A few words come to mind when I think of Hotel Transylvania 3. Visceral. Pensive. Incendiary. But beyond the surface-level comedy and the sweeping romance, I think we ought to appreciate this movie for what it truly is: an art house film.
Truth be told, this film is still in theaters and I have no intention of paying real money to watch it. Nevertheless, from the opening scenes of the trailer, Claire Leona Apps (Dir.) proves she is a force to be reckoned with. With a strong critique of our narcissistic dating culture deftly hidden beneath a clever pun—the popular hookup app “Tinder” has been replaced with the slant rhyme “Zingr”—Apps injects an aspect of social realism reminiscent of the style of the late Frederico Fellini. The replacement of human characters with Eastern European monsters invokes an absurdist mentality that is supplemented by the abstract aesthetic of blocky forms and chunky colors. The plot itself is a mystery (particularly for myself, because I didn’t watch it), but its linear style invokes the sense of simplicity that Apps intends as a satire—its almost TOO easy, much like blind our consumption of mass media.
For many critics, the decision to release what is clearly a Halloween movie so far in advance of October is a difficult choice to swallow, but by doing so, Apps is rejecting the societal norm that we must adhere to the fleeting concept of time. Instead, she advocates for an age-old adage that white people have always lived by: you can celebrate holidays as early as you fucking want to.
By casting the most flagrant actor and actress of our generation, Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez, Apps maintains her role as an open social justice advocate. Her purposeful decision to mask Sandler’s and Gomez’s faces behind silly animated characters echoes the societal silencing of their marginalized voices. As viewers, our frustrations grow as we hear voices that are so familiar to us—but yet we are unable to place them. We cry out for release as we desperately turn to our friends and tell them that we know their voices! We recognize them! Their names are on the tips of our tongues!
The film ends (or so I’m told) with an unsatisfactory release—the guy gets the girl, and the girl gets subjugated. The audience leaves with a lingering bitter taste in their mouth, affirming Hotel Transylvania 3 as the cinematic masterpiece of the 21st century.
Written by Alicia Bao, Treasurer