AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me. The following contains spoilers for the movie 'Enola Holmes', so reader discretion is advised. Click the link at the bottom of the page to see the full article)
In a year of rather disappointing movies and even more disappointing television, a prominent Catholic radio host has declared that Netflix’s Enola Holmes is “the most evil movie to ever be made.”
When you look back on 2020 and think of the worst movies, in terms of quality, disappointment is a term that’s quick to come to mind.
Between pictures such as Fantasy Island, Wonder Woman 1984, and Bloodshot, the year was also plagued by moments of cinematic cringe, such as the revelation of John Constantine and King Shark’s romantic history in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War and the alleged scrapped Birds of Prey subplot concerning Black Mask nude photos being contained in the diamond swallowed by Cassandra Cain.
However, when talking about the most “evil” movie of 2020, you’re having a totally different discussion, steeped in morals rather than artistic subjectivity.
Unsurprisingly, last year saw its fair share of such discussions as well. Netflix courted controversy with the French film Cuties, as did HBO Max with the abortion-themed road trip movie Unpregnant.
Both movies were slammed for their subject matter, with the latter even being called out specifically by MMA fighter-actor Bas Rutten, who asserted that it was made solely to incite scandal.
While these two films are at the forefront of many conversations debating the morality of their messages, another case was recently made against a highly-rated and well-received Netflix production from late last year: Enola Holmes. Unlike Cuties, it became one of the service’s most popular movies of 2020.
Despite the film receiving praise for its acting, casting, story, and its suitability for most age groups, Catholic Answers Live host Cy Kellett has revealed that he is not a fan of the film. During a January episode of his show, Kellett explained that he believes Enola Holmes to be “the most evil movie” of not only 2020, but all time.
Kellett discussed the movie with his co-host, Marie Bates, and they agree it is “extremely well-made” and “very glamorous.” Said Bates, “It’s beautifully shot. The colors are amazing in it. The costumes are amazing. When they go from scene to scene, they have all of these very Sherlock Holmes-feeling transitions and everything. It’s really a fun movie.”
However, Kellett pushed back against his co-host’s assertion and stated that Enola Holmes’ allure is “part of its evilness.” He explained that, Catholics whether converted or born into the faith, “At Easter, when we do our rejection of evil, we reject the glamor of evil, and that’s what this [is].”
Though he offered compliments to the cast – especially stars Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter – and admitted that he liked the film’s pacing, Kellett noted that he was taken aback by the film’s view of women and womanhood, especially as it was being conveyed to young girls. “But here’s my problem with it,” Kellett stated. “As I watched it, it is the sickest view of women I have ever seen portrayed on film, portrayed in a way that is meant, intentionally meant, to attract young girls.”
Bates added that she realized the movie has an agenda, which both she and Kellett describe as a “a brutal form of feminism,” as “the heroine is a heroine in part because she abandons her daughter.”
“This is part of the attraction of her is that she’s on a more noble quest than being a mother,” Kellett said of Helena Bonham Carter’s Eudoria Holmes. “And that everything about this movie is designed to actually denigrate motherhood and any kind of traditional kind of femininity.”
He continued, “The idea that the feminine is different than the masculine is utterly attacked. And I mean attacked. It’s intentional. The background of the movie, behind everything, all the action, is the suffragette movement.”
Kellett and Bates acknowledge the historical importance of the narrative’s main struggle but disapproved of the “horrible means” Enola’s mother and her secret group employ in service of the plot. “She’s kind of the hero that you don’t see in the movie. She’s like the MacGuffin,” said Kellett of the implication the mother is a terrorist. “She’s the missing mother, and she’s apparently willing to blow people up to get the vote. She’s clearly willing to be violent and to abandon her daughter.”
He added, “And she just teaches her daughter horrible things. And all this is presented to us as good,” with Bates chiming in that this message is what will draw people into the film, though it presents, in Kellett’s words, “a twisted view of what men and women are and how men and women relate to one another.”
Bates then confessed that she took issue with a separate view the film holds related to both sides of women’s suffrage, saying it failed in representing them even-handedly or as stable.
“So on both sides of this issue, we have psycho women who are willing to sacrifice their children and grandchildren for what they believe to be the most important cause,” she explained. “when you throw like the dignity of life out the window and you say, ‘I’m going to sacrifice my kid for this, I’m going to, for the good of all.’ Well, sorry. You just sacrificed your kid. Now they don’t have this future.”
