I Love You Phillip Morris… the gay prison movie

A while ago there was hype about a new movie coming out starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, the gay prison movie. While I can give a pretty good guess and assumption that like most other prison movies it will be incredibly racist I will also guess, from the previews, that it will also be significantly homophobic as well. THAT SAID… it is always exciting to have movies where a prisoner escapes from prison numerous times! When I think about some of the things our abolitionist movement needs, queers breaking out of prison walls is definitely one of them, even if they do look like Jim Carrey. You can read an article from the Advocate here.

It appears as though the movie will not be released in theaters in the U.S. Studios are saying that U.S. audiences are not "ready" for gay themed prison movies. I would like to see this movie so I could share a greater critique with you. I do know that I am tired of movies about prison making jokes about prison rape (like Lets Go to Prison) or shows that continue to star primarily white people with no analysis of the white supremacist system that is the prison industrial complex (like prison break). I will give a guess that this movie will perpetuates the same problems. Tragically the media has no intention of highlighting the realities of the real heteropatriarchy and white supremacy inherent in the prison system. It is our responsibility to highlight these realities ourselves.

With that, here’s the preview for I Love You Phillip Morris…