If Fast And Furious Is Good Enough For Roxane Gay It’s Good Enough For You
It's good to know even some of the smartest and wittiest people around can enjoy life-sized Hot Wheels.
The Fast and the Furious is a very good movie franchise in which expensive cars go vroom vroom, and Sung Kang and Gal Gadot live happily ever after because I refuse to believe otherwise. It’s a flashy and insubstantial spectacle, a bit of mindless fun. But there isn’t anything wrong with mindless fun every now and again. Take it from great mind and celebrated writer Roxane Gay.
The Guardian has published a conversation between Australian stand-up comedian Hannah Gadsby and writer Roxane Gay in which they discuss their lives and work, and the reception to said work. They also briefly discuss street racing heist franchise The Fast and the Furious.
After discussing the hardships both women faced in their 20s, Gay having struggled with belonging and Gadsby with homelessness, they jump to a discussion of crime procedural dramas such as Law and Order: SVU, which both find “very comforting”.
“I feel a lot of guilt about it,” confesses Gay. “What am I getting out of this display of trauma?”
“I actually think it’s acknowledgement of that kind of trauma,” responds Gadsby, who recently destroyed the notion of self-professed “good men” at the Women in Entertainment gala.
“And there is, once in a while, justice,” says Gay. “It’s very satisfying.”
Gadsby then points to another aspect of these series’ success — the excellent “face-acting”.
“Almost as good as in the Fast and the Furious franchise,” agrees Gay. “They have great face-acting. Great drive-face. One day I just want to make a compilation of all their driving faces.”
Gadsby states that she has only seen 2015’s Furious 7. The seventh film in the franchise introduces Jason Statham as a rouge special forces assassin seeking revenge upon Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and friends. Because that is the type of thing that happens in these car films.
It’s good to know even some of the smartest and wittiest people around can enjoy life-sized Hot Wheels.
Gadsby and Gay, which sounds like an awesome sitcom I would absolutely watch, also discuss the exhaustion of talking about trauma, how other people talk about their bodies, and the demographics of their fans. You can read the whole article at The Guardian. Even aside from the discussion of Hollywood’s best series about a family of car enthusiasts, it’s a conversation well worth reading.