On the other side is Enola’s supposed love interest, Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), whom the hosts classify as “very feminine,” noting that “the [gender] roles are reversed” as he “needs rescuing constantly.” Mostly, this rescue is need from his grandmother, The Dowager (Frances de la Tour), who is trying to keep the boy from voting for suffrage in the House of Lords.
What makes her evil in the eyes of the movie, Kellett clarified, is how “she’s a traditionalist. She believes in traditions.” He added, “Anyone who believes in anything traditional, anyone who has a modicum of old fashioned-ness about them is evil in this movie, especially the grandma, who’s willing to murder her grandson.”
Circling back back to Enola’s avant-garde education and abandonment by her mother, wherein Enola is taught everything – judo, archery, science – except needling or any girly things, Kellett and Bates declare that they find Enola’s upbringing to be equally strange and anathematic. “She’s not being taught needlework,” said Bates. “She’s being taught all of this stuff. And yet, her mom abandons her when she’s still a kid.”
Kellett then dovetails the conversation, pointing out how Enola is brought up and educated in an isolated manor with few around besides a servant. “Like, this is a good education, to hide you from the world, in this secret education, where I give you all this resentment towards other people-” Kellett said, with Bates adding that it felt as if Enola had been raised to be an assassin.
Bates also turns to the way the film portrays Enola and Sherlock’s less-famous brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin) who advocates a normal Victorian upbringing for his sister. “Like, what do you want for your daughter? Do you want her to be able to vote? Or do you want her to be able to attack people?” Bates wondered. “And then like on the flip side of that, her brother, Mycroft, is seen as this horrible person, because he wants her to go to school with other girls.”
The quality of schools back then in reality aside, which they touch upon, Kellett and Bates determined Enola is “educated to be antisocial”, despite it being blithely depicted as a positive. “But she shouldn’t be alone in a house, with one maid there, to make sure she stays alive,” said Bates. “She’s a kid. She’s not supposed to be figuring out her own life yet.” Meanwhile, Kellett took issue with how the adult women are cast as evil for educating girls properly.
Full Article: Catholic Radio Host Says Enola Holmes Is "The Most Evil Movie To Ever Be Made” - Bounding Into Comics
In a year of rather disappointing movies and even more disappointing television, a prominent Catholic radio host has declared that Netflix’s Enola Holmes is “the most evil movie to ever be made.”
When you look back on 2020 and think of the worst movies, in terms of quality, disappointment is a term that’s quick to come to mind.
Between pictures such as Fantasy Island, Wonder Woman 1984, and Bloodshot, the year was also plagued by moments of cinematic cringe, such as the revelation of John Constantine and King Shark’s romantic history in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War and the alleged scrapped Birds of Prey subplot concerning Black Mask nude photos being contained in the diamond swallowed by Cassandra Cain.
However, when talking about the most “evil” movie of 2020, you’re having a totally different discussion, steeped in morals rather than artistic subjectivity.
Unsurprisingly, last year saw its fair share of such discussions as well. Netflix courted controversy with the French film Cuties, as did HBO Max with the abortion-themed road trip movie Unpregnant.
Both movies were slammed for their subject matter, with the latter even being called out specifically by MMA fighter-actor Bas Rutten, who asserted that it was made solely to incite scandal.
While these two films are at the forefront of many conversations debating the morality of their messages, another case was recently made against a highly-rated and well-received Netflix production from late last year: Enola Holmes. Unlike Cuties, it became one of the service’s most popular movies of 2020.
Despite the film receiving praise for its acting, casting, story, and its suitability for most age groups, Catholic Answers Live host Cy Kellett has revealed that he is not a fan of the film. During a January episode of his show, Kellett explained that he believes Enola Holmes to be “the most evil movie” of not only 2020, but all time.
Kellett discussed the movie with his co-host, Marie Bates, and they agree it is “extremely well-made” and “very glamorous.” Said Bates, “It’s beautifully shot. The colors are amazing in it. The costumes are amazing. When they go from scene to scene, they have all of these very Sherlock Holmes-feeling transitions and everything. It’s really a fun movie.”
However, Kellett pushed back against his co-host’s assertion and stated that Enola Holmes’ allure is “part of its evilness.” He explained that, Catholics whether converted or born into the faith, “At Easter, when we do our rejection of evil, we reject the glamor of evil, and that’s what this [is].”
