Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on Fire!
I try to keep politics out of this blog, but there are times when the movie in question prevents that from happening. At the recent presidential debate, one of the more memorable moments was, “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the dogs.” This is in reference to an incredibly racist trope about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. And it is purely racism, something that the American right wing seems to like to bank on. There is a frequent undercurrent of racism in American politics from the right, from Willy Horton to birtherism, to Haitians eating pets. And it’s where we’re going to live for 92 minutes with Soft & Quiet, a film that is unbelievably difficult to watch.
It's also worth saying off the top here that if you look up reviews for Soft & Quiet, you’re going to find a lot of negative reviews. A lot of them. The reason is twofold. One is that this is a difficult movie to watch and an unpleasant one, and a lot of people are going to have a negative and visceral reaction to it. Part of it, though, is an attempt to pull people away from the film by the people whom the film is essentially about. It’s the same reason why Bud Light got a bunch of negative reviews all at once—if there are enough bad reviews, people will stay away.
Soft & Quiet is a film made in real time in a continuous take over the course of about 90 minutes, from roughly 6:30 to 8:00 at night. Apparently, it was shot a total of four times with one continuous take spliced together, mostly coming from the fourth and final version. If nothing else, it’s fascinating to watch because of this—films made this way are rare, and when it’s done well, it’s riveting to watch.
We start with Emily (Stefanie Estes), a kindergarten teacher, who has organized a meeting of a new organization for a group of local women. It’s not until the meeting has started that we discover the name of her organization is “Daughters for Aryan Unity,” and among her new members are a woman whose family has a long history with the KKK. Other members include store owner Kim (Dana Millican), angry retail worker Marjorie (Eleanore Pienta), and ex-con Leslie (Olivia Luccardi). The women complain about diversity issues, losing promotions to non-white people, and finding appropriately white men. Eventually, the pastor of the church they are meeting in twigs to what they are doing and kicks them out.
This sets off a chain of terrible events. The four main women head to Kim’s store for wine, and while they are there, Asian-American sisters Anne (Melissa Paulo) and Lily (Cissy Ly) arrive. The women are immediately harassed, forced to buy the most expensive bottle of wine in the store, and further antagonized by the arrival of Emily’s husband Craig (Jon Beavers). The sisters leave, and we learn that Emily’s brother is in prison for sexually assaulting Anne, something that fuels her anger even more.
The four women decide to get revenge by breaking into the Anne’s home and vandalizing it, with the ultimate goal of stealing and destroying her passport. But there wouldn’t be a movie if this is all that happened, would there? The sisters show up while their home is being vandalized, and things spin quickly out of control, getting more out of control when Craig finds he can no longer approve of everything that is happening. It goes exactly where you hope that it won’t and where it inevitably must.
I’m not going to lie; this is a hard movie to sit through. With the exception of Anne and Lily, everyone on screen is terrible and hateful, and the sort of person you don’t want to spend five seconds with, let alone 90 minutes. At the same time, Soft & Quiet is an important movie because of the story it tells. It’s easy to think that racism, while terrible, is something that is merely unpleasant or ugly. This is especially true if you, like me, are not subject to racism in any frequency. Soft & Quiet would feel at home in the Jim Crow South. That’s both terrible and a compliment to the quality of what is here.
I’m not going to soapbox this, but I will say as a white dude, my experiences with racism tend to be secondhand. My younger daughter’s first boyfriend was Mexican, and he said regularly that he was treated very differently by people when he was by himself versus when he was with her. This is a kid, by the way, who grew up across town from us and sounds like any kid from a mid-sized Midwestern town. Moves like Soft & Quiet are important for keeping this reality in the conversation, because it’s easy to otherwise forget.
Ultimately, Soft & Quiet is a hard movie to recommend, but it’s also impossible not to.
Why to watch Soft & Quiet: Because racists haven’t died off yet.
Why not to watch: Jesus, this is a hard sit.
