Entertainment
The Depraved, Raunchy Movie Your Mom Won’t Stop Watching Is Now On Netflix
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
It’s one of the most successful movie franchises in history. The search for its leads was the most anticipated Hollywood casting since Gone with the Wind. By almost every metric of success, 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey is an incredible phenomenon.
The book, written by E. L. James, put self-publishing on the map and launched the rise of e-books, making it one of the most culturally significant books of the 21st century. Star Trek is less popular. Stargate has never been this popular. And yet, Fifty Shades of Grey is a punchline. For all its success, it’s a horrible movie, which makes it perfect for binging on Netflix in the privacy of your home, where no one needs to know.
The Most Successful Fan Fiction In History
Fifty Shades of Grey started life as Twilight fan fiction. Anastasia Steele, played by Dakota Johnson, was originally Bella Swan, and Christian Grey, brought to life by a sleepwalking Jamie Dornan, was Edward Cullen. Instead of vampires and werewolves, the film is about book publishing, a lonely billionaire, and “BDSM” (Bondage, Domination, Sadism, Masochism). The quotes are necessary because, as the kink community was quick to point out, the novel and the movie are about as accurate to BDSM as Hackers was to computers.
Hackers is a ’90s classic for a reason, and Fifty Shades of Grey was a massive hit not because of its accurate portrayal of consenting adults, but because it was unabashedly pure smut. The film has a plot, but it’s mostly an excuse to get to the next scene of Christian introducing Anastasia to his unique tastes. Actually, if the film had spent more time focused on the kink and less on the relationship, it could have been Secretary for a new generation, instead of spotlighting the most toxic relationship since Joker and Harley.
50 Shades Of Grey Started A Revolution
Christian is every stereotype of a dominating, rich billionaire: he’s stoic, he doesn’t understand boundaries, and he thinks a signed contract will solve everything. Anastasia is naive, and though this isn’t mentioned, she’s colorblind and thinks red flags are green flags. A lot of ink has been spilled over the last decade about the problematic plot of Fifty Shades of Grey, and none of it will stop fans from streaming it on Netflix this month.
Fifty Shades of Grey was released at the perfect point in time, after Twilight’s peak and exactly when e-readers were starting to hit the mass market. Readers could be reading anything on their tablet, Nook, etc., and no one would know it was the dirtiest, nastiest, darkest romance imaginable. To that end, E. L. James’s breakout feels quaint compared to the current rise of dark romantasy novels, thousands of which manage to be just as hot and sexy but feature better relationship dynamics and show more respect for the kink community.
The two sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, are also on Netflix, but neither one is as fun as the first. All told, the entire trilogy earned over $1 billion at the box office. For all the jokes and ridicule the movies have received, that sort of money makes them the type of hit Hollywood wishes they could produce today.