1061 Minding the Gap

[Fortisquince]

Just my two cents, but I think Minding The Gap is a great film. I know there’s some controversy around it, but it’s one of the best films that I’ve seen at illustrating what it’s like to be a young man; particularly the urge to internalize abuse and pass it on to the others instead of getting help.

[therewillbeblus]

I'm very mixed on this one, leaning more negative due to finding Bing's methods problematic. I was put off by some of the typical doc-manipulations that came off as false- most transparently when Bing asks one of the participants if he cried as the result of his abuse, directly following the boy's vulnerable disclosure. This felt like an exploitative and unnecessary question delivered at an inappropriate time, the opposite of a caring gesture or humbly appropriate response of silence/person-centered validation, in order to mine for more meaty emotions; and then Bing responds, "I did" - inserting himself into the doc in a histrionic "I was abused too" reveal (so I don't buy the "I had no idea" response by that kid at the end once Bing tells him that he was also abused, since he outright said it in front of him, unless Bing added the "I did" in post for dramatic effect- which I'd believe).

One could argue that he's simply aiming to identify with his subject, which he certainly is, but these interventions come off as artificially intrusive and without prioritization of compassion. There are other disrespectful examples of emotional engineering involving similar projections, for how Bing has become empowered to cope with his experience via public expression and social justice, onto the participants, especially the girlfriend when he asks her about confronting her boyfriend about potential DV because of his own mom.

I did find this to be a solid exploration of passions and communities in youth serving a dual function as sources of comfort/pleasure and escape from the dysphoria of life's stressors. The film uses domestic abuse as the extreme example of the negative, but this sentiment is relatable for any kid who felt uncomfortable moving through the world in youth, and the invaluable saving grace of their safe spaces away from it all. The doc also has some genuine moments of emerging adults processing trauma, and although I believe that Bing believes this doc was made in good faith, I'm not convinced that it is. This is unfortunately an example of when a filmmaker who has an impartial attraction to the material devolves a potentially humanist composition into a narrowly-focused thesis from his imposing perspective.

A better filmmaker without such subjective passion blended with him would have made a better film. I really didn't need a spliced line of "sometimes bitches need to get slapped" (Bing's money shot he's been searching for the whole movie in his melodramatic 'climax', followed by the abuser admitting that this is what "the drinking is all about" etc. - how unfairly reductive for Bing to sell this psychologically-appropriately acute, yet self-delusionally clawing emotional overexplanation as truth, just because your interest is in a one-note subject of DV rather than drawing complex composites outside of your hot topic) directly contrasted with a shot of Bing's sad face to tear-jerking music. So yeah, the movie isn't about these participants, it's about Bing navigating his own trauma and trying to force his psychological stage of processing onto these participants, and because he's not aware that this selfish motive conflicts with the humanistic attempts he's making, which would require allowing the others to be complex and exploring their own stages of trauma without intrusion, the movie is offensive. I guess I'm not so mixed on this film after all.