Though he offered compliments to the cast – especially stars Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter – and admitted that he liked the film’s pacing, Kellett noted that he was taken aback by the film’s view of women and womanhood, especially as it was being conveyed to young girls. “But here’s my problem with it,” Kellett stated. “As I watched it, it is the sickest view of women I have ever seen portrayed on film, portrayed in a way that is meant, intentionally meant, to attract young girls.”
Bates added that she realized the movie has an agenda, which both she and Kellett describe as a “a brutal form of feminism,” as “the heroine is a heroine in part because she abandons her daughter.”
“This is part of the attraction of her is that she’s on a more noble quest than being a mother,” Kellett said of Helena Bonham Carter’s Eudoria Holmes. “And that everything about this movie is designed to actually denigrate motherhood and any kind of traditional kind of femininity.”
He continued, “The idea that the feminine is different than the masculine is utterly attacked. And I mean attacked. It’s intentional. The background of the movie, behind everything, all the action, is the suffragette movement.”
Kellett and Bates acknowledge the historical importance of the narrative’s main struggle but disapproved of the “horrible means” Enola’s mother and her secret group employ in service of the plot. “She’s kind of the hero that you don’t see in the movie. She’s like the MacGuffin,” said Kellett of the implication the mother is a terrorist. “She’s the missing mother, and she’s apparently willing to blow people up to get the vote. She’s clearly willing to be violent and to abandon her daughter.”
He added, “And she just teaches her daughter horrible things. And all this is presented to us as good,” with Bates chiming in that this message is what will draw people into the film, though it presents, in Kellett’s words, “a twisted view of what men and women are and how men and women relate to one another.”
Bates then confessed that she took issue with a separate view the film holds related to both sides of women’s suffrage, saying it failed in representing them even-handedly or as stable.
“So on both sides of this issue, we have psycho women who are willing to sacrifice their children and grandchildren for what they believe to be the most important cause,” she explained. “when you throw like the dignity of life out the window and you say, ‘I’m going to sacrifice my kid for this, I’m going to, for the good of all.’ Well, sorry. You just sacrificed your kid. Now they don’t have this future.”
On the other side is Enola’s supposed love interest, Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), whom the hosts classify as “very feminine,” noting that “the [gender] roles are reversed” as he “needs rescuing constantly.” Mostly, this rescue is need from his grandmother, The Dowager (Frances de la Tour), who is trying to keep the boy from voting for suffrage in the House of Lords.
What makes her evil in the eyes of the movie, Kellett clarified, is how “she’s a traditionalist. She believes in traditions.” He added, “Anyone who believes in anything traditional, anyone who has a modicum of old fashioned-ness about them is evil in this movie, especially the grandma, who’s willing to murder her grandson.”
Circling back back to Enola’s avant-garde education and abandonment by her mother, wherein Enola is taught everything – judo, archery, science – except needling or any girly things, Kellett and Bates declare that they find Enola’s upbringing to be equally strange and anathematic. “She’s not being taught needlework,” said Bates. “She’s being taught all of this stuff. And yet, her mom abandons her when she’s still a kid.”
Kellett then dovetails the conversation, pointing out how Enola is brought up and educated in an isolated manor with few around besides a servant. “Like, this is a good education, to hide you from the world, in this secret education, where I give you all this resentment towards other people-” Kellett said, with Bates adding that it felt as if Enola had been raised to be an assassin.
Bates also turns to the way the film portrays Enola and Sherlock’s less-famous brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin) who advocates a normal Victorian upbringing for his sister. “Like, what do you want for your daughter? Do you want her to be able to vote? Or do you want her to be able to attack people?” Bates wondered. “And then like on the flip side of that, her brother, Mycroft, is seen as this horrible person, because he wants her to go to school with other girls.”
The quality of schools back then in reality aside, which they touch upon, Kellett and Bates determined Enola is “educated to be antisocial”, despite it being blithely depicted as a positive. “But she shouldn’t be alone in a house, with one maid there, to make sure she stays alive,” said Bates. “She’s a kid. She’s not supposed to be figuring out her own life yet.” Meanwhile, Kellett took issue with how the adult women are cast as evil for educating girls properly.
Full Article: Catholic Radio Host Says Enola Holmes Is "The Most Evil Movie To Ever Be Made” - Bounding Into Comics
