irony, controversial indie cinema decontextualised and hypocrisy

7/6/2025

I wanted to write something about this... trend? of marketing that is taking inspiration from and referencing super controversial indie films and how i think the digital age and social media and its aid in decontextualising these scenes has contributed to this.

i stupidly opened twitter today (i limit myself to 1 hr a day , like all my other apps) and saw this

ok but seriously, i dont think i'm the right person to talk about this, when i have a website that clearly takes after the 90s + 2000s web (althought i have had a interest in vintage art and fashion since i was a pre teen so idk if that counts, and its not born out of nostalgia, i think alot of the fashion and art that came out around that time just speaks to me). then here i come complaining about "unoriginality" in marketing of all things. BUTTTT i'll still ramble

i want to start off by saying that counter cultures have always become mainstream. they are always commidified at some point once corperations get their hands on them. so this is probably going to sound like a whole lot of nothing.

ok lets start with the main culprit, the one that makes me look like a huge hypocrite. HEAVEN BY MARC JACOBS .
I should iterate that i unironically like the items from this collection - the fucking GREGG ARAKI COLLECTION? GORILLIAZ? they look good. but, especially in the case of gregg araki characters - the wardobes of those would scoff at marc jacob's £70 baby tees and sweaters. what made the wardobes featured in the films they're "inspired" by is the fact that they were just wearing what the thrift stores had at the time. the charcaters from these films wouldnt even be able to afford fucking marc jacobs....

what prompted this was the recent campaign recreating the poster and scenes from THIRTEEN (2003). i want to focus on how the nostalgia wave we are currently in with the 2000s was aided by social media, as thirteen is a film that has been decontexualised to hell on the internet.

The films of Ken Park (KIDS, KEN PARK, BULLY, LORDS OF DOGTOWN), Gus Van Sant (ELEPHANT, PARANOID PARK), Gregg Araki (TEEN APOCALYPSE TRILOGY, MYSTERIOUS SKIN) and the director of thirteen, Catherine Hardwicke's later work (LORDS OF DOGTOWN) are the types of coming of ag films most people call "fucked up", and yes, they are extremely provocative and are full of inappropriate content - largely due to how "raw" these films are, but another thing they have in common are that they have been reduced to screencaps and stills people fawn over on pinterest and tik tok without ever actually watching the films, romaticising the little content theyve seen of these films.

the act of getting high fashion models to pay homage to thirteen contributes to the already sensationalised view of the leads. they continue to be partygoing, hypersexual girls who wear cool clothes and have piercings and wear heavy eyeliner, when the charcacters are so much more than that.

i was going to talk about films that came out later, like SPRING BREAKERS and THE BLING RING and how i was reminded of marketed pop stars feeding into the aesthetics and romanticisation and decontextialisation of those films/people (the bling ring is a biopic!) but i dont think i have the proper capacity to talk about it (also it was prompted by a few listens to the songs on the latest addision rae EP which i dont have much of interest in - the songs are catchy tho, which is why i cant be bothered to talk about this anymore. thats what the irony in the title is for - i think rae is going for the ironic popstar thing, atleast thats what i got from her latest work).

back to marc jacobs, i think heaven being the "counter cultural, indie cool kid" collection is funny. manufactured coolness just cancels out the authenticity. its how i feel about minga london and jaded london. its manufactured thrifty-ness.

marc jacobs is selling a £70 copy of the KIDS soundtrack on CD, a few fashion and film books and biographies. i know the idea of paying this much for stuff you can thrift is about status but it feels wrong. i hate going on a authenticity but what else can i say? its kind of not!

going to end on you can like these films and think the styling is cool (i do!!) but it hit a little different seeing thirteen specifcally - its a film that is popular on the internet not because of viewership but because of aggregate accounts trying to get likes by posting screenshots from this movie.

i sound like a hater in this. sorry if i do. its my blog anyway....