Getting Ready for Raw
In this post, I will lay out some of the arguments they make about reading this film through a queer or feminist lens. The director, Julia Ducournau, calls this the movie a "coming of age film with fantastic elements," but the podcast creators see it as a body horror film about women consuming men and categorize it as more of a feminist movie.
The guest was film critic, Dede Crimmins. She first points out how this is a film where some critics say that the characters are unlikable. Likeability is often a topic of fiction writing--how it is often a critique of female characters in a way that it's not for male characters. Female characters who do not fit the mode of maternal, or giving, or caring--or whatever the general stereotypes as that females are "supposed" to be.
"The film presupposes that women are people," Crimmins states.
What follows next is a discussion of the film, moment to moment, noting that the director does a lot of long shots, not that many close ups. They discuss the power of the lead actress, Garance Marillier, and debate how different (and less effective) this film would be without such a powerful young actress. The film first lays out that Justine (the main character) is a vegetarian, a virgin, and an animal lover. When she goes to vet school, she is put through an elaborate hazing ritual by the older students, including being doused in blood and forced to eat raw rabbit kidneys (one of the podcaster's does note the similarities between this and the movie Carrie). The violence is meant to foreshadow Justine's coming of age; this difficult time where she is going to get more in touch with her body and her sexuality.
Background about the film: budget was small, about $4 million and a one hour and thirty-nine minute run time. It ended up grossing a bit more on an international scale with a limited run. Another critic argues that it perhaps had some resistance because it was French with subtitles, and that it centers around the experience of female girls. Not a money success, but a critical success with a very high score (in the nineties). Originally, it was rated NC-17, but changed to an R rating.
Recommended: 31 days of Feminist Horror Films: Raw. I will take a look at it later. To also look up later. this term: "Cronenbergian body horror." (side note: Cronenberg has a new movie out called Crimes of the Future that sounds A LOT like body horror).
They discuss the relationship between the two sisters in the movie--the older sister is much more confident and sexual, and also knows what is going to happen to her sister, but is not going to protect
her from it. Trace does mention that he likes how the film focuses on the relationship between the two sisters (Alexa and Justine) and how it informs Justine's maturation and her veering off into troubling territory without her sister's guidance.
Next, we get some scenes of veterninary school, where animals are being dissected and taken apart, though the podcasters do mention that no animals were hurt in the making of the film. In one scene, the students discuss whether a monkey can actually be raped. The next scene is Justine taking a test with a "shitty" professor, and she is jittery. In the following scene, she discovers a rash on her body while in bed and can't stop itching it. The podcasters mention how squeamish and uncomfortable this scene is--the loudness and intensity of the itching and just the ickiness of anything that has to do with the skin. Trace says that that's what is really effective about body horror: "All of these things coud happen to you, because you have a body." (Listening to this makes me itchy--they are discussing in depth their interactions with bed bugs).
They move on to a scene where a horse is running on a treadmill, and they just see it as goregous, but also possibly a scene that is for mirroring Justine's feeling of being stuck in one place.
Justine goes to the school nurse. The nurse then lights a cigarette and tells a story about a fat patient who can in after being bullied, and she asks Justine, "Do you want to stand out or do you want to blend in?" Thematically, it's relevant because she does not currently want to stand out, but that will change. The nurse gives her lotion, which they mention will again come in later. She is also admonished and told to dress less provocatively. To deal with this, she borrows clothes from her sister, and basically drapes a dress over her body. Not yet sure why this is important.
Next, Justine walks in on her male roommate Adrienne getting head from another guy. The podcaster mentions that "this is one of the first instance of sexuality in the film, and it's queer sexuality." They point out too that Adrienne announces himself right away as gay, so that there is not hiding this about his identity. In fact, they point out that introduces himself as a "fag," but using this label to take ownership of it. The very next scene is Justine stealing a hamburger from the cafeteria which they link to her coming out of her shell. Adrienne catches her taking in, and he goes with her on a bus to buy food. This sets her off on a path of consuming raw food, including gorging on raw chicken from the fridge. There is also conversation around how women are obsessed with their bodies, and how they have to be aware of what they are putting in their bodies, and about anorexia or changing the shape of your body.
The rest of the podcast continues to summarize the film---pointing out body horror moments such as her vomiting up of her own hair, and the girl in the bathroom telling her she can do better with bulimia if she uses two fingers to throw up. (GAG--trying to listen and eat lunch at the same time, bad idea). Next, Alexia helps her sister do some bikini waxing, and in the moment, her finger cuts cut off and is eaten partially by the dog and partially by Justine. Her first time consuming human flesh, and it is the flesh of her sister. The podcaster points out that this scene could also be read as an incestuous scene--the two sisters doing this intimate thing that requires nudity and ends with the consumation of flesh. They describe her nibbling on the edgs like a person eating baby corn. Wondering now if I am going to able to stomach this movie. They mention how cannibalism and incest are among the top two taboos in our culture and both are in this movie. Justine eats the whole finger, but blames the dog. Later, her father says that the dog must be put down. We learn later that the cannibalism is hereditary--it's why the family has been vegetarian. If they don't, they know they will begin to eat human flesh. The next scene is Alexia taking Justine out to learn how to murder a bunch of men so she can eat them (??!!). This foreshadows that Alexis does not care about human life, or at least male human life.
Then there is a scene of forced heteronormativity--not sure exactly what has happened in this scene. Boys and girls forced together to make green. No idea. Will follow up with this after I watch the movie. I think it has something to do with rape culture and forcing male and female vet students to merge. Trace says that he likes that the female characters in this movie are flawed--because that allows for some complexity in their characterizations. She ends up eating part of the one of the men.
She then hops in bed with Adrien, who is masturbating to gay porn. She lunges at him "like a zombie" and ends up biting her own wrist as she climaxes. She does not bite him, though the film ties in the sexual and cannibalistic urges. This is the scene of her losing her virginity, and they do mention that it's a somewhat unbelievable portrayal of first-time sex. The next day, Justine gets upset with Adrien for deflowering her and not paying attention to her. He mentions that he's having sex with her like a minus on his gay status. They discuss how it was somewhat uncomfortable in finding the gay man who ends up sleeping with a woman--raising the question of how bisexuality works. They talk about how it could be somewhat of a gray area and could be somewhat bi-phobic.
A very sexual and inebriated Justine in the next scene is at a party and very much clearly wanting to get with a man. She runs into her sister, they fight, and then they part. In the next scene, Adrien plays a video of Alexia baiting Justine with a corpse in the lab. Dede hates this scene because it feels very cruel and showing how mean Alexia is and willing to make her sister look bad. Note: does this mean that Alexia baits Justine to eat a corpse? This leads to an epic sister-on-sister fight, very publically and with video, and they start biting each other, drawing blood. Alexia may be realizing they are equals and both want to eat each other. They are portrayed almost like two animals, which in turn goes back to the earlier scene in the cafeteria about animals.
And they keep saying that things are about to get much worse.
The hazing has come to an end. Justine wakes up in Adrien's bed, and finds him dead with blood pouring out of his mouth, his leg missing. The audience is meant to believe that Justine did it, but you learn that Alexia is the one who stabbed him, and probably also ate the leg. Or not. Justine might have participated as well. The two start to reconcile, realizing that they are the same creatures. I think they take a shower together. It feels less like a cleansing, but more like "I am readying you to face the world." Alexia goes to prison, and the two sisters show off their battle scars to one another. Justine's father confirms that they were always rivals, that Alexia does not like sharing the spotlight, and then when notice that the mother has done the same thing to the father all along. She eats parts of him when they are together. "I'm sure you'll find a solution, honey," he says.
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