Sorry, Haters (2005)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Ah, I thought about five minutes after the film ended, so THAT'S why they put a picture of the World Trade Centre attack on the cover! It's not immediately clear why, but I appreciated being allowed by the director to puzzle it out on my own. I suspect that's the whole point of this film?There's almost no mention of 9/11 in 'Sorry Haters', a fact that I appreciate, because I watch movies for the drama and not for the cold, hard facts. But in the tradition of all great dramas, the makers of 'Sorry Haters' have managed to make a total fiction tell us some hard truths about 9/11.This story is one big metaphor for the dynamics between the West and Middle East. The West is embodied by Phoebe and the Middle East, by Ashade. On the one hand, Phoebe goes out of her way to stir sh*t because she's brimming with inner tension. It turns out that she probably got this way from a lifetime of being casually tormented by people around her who got what she wanted to get, but was too 'civil' to fight for. Even Phoebe's so called best friend snipes, "I wasn't an accountant, I was even WORSE: a sales rep!" (Oh how nice Philly, you shouldn't have!) The hyper-successful and outgoing Philly practically oozes a constant stream of subtle insults like this, all meant to put Phoebe in her place. Whether she's doing it consciously or not is another question. It's obviously a very ingrained habit, though. Having been forced to compete brutally with her peers, and even her best friend, Phoebe seemingly doesn't know how to stop until she's clawed her way to the top of some sh*t pile, somewhere in the city. And she's willing to go to desperate measures to do that. It looks like all that competitive spirit has wiped out any trace of sympathy or humanity in her. It's The American Dream gone oh-so wrong... as it increasingly tends to do, these days. I kept asking myself throughout the film why Phoebe was so bonkers: it was her single minded obsession with, 'I want what she has'. It does make you ask questions about how much you really need any of the things you want.There's a pretty clear connection between the rise of Islamic terrorism and the invasions of the Middle Eastern by Russia, the U.S., U.K and France over the last few decades. Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq were once more progressive places than they are… before the West started to get antsy about how much oil they were sitting on (or near). Every time we withdraw our troops, having failed, yet another chunk of Middle Eastern progress crumbles away for good. And the likes of ISIL and the Taliban spring up to funnel people's anger and pain into fundamentalism or civil war. Or terrorism. Of course, the problem could be solved (or at least lessened) if the West would just STOP messing about in the Middle East, but why do that when the weapons industry's making a killing from it all too...?That's not to excuse terrorism - one attack is as bad as the other - but Western nations do like to play the innocent victim even as they go on doing things that they KNOW will add fuel the terrorists' fire. The western world's compulsion to invade and manipulate the Middle East to enhance its own bank portfolios is very clearly mirrored in Phoebe's compulsion to violate Ashade's personal boundaries. She infiltrates his mind and controls him for the sake of saving her ego. It's insane but she's just like some of the more cutthroat businessmen I've met. She goes to radical extremes because she's bored with her routine, and exists in social isolation. The one-track mind she possesses isn't inherited, it's earned, and the business she works in rewards it. Just like the Western world, Phoebe seems to 'have it all' but having it all's not enough. She's obviously just broken from living in her cut-throat object-obsessed world for so long. Again, the American supermalls full of dead eyed shoppers come to mind. (Sorry Haters might be interesting companion film for Dawn of the Dead or American Psycho for that reason!).I also felt that Phoebe's character was strangely sympathetic... which is a real feat considering her actions. Bravo to Ms. Penn for sustaining that balancing act. Most western people will have felt as enraged about the unfairness of capitalism at some point, so it would have been bad to alienate all those people by making her too 'evil'. Many other actresses would have taken an easier route, but Penn keeps you guessing and wondering whether you should take her side. I agree with the other reviewers who commented that Ashade is a little bit TOO good, though. After all, fundamentalist forms of Islam have always existed and have almost always been quite hostile toward women. It would be silly to dichotomize the Muslims as wonderfully good & pure people, just as it would have been a bit silly to turn Phoebe into a purely heartless killing machine. No one is totally good or evil. So as far as a realistic drama goes, it's a bit of a push... BUT seeing as this is a metaphorical drama, it worked out okay. While the film opens on a city that's clearly still a bit edgy after 9/11, the ensuing tale neatly answers the question of who planted the insane IDEA of 9/11 in the minds of terrorists in the first place. Maybe it was someone like Phoebe who took "my family, my whole world" away from a stranger. Most acts of war and terror are like that, when you think of it - they're all just an externalization of the sound a mind makes when it pops.

The idea of this film is that you can push any man so hard that he will eventually snap and turn violent -- and if he doesn't turn violent, you can just commit the violence yourself and frame him for it. It is an illustration and an allegory of the relationship that's existed between Muslim Arabs and the rest of the world for many decades. When they complain about the humiliations inflicted on them by the West, this is precisely what they mean. The whole faux-benevolent "trust me" attitude on the part of the most sinister exploiters, the foisting of Western values on them by people spouting nauseating "PC" platitudes, the spectacle of Europeans and Americans loudly proclaiming themselves victims even as they occupy, by deception and terror, Arab land, the daily metastasizing spread of Western popular culture -- all of this is mirrored in this film.And what motivates the exploiters? Not illusions of benevolence, not even money. It is a lust for power that is itself a form of insanity. The reasons are so twisted you simply would not believe them.The film conveys all of this rather amateurishly. The plot is ridiculously fumbled. Robin Wright's performance is nothing but a lot of scenery-chewing. (A couple of her more over-the-top scenes actually provoke giggles.) But the idea is a good one, even if it hasn't yet found a cast and crew worthy of it.

This film focuses on a few people in New York City whose lives have been altered indirectly by the events of 9/11...viewers will be thinking about it for a long time afterward. It forced me to look at my own thoughts and actions regarding prejudice, stereotypes and assumptions about other people. How many times have you unfairly formed an opinion of someone based upon initial appearances or pre-conceived notions? I know that I'm guilty of it (and too often). The movie's examination of this topic is especially timely - given the current level of intolerance in the United States, and the lack of accountability within a government system supposedly based upon liberty and justice for all.Although Phoebe (the blond, fair-skinned American) appears to be "normal" to the rest of the world...she is actually a very disturbed, dangerous person who has been poisoned by her own loneliness, paranoia and hatred. Meanwhile, the Muslim characters (who find themselves in a very unfortunate situation through no fault of their own) are deeply spiritual, well- educated and harmless. Phoebe's distorted perception is that she is the victim, and she empowers herself through acts of vandalism, self-mutilation (cutting) and violence.I won't give away the ending, but be prepared to say "Wow!" I was emotionally exhausted after watching the film, and discussion of the scenes and characters continued at our house for several days. Realism and great cinematography are the icing on the cake of this powerful film. I recommend it highly.

This moving is very polarizing. I didn't like it, because I am an Arab and a Muslim and I felt the injustice of the taxi driver more personally the most of the audience, but my friend loved it, and thought it was thought provoking. Which it is. I will not ruin the ending for the reader, but it will shock you, so be prepared. Additionally, it isn't one of those movies that is very well balanced. In a sense, I didn't really care what Philly's motivations where in the movie, and the director's efforts at showing her as unstable were a bit heavy handed and clichéd. Other than that, the movie was fine, but not exceptional and NOT about Guantanamo.