Friday, October 20, 2017

Louis C.K. Movie ‘I Love You, Daddy’ is Basically the Harvey Weinstein Story

When art imitates life.

10.19.2017

Comedian Louis C.K. has a new movie coming out that hits very close to home with the Harvey Weinstein scandal and it's generating a lot of negative buzz online.

I Love You, Daddy, which premiers in theaters December 1st, is about a rich writer (Louis C.K.) whose teenage daughter (Chloe Grace Moretz) begins dating a much older man (John Malkovich) who just so happens to be the most influential filmmaker of the last 30 years. Malkovich’s character is known in the business for dating very young women. He is immediately drawn to the 17-year-old who at one point in the trailer, is mistaken as her dad’s girlfriend.

It’s a rather oddly-timed movie given the current circumstances surrounding the sick sexual proclivities of the rich and powerful in Hollywood, and there are plenty of voices online decrying its release as “icky,” as Slate described it. On social media, most feel like Louis C.K. is “tone deaf." Then, there are the comparisons to Woody Allen, who is also notoriously famous for preying on young women and also made a black-and-white film in 1979, Manhattan, about a relationship between an old man and a teenage girl.

Last month, when Hollywood thought it was innocent of the evil that lurked underneath its glittery facade, I Love You, Daddy premiered to critical acclaim at the Toronto Film Festival. But even before Hollywood was exposed for the devil we all knew it was deep down, Louis C.K.’s movie was already creating controversy for its use of the “n-word, child rape jokes and ample use of the word ‘retard,’” as The Hollywood Reporter noted at the time.

Louis C.K., who has never shied away from controversial comedy, defended his project:

"It's just a f—ing movie. We’re depicting oxygen-rich people who live in these beautiful apartments and offices saying whatever they want. Folks say shit to each other. You can’t think about the audience when you’re making the thing. If you do, you’re not giving them something that came out of your gut. You’ll be making something that you’re like, ‘Is this OK for you?’ And they say, 'Yes, thank you.' Mark Twain said something like, 'You can’t say no one can eat steak just because the baby doesn’t have teeth yet.'"

"We’re at the bleeding edge of 'That’s not OK to do now,' but those people are still around," Louis C.K. said to The Hollywood Reporter in September, not knowing how prescient that statement would be after the Weinstein story broke a month later.

Unfortunately for Louis, he shares further similarities with Harvey Weinstein, which include rumors of his strange sexual behaviors toward the opposite sex. Amid the avalanche of Bill Cosby’s career in 2016, comedienne Rosanne Barr said the comedy world is rife with sexual perverts, telling the Daily Mail:

“It’s Louis C.K., locking the door and masturbating in front of women comics and writers. I can’t tell you - I’ve heard so many stories. Not just him, but a lot of them. And it’s just par for the course. It’s just shit women have to put up with.”

Forcing women to watch them masturbate seems to be a big hit in Hollywood.

Barr added she believed Louis C.K. was “about to get busted,” but clarified she had no definitive proof. She later tweeted, “I have 0 idea if Louie CK is a sexual offender or not-but there R MULTIPLE accusations in Hollywood's working woman circles. He shld answer.”

In another tweet, Barr stated: “Ignoring the many women writers who claim Louis CK is a sexual offender, the Emmy Awards nominated him [for three] awards. #JuddApatow.”

But Barr wasn’t the only one slinging allegations. In 2015, Vice reporter Megan Koester went to a comedy festival in Canada to ask comedians what they thought about rumors that Louis C.K. exhibited lewd behavior toward women. She was able to speak with several comedians, including Kevin Hart, first about their thoughts on the Cosby allegations. Those she talked to all responded in disgust. But when she segued into those rumors against Louis, they all “claimed ignorance,” she said. It wasn’t long before a “red-faced” man kicked her off the red carpet because Louis C.K. was a member of the festival’s “family” and he wanted to keep the event upbeat.

There was only one time that Louis C.K. defended himself against the allegations. Before quickly changing the subject, he said: “I don’t care about that. That’s nothing to me. That’s not real… There’s one more thing I want to say about this, and it’s important: If you need your public profile to be all positive, you’re sick in the head.”