Author: Eleven Groothuis

Eleven is the founder and editor-in-chief of Unstrung Nerves. She's a neurodivergent, trans weirdo who obsesses over David Cronenberg and will occasionally change up their pronouns, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. They've written for places like Autostraddle, Bitch, and TransAdvocate in the past. She's sometimes on Twitter @13minus2.

Art Vandelay is Gay: Queer Observations on ‘Seinfeld’

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

I watch a lot of Seinfeld. It’s my safe place, in a way, a place where it seems nothing truly bad can happen; despite the surprising number of people who actually die throughout the series, for the four principle characters, nothing that happens has much consequence or permanence beyond the moment itself (let’s just pretend that “The Finale” never happened, shall we?). It’s the nature of Seinfeld‘s anti-narrative that all events, no matter how damaging or disturbing, simply transpire with no physical or emotional consequences. That’s why, when I’m anxious or otherwise not feeling great, Seinfeld can reliably pick me up with its inspiringly detached sociopathy. Nothing really matters in the long run.

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Cycling Godzilla

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

April 16th saw the release of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, the newest Magic expansion, through WotC’s online platforms only (the tabletop release has been delayed due to the pandemic). Not only does the set bring back one of Magic‘s best mechanics, cycling, the set features an alternate-art series in which certain card names and artworks are replaced with Godzilla and his fellow monsters, including Ghidorah, Gigan, and my personal favorite, Biollante.

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Transgender Biopics: The Dinah East Story

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

“For too long our light has been refracted through other people’s prisms.”

—Leslie Feinberg, Transgender Warriors

The biopic — or film biography — is a bellwether of a highly individualistic culture’s priorities. Biopics teach audiences what real people are worth giving time, money, energy, and attention to, and as such, they matter. “The genre’s charge”, Dennis Bingham writes, “is to enter the biographical subject into the pantheon of cultural mythology, one way or another, and to show why he or she belongs there.” This cultural mythology is important, and it’s worth examining when and in what contexts trans subjects have been allowed in — or denied entry.

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Now Seeking Paid Contributors

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

Unstrung Nerves is now actively seeking contributions. Read more below.

One of the difficulties with the experiment that is Unstrung Nerves is that I’m starting essentially from scratch. I’ve written for established publications on occasion, but I have nothing like a reader base or anything. And, to be honest, I know nothing about running a publication of any kind. That’s why I call it an experiment. I’m making this all up as I go.

I started this site to publish the kind of writing I want to read, and while I could let it remain simply a personal blog, that’s not how I’ve envisioned Unstrung Nerves. That’s why I’m putting out this call for contributions to help me grow the site into the multi-author platform I imagined it to be at its inception. I won’t pretend this very new site has any readership whatsoever, but I am committed to paying for all contributions to this site.

So if you’re a writer looking for a place to start or you want to help me grow Unstrung Nerves, click here to send me a pitch. While I am open to many different angles and perspectives, please keep pitches film-related. I genuinely don’t know if soliciting contributions is the right call at this moment, but it’s the one I’m making. Thank you.

You Are Society: A Tribute to Edward D. Wood, Jr.

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece and had it rejected by a site in 2018, the year Ed Wood’s opus Glen or Glenda turned 65. On the off-chance that it might have merit despite its rejection from a site I very much admire (but which will remain nameless), I have posted it here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

A screen capture from Glen or Glenda, in which Dolores Fuller passes an item of clothing to Wood; this image was famously recreated for Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (screencap taken from Legend Films’ release of the film)

“But then the movies are an extension of life and should be treated as such, or so goes the thoughts of many writers who have and are dealing with the subject. In censoring movies, it is felt that there is little difference than if the censoring was being levied upon one’s life itself.” [1]

—Ed Wood, A Study in the Motivation of Censorship, Sex, & the Movies, Book 1

1

Transgender cinema did not begin in 1953, the year of Glen Or Glenda‘s release, just like trans people did not just spontaneously begin to exist in 1952, the year Christine Jorgensen made headlines as a trans woman, precipitating Glen or Glenda. But as a direct response to Jorgensen’s fame and driven by director Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s own experiences, Glen Or Glenda is a watershed moment in transgender cinema: one of the first films to deal openly with reality-based transgender subject matter. On the 65th anniversary of Glen or Glenda, it is worth revisiting both the film and its maker.

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Netflix Deadnames Me All the Time

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

A few days ago [authors note: I originally wrote this over a year ago], Netflix released a new film called Girl. I have my misgivings about the streaming video service, including the fact that Netflix deadnames me all the time, but that’s not what this is about. This is about Girl. Belgium’s submission to the Oscars (it was not nominated), Oliver Whitney has called Lukas Dhont’s Girl “the most dangerous movie about a trans character in years” [1]. Whitney’s critique stands out as the sort of trans-centric criticism so often missing from the conversation, and on the surface I can see where the writer is coming from.

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Ant-Man in Twin Peaks (Trailer)

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

In the game & comic shop I spend time in, they’ve been discussing a certain new movie trailer at great length. Yet for someone who loiters about in a comic shop all day like a Kevin Smith extra, I’m little interested in the realm of geekdom. I haven’t even watched the trailer for  yet, but I feel like I have for all the discussion I’ve overheard. For my time I’d much rather watch the Lewton-Tourneur gem  and speculate on just how queer it is (hint: it is very queer) than pore over a piece of mass marketing frame by frame. I don’t know what the new  holds, but it can’t be worse than , so I’ll see it.

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Kubrick’s Panopticon / Marvel’s Labyrinth

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

Few images stand out in Stanley Kubrick’s oeuvre more than the unblinking eye of the HAL 9000 computer in , a film that would be practically unthinkable today (except in watered-down forms like  or ): certainly Kubrick’s opus would be virtually unrecognizable to a film like  The point that links the two, Lucas and Spielberg in the 1970’s and 1980’s, distorted the legacy of this great science fiction epic. Visual effects win out over visual poetry. We — that is to say, popular U.S. cinema — learned the wrong lessons from , and now we’ll sit through yet another year of Marvel movies.  was, by my admittedly offhand count, the 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  was right.

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Conservative Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

The other day I watched a double feature of Jay Roach’s Bombshell, followed by his earlier film Game Change. In contrast to my recent article on political fiction, I’m more interested here in the role that real-life political figures play in these fictionalized dramas. What follows is not a critique of any real person, but of the way that cinema manufactures morality through victimhood while frequently erasing other types of harm (specifically harm to communities of color).

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The Bob Roberts Presidency: A Political Cinematic Universe Crossover

Posted on by Eleven Groothuis

Election 2016: Infinity War

U.S. voters are now in the unenviable position of most likely having to choose between two unappealing candidates in the 2020 election. Sigh. Last night I watched Tim Robbins’ unsung masterpiece Bob Roberts (1992), a film that always cheers me up with its scathingly progressive, and all-too-relevant, satire of a right-wing entertainer-turned-political-demigod. Unfortunately we’re now living in the Roberts era.

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