

That resulting conflict has become a constant in the climate, even nearly four years after the decision, and in preparation for another election. At the risk of jumping the gun in saying The Misogynists was prophetic, it certainly was aware enough to know all the seeds sewn by that year, and how it pulled everyone into the endless discourse.

What Do We Learn?

The movie offers a worthwhile way to explore a nation in immediate reaction to crisis. The only real barrier to any insight is when it feels more like venting than a concrete statement, which is fair when one considers that it was an idea created in the wake of the election results. Getting those frustrations out is justified, even when it turns to a doom-and-gloom conclusion.

There’s a recurring motif in the form of the television in the hotel room. It turns on by itself at random moments throughout the film, and the channel it’s set to is nondescript, aside from the fact that it only airs stock footage backward while an ominous drone plays. Whenever it cuts on, it breaks apart any conversation and everyone is briefly transfixed until someone decides to turn it off.

A symbol for the country turning backward? A statement on media being the one thing to hypnotize the masses into being unaware of the issues? The truth is unclear, but this TV set features so prominently that to imagine it not being part of the ending would be erroneous.

It’s something of a grand bookend once the last moments arrive, which turns the film’s final statement into an undercover allegory for the future. The effectiveness is up for debate, but it’s one befitting for the time it was made, especially while we’re still preparing for what’s next.

Fake news as a concept is still preached, an impeachment process has been completed, “Epstein didn’t kill himself” has become a new shared consciousness, and with so much having already passed, it leaves one to wonder what could have been expanded upon if the movie was given the extra four years of material.

Conclusion: The Misogynists

Onur Tukel has made his body of work by chronicling relationships and putting the worst kinds of men on the chopping block. After over two decades of his entries, it seems The Misogynists has become the most timely introduction of these themes, using a significant moment to monitor the stress and reveal the true colors that come to light. In spite of some of its trip-ups into the one-sided, it’s hard to find something so genuine in its portrayal of the prevalent anger and worry of these times.

What film do you think has done the best job of summing up the many conflicting sentiments since the 2016 election? Please let us know in the comments below!

The Misogynists had its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 6, 2017. and was released in theaters on February 14, 2020 by Oscilloscope Laboratories.