A columnist for the Washington Post is blaming the tragic shooting at the University of California at Santa Barbara on the hyper-masculine film culture perpetuated by producer Judd Apatow and portrayed in movies like “Neighbors.”
Ann Hornaday, a film critic with the Post, wrote that movies like those made by Apatow contribute to the angst and disappointment young men feel when their lives don’t mirror those of the characters portrayed in films like the newly released “Neighbors.”
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“How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like ‘Neighbors’ and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of ‘sex and fun and pleasure’?” she wrote. “How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude,’It’s not fair’?”
Hornaday wrote that Elliot Rodger, who killed six and wounded 13 Friday, likely had his “delusions” inflated “by the entertainment industry he grew up in.” Rodger’s father was assistant director for “The Hunger Games” films.
“As Rodger bemoaned his life of ‘loneliness, rejection and unfulfilled desire’ and arrogantly announced that he would now prove his own status as ‘the true alpha male,’ he unwittingly expressed the toxic double helix of insecurity and entitlement that comprises Hollywood’s DNA,” she said. “For generations, mass entertainment has been overwhelmingly controlled by white men, whose escapist fantasies so often revolve around vigilantism and sexual wish-fulfillment (often, if not always, featuring a steady through-line of casual misogyny).”
Prior to his Isla Vista, Calif., shooting spree, Rodger expressed outrage at attractive young women who failed to answer his advances in a YouTube video. The 22-year-old lamented being rejected by his female peers and said he would seek revenge by conducting a mass killing at a UCSB sorority house.
While Hornaday placed the blame for Rodger’s actions on Hollywood culture of hyper-masculinity, actor Seth Rogen, who stars in “Neighbors” and is close with Apatow, took to his Twitter to fire back at the Washington Post columnist.
.@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014
.@AnnHornaday how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014
Apatow joined in, too, and accused Hornaday of using the tragic shooting to sell newspapers.
“@Sethrogen: .@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed.”She uses tragedy to promote herself with idiotic thoughts
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 27, 2014
“@melissa5001: @Sethrogen @marshallsheldon @AnnHornaday why is it always everything but mental illness?” Because that doesn’t sell papers.
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 27, 2014
Remember everyone – ads next to articles generate money. They say something shocking and uninformed & get you to click on it to profit.
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 27, 2014
According to police, Rodger concealed mental illness and had been diagnosed with Asberger’s, for which he was receiving professional help.
