Stardust (1 point)

 

Stardust is a film that deconstructs superficiality and people’s obsession with their image or status. All of the characters who go after Yvaine want to use her to change something surface level about themselves: Tristan wants to win the affection of a girl who doesn’t truly love him back, Septimus wants to be an immortal king, and Lamia wants to look young again. Septimus and Lamia obsess over their status/appearance and don’t get their wishes granted. Tristan, however, learns that he shouldn’t obsess over a shallow woman who doesn’t love her back after meeting Captain Shakespeare, a man who, although also preoccupied with his appearance, still lets himself be, well, himself, even if it’s behind closed doors. Shakespeare never compromises his morals for his appearance. He later realizes he doesn’t need to keep up his manly charade to have the respect of his crew; they always knew he was a feminine flamboyant man (in other words: very gay coded) and they’ve stayed loyal the whole time. Septimus and Lamia, however, are more than willing to kill their own family to get what they want. It’s a fairly straightforward critique of how unnecessary and harmful obsessing over one’s appearance is.

 

While I enjoy these subversive elements of the film, there are little things that bother me throughout. First of all, Tristan is a bit of a creep to Victoria. He harasses her even after she asks him to stop and tries to ruin her marriage. The film isn’t really concerned with this behavior. It presents as charming, if a little pathetic, but lambasts Victoria for being shallow (which is kind of fair) and being with a man we barely know that isn’t Tristan (which is completely unfair). It also falls on the tired trope of “man and woman bicker and argue and that means they’re secretly in love.” While the performances and dialogue are fun, it’s still a harmful trope that can make women enter and stay in toxic relationships. Finally, and this is a bit more of a personal thing, I really don’t like that Yvaine and Tristan’s happily ever after involves them becoming king and queen. I get that it’s (thematically) supposed to be a reward for being in love and overcoming superficiality, but I’ve become more and more uncomfortable with stories that romanticize monarchies. Especially when the film did such a good job presenting the people in charge as selfish and morally bankrupt. I don’t know, these past four years have made it harder to buy into the “the system would be fine with good people in charge” kind of narrative. I still enjoyed Stardust quite a bit though: the actors’ fun performances were infectious and Matthew Vaughn’s direction was great as usual, I just found these tropes to be disappointing to see in a story that otherwise does a good job deconstructing classic fantasy.

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