On having a human body
Culture Companion Vol. 3
Welcome to the Culture Companion Vol. 3. The Culture Companion is a monthly-ish curation that builds bridges between the ideas we encounter in film, literature, and the arts.
So much of how we experience the world is mediated by our bodies.
Our bodies can determine how comfortable or uncomfortable we feel when moving in and between spaces. They can shape the course of our everyday lives. And they can be the reason behind whether we belong or whether we don’t. In storytelling, this can often be taken for granted.
But in these four movies, bodies and the nature of having a body can't be so easily overlooked.
They Cloned Tyrone
They Cloned Tyrone is a slick and witty film digging into the exploitative treatment of Black bodies and communities.
Eerily reminiscent of the real-life cases of Western institutions using the bodies of Black people to perform non-consensual medical experiments, They Cloned Tyrone is a sci-fi thriller about an unlikely trio on a mission to uncover a government conspiracy playing out in their community.
Beneath this hidden Netflix gem is a hard-hitting commentary on the nefarious relationship between institutional bodies and the bodies of the marginalised people they should be serving.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
No matter how much we evolve as a species, puberty never gets any less bewildering.
The 2023 adaptation of Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret captures the uncomfortable realities of growing up physically and emotionally. Yet, this movie holds such deep compassion for its characters that it never undermines the feelings of insecurity and confusion that come with adolescence.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is a testament to the whirlwind of anxiety that comes with the mystic changes happening to the body you’ve known all your life.
Poor Things
Poor Things is a whimsical and, at times, disturbing narrative that challenges the norms of what is and isn’t acceptable of our bodies in society.
Stemming from the 1992 book of the same name, Poor Things is the coming-of-age story of Bella Baxter. Except this isn’t a coming-of-age in the traditional sense. Bella’s body had a life before and, thanks to the experimentation of an ambitious scientist, her body is given another chance at existence.
This Frankenstein-esque movie is a larger-than-life tale that will leave you in awe of the wonders and cruelties of our humanness.
Society of the Snow
Who do we become when we’re confronted by the mortality of our bodies?
Society of the Snow tells the true story of a Uruguayan plane carrying a team of young rugby players that tragically crashes into a glacier in the depths of the Andes mountains. Being trapped in an environment hostile to human life, the surviving passengers must go to unthinkable means to keep their bodies from failing them.
This miraculous account of hope, faith, and camaraderie attests to the exceptional strength of body and mind we have as humans.
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If you missed the previous volumes of the Culture Companion, you can read them here:
Kristen Harding
Kristen Harding
