As everyone talking about the film is hooked on the between and , one comedian has brought attention to the misdirected marketing of the film’s heavy topics in a hilarious TikTok series. Comedian and writer has amassed millions of views on her social media, after she posted a series of videos that played out a simple hypothetical: what if other movies were marketed like It ? ICYMI, the marketing strategy for has been criticised by readers of the ( ) book it is based on, for not addressing the topic of at the story’s core. Instead, the film seems to be advertised as a lighter “Who will she choose?” type of romantic drama, where one of the lead characters — Ryle, played by director Baldoni — has an anger issue.
Some viewers have gone so far as to say that the movie actually , which was a criticism the book also received. Amidst the sea of folks criticising/defending , and taking sides in the behind-the-scenes beef, Orli Matlow has highlighted the film’s misleading marketing in the funniest way possible. In a TikTok that has more than two million views, Matlow envisaged a world where the 1993 World War II drama was marketed the same distorted way as .
“He’s making a list and checking it twice! Grab your red coats and come see my new movie, , starring a hunk with a very particular set of skills, !” Matlow quipped, in an upbeat and positive voice. As anyone who has seen ‘s Oscar-winning film knows, the black-and-white World War II film is anything but upbeat and positive. In the comments on Matlow’s video, her viewers pointed out that the advertising for gave them an entirely inaccurate understanding of the film’s content.
“I didn’t know the plot til Justin Baldoni started speaking. I legit thought it was a rom-com,” wrote one person. After garnering more than 300K likes on TikTok alone, the writer and comedian applied the same hypothetical to other dark movies including , , and .
On top of that, the comedian includes in her satirical movie ads a variety of different product tie-ins for these films, an additional jab at Lively’s beauty-brand tie-ins. Matlow’s series of videos humorously and effectively highlighted the serious issue that people have with the way that has marketed itself. ‘Cos like, could you imagine if you tuned in to watch any of those movies expecting something lighthearted, only to be hit with highly graphic content? Speaking from experience, it ain’t fun.
(A friend told me to watch because I liked , and I was not forewarned about the opening scene.) And that was just gory imagery. When you consider the additional traumas that could be triggered if an abuse survivor watched this story about domestic violence without warning, you kinda realise why we can’t glamorise or trivialise this shit.
Lively gives “out of touch” response to DV question The film’s mixed focus on the serious issue of domestic violence is suspected by fans to be one of the reasons Lively and Baldoni are locked in a PR war. Baldoni has spoken out in red-carpet and promotional events about wanting to make sure that victims of DV are inspired by the film to take action. On the other hand, Lively has copped flack online for apparently using the film to .
Lively also came under fire when an answer to a question about the film’s dark themes was slammed as “out of touch” by folks online. When asked what viewers who relate to the DV experiences of her character could do to get help from Lively, the actress gave a response that people found was too jovial for the topic’s serious nature. “Maybe asking for, like, my address, or my phone number.
Or, like, location share?! I could just location-share you and then we could...
” Lively said before trailing off. The odd quip was slammed by viewers online, with one writing: “Her initial response to the first question is so out of touch.” Though neither Baldoni nor Lively have directly addressed or explained the reason for their feud, the director has hired a in response to the allegations being thrown against him.
To their credit, Lively did say in an interview that we’re “ ” about the beef between her and the film’s director. Unfortunately, whatever we supposed to be talking about hasn’t been made clear by anyone in the cast or marketing team..
