Who are the worst people on the Internet and what motivates them? Why are they all men? Female filmmaker Alex Moyer shows us these troubled souls in TFW NO GF.
For those who don’t live online, TFW is a meme for how your face would look if you had no girlfriend. You’d feel sad, lonely, isolated. Some of these types begin hating women, whom they call “Stacey,” based on their sense that women should give them more attention. Yet contrary to fake news myths, trolls aren’t misogynists as much as outright misanthropic humanity haters. Mass shooter Elliot Rodger, in his angry diatribe on life, expressed more hatred for men.
Rodger killed 4 men and 2 women. The media spun it has a misogynistic hate crime, because no one cares when men die.
The frustrating part of TFW NO GF was the subjects able-bodiedness. These aren’t men born with crippling disabilities, as reformed 8Chan founder Fredrick Brennan was born with. At least Hotwheels had an excuse for his rage, and yet Brennan lived as if he had no excuses. Brennan has recently found Jesus and is devoting himself to Christianity.
None of the men even had severe acne. One guy was on the shorter side, big deal.
There’s just nothing inherently defective about them, and If anything, they were good raw material for a bodybuilding program.
In TFW NO GF, relatively tall white men with good bone structure sit around crying about how hard life is. Maybe hit the gym, read some books, do some basic self-improvement. It’s not easy to “make it” these days, but it’s the greatest time in the history of the world to be alive. Years ago these guys would have been drafted into the army and forced to shoot at people in the jungles of Vietnam, developing lifelong PTSD. A lack of direction from society is a blessing compared to the historical treatment of men.
Moyer took a motherly approach with her subjects, and maybe that’s part of what got these men into trouble in the first place – too much mothering. A mother’s unconditional love is beautiful when tempered with masculine discipline. On its own, too much love makes you soft and entitled.
In a meta way, Moyer relates to her subjects post-production.
TFW NO GF was set for SXSW film circuit. Media tour. All the good shit. Coronavirus hits. DREAMS CRUSHED.
But at least Moyer took action in her own life, dared to dream, and created a noteworthy project.
The vibe of lost dreams is seen throughout the film, as men with nothing wrong with them fritter away their lives trolling on the Internet, smoking cigarettes, and getting fat.
Or maybe these young men never learned to dream or to strive. The novel Fight Club hit in 1996. What’s changed?
- “I see in the fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars, advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of the history man, no purpose or place, we have no Great war, no Great depression, our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives, we’ve been all raised by television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won’t and we’re slowly learning that fact. and we’re very very pissed off.”
If words are violence, then 4Chan and Twitter are the modern day Fight Club.
They’d be better off finding a gym and library.
Did I like the film?
Yes, it was engaging, entertaining, and well-shot. It had an indie feel which brings a welcome relief to the trend of overproduction.
You can watch TFW NO GF here.
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