I'm going to compare two scenes from OBAA.
In the first, Howard, the man who helped Bob and Willa get off the grid, is taken in for questioning. He's defiant at first, making jokes at the interrogator's expense. He's prepared to die for the cause. Then the interrogator threatens his sister. And things start to crack. We see it on his face. We understand exactly why this happened.
In the second scene, Willa's school friends are also being interrogated by the same guy. They don't give anything up at first either. But right as it seems they're about to go, Bobo, Willa's explicitly nonbinary friend, decides to rat her out, giving them her phone number. There's no pressure. There's no imminent danger. We can't read anything on their face, they're completely deadpan. And we never see them again. Why did this happen? What is the motive? I dunno man. You can project one onto them, but the movie never gives one.
And that's the issue with OBAA that makes it so uncomfortable for me. Practically no one in this movie has _interiority._ And especially if you're a minority not named Willa. If your only nonbinary character exists so Leo's character can be a boomer about it, then sell out their friend in a way that would make jk Rowling go "see? I told you!" That's gross! And it's a consistent pattern. Another nonwhite man we see telling lockjaws people where Willa and Deandra went, with no prompting. Completely monotone.
And lord, Perfidia. We get almost nothing for why she does what she does. We follow her through the first thirty minutes but it's just a constant stream of stereotypes and "why did you do that?" Moments. We barely get inside her head except for the lines indicating post-partum depression, which I liked. But when presented with the choice to rat on all her friends, she does so OFFSCREEN.
The only real forms of solidarity we see in this movie come from Sergio, a lot of which was contributions from Benicio del Toro. There's a smaller character arc for the native American tracker who helps lockjaw, but ultimately decides to save Willa which I quite like too.
But all the other stuff irks me because all these identities and ideologies feel like they don't matter. They're set dressing. All you know about Bobo is that they're nonbinary, and they'll snitch on you to the authorities with no pressure. It's insulting and feels painfully shallow. Compared to Sinners where I understand every bad decision someone in that movie makes, it's weirder.
