It has been awhile since we have done any movie or television reviews. Here are a couple of recent productions that we felt were worth commenting on. Both distort reality and are not good movies, but it is useful to understand how both, in their own way, convey dishonest messages about sex, pregnancy and relationships.

Unplanned – in Movie Theaters

This is less a movie and more a piece of vicious propaganda. I would compare it to the blood libel that has been used against the Jews. “Blood Libel” refers to a centuries-old false allegation that Jews murder Christians, most commonly Christian children, to use for various rituals. It goes all the way back to the Middle Ages. In Unplanned, substitute Jews with Planned Parenthood.

The Jewish connection is quite strong, as there have been many who have called Planned Parenthood part of a Jewish conspiracy, so the blood libel comparison is quite dead on. Steve West, who easily won the Missouri primary for the House and is best known for claiming that Hitler was right, has also said that Jewish cabals are harvesting baby parts from Planned Parenthood and abusing children. He even has a Youtube channel to promote his anti-semitism. His winning bid in the primary reflects very poorly on Missouri Republicans, as does their recent approval of a so-called heartbeat ban (check out the Jeff Booth Show to hear why this is pseudoscience.) My point here is that antisemitism, homophobia and misogyny all seem to go hand in hand with being anti-choice.

The main point of this film, supposedly a true story but of doubtful authenticity, is that Planned Parenthood is an evil giant corporation that pressures their workers to keep churning out the abortions, even if it endangers the women’s lives. They are in it strictly for the money. What you won’t learn from the movies is that Planned Parenthood is actually non-profit, and that abortions are a very small part of what they do. Even if the claim that they make most of their money on abortions (a dubious claim at best), they would still be plowing those “profits” back into their other activities, like STD testing and treatment, birth control, well-woman exams, cancer screening and prevention, abortion, hormone therapy, infertility services, and general health care.

The acting, production quality, script writing, and virtually everything else about this Pure Flicks production is slipshod at best. It comes from the same people who brought us the truly awful God is not Dead.

Another reason to use the blood libel comparison (actually on steroids) is all of the blood. They depict abortions in graphic bloody detail. Actually, most abortions are of embryos so tiny you can barely see them. And yes, some are not pretty, but neither is a C-section or almost any other form of surgery.

I do not know how much of this true story is actually true. The science part certainly gets things wrong. I am willing to bet good money that a leader of Planned Parenthood never told the film’s main character Abby that “We are paying you to be a perfect instrument of corporate policy” or that she told her “Congratulations, you have made an enemy of one of the most powerful organizations on the planet” as depicted in the film. Planned Parenthood is not a corporation, and they could only wish they had more power while under such horrific assault from enemies who repeatedly lie about them. Abby says of Planned Parenthood “Everything they told us is a lie.” I think she was saying that on opposite day, as this movie has no problem with lying. In fact, without lying, I doubt the anti-choice movement could even exist. It is their lies that get people riled up.

The problem with movies like this that are designed to enrage people with false information is the same with Donald Trump and his lies about doctors executing babies after they are born. These types of allegations have and most likely will incite someone to commit horrible acts in response to those lies, putting the lives of doctors, volunteers, and women in general in danger.

Directed and written by Chuck Konzelman and Cary Soloman, Cast: Ashley Bratcher (Abby), Brooks Ryan (Doug), Robia Scott (Cheryl) Jared Lotz (Shawn), Emma Elle Roberts (Marilisa)

Suburban Swingers Club – Streaming on Lifetime

Here is the description: “A young married couple makes a huge mistake by agreeing to participate in a secret swingers’ party in their suburban neighborhood, and soon both of them are being targeted by a jealous and homicidal neighbor. Dana Davis and Jesse Ruda star.”

So we already know, swinging is bad and likely to get you killed, in the same way that having an affair can get you killed just like in Fatal Attraction (or at least your bunny), or in the way that having sex can get you killed as in hundreds of teen horror films. If you veer out of the traditional sex lane, you will die or worse.

This seems all so retro, but then again, it is the Lifetime channel. I am more of a Hallmark channel person myself. Their stars are not such goody-two-shoes. It is a profoundly negative view of swinging, but it also gets almost everything about swinging wrong. In that way it has a lot in common with Unplanned.

After a miscarriage, a young couple, Lori and Grant, moves into a new neighborhood. The miscarriage has caused problems in their relationship, and one of their new neighbors invites them to join the neighborhood swing club. In all my years of swinging, I have never heard of a neighborhood swing club. I did know someone who wound up swinging with a neighbor and that did not end well, but certainly not as badly as in this movie.

I can think of one sort of neighborhood swing club, but it is largely a rumor and quite unexpected. It has been said that in the tiny community of Celebration, Florida, swinging is very popular. It has been referred to as a very incestuous community, but not the kind involving relatives. It is a planned pseudo-1950s community with fake ice and snow at Christmas. It was built by the Disney Corporation as a planned Utopian community in 1995 that is a blast from the past, which currently has some 11,000 residents. It reminds some of the community in the Jim Carrey film The Truman Show, and if they treat it like their rides, it has just as many cameras. It is rather large for a suburban neighborhood swing club, but it is the closest I can think of.

They decide to try it, although in reality, going into swinging to resolve marital or sexual problems is generally a terrible idea. It tends to amplify both the good and bad in relationships. They did get one thing right, though. Afterwards, they get very horny for each other and have passionate Lifetime rated sex. Things never get all that steamy to be arousing. I am not even sure if the director has ever had sex or not, but she clearly does not understand lingerie, made sadly obvious in the scene where Lori seduces Noah.

Noah is a swinger who becomes obsessed with her and begins stalking her, and this is where the movie becomes campy and turns into another Lifetime men are evil polemic. To be fair (and here comes a spoiler alert), it is a woman who turns out to be even more evil, but she is also a swinger, so, of course.

Dana Davis is beautiful but never seems happy in this film. I would not be either if I were her. It is not very good. But I do like her as an actor, and I like that this is an interracial couple, something we need more of in Lifetime and Hallmark movies that tend to limit people of color to supporting roles (although that is getting better).

One weird thing when I did a Google search was the many references and questions about this being a true story. It is not based on a true story at all, but this is how swinging is depicted, especially on crime procedurals like Law and Order Special Victims.

I did have a personal experience with murder in the swing community. In 2002 there was the murder of a little girl, Danielle van Dam, near San Diego. During the investigation, it was disclosed that her parents were swingers, and the name of the swing club they were members of got in the news. Swinging had nothing to do with it, it was a neighbor, but the publicity forced the club to close. I knew people involved with the club at the time and it was a difficult situation, mourning for a couple while worrying about all of the attention. The defense vigorously attacked the parents lifestyle.

Another real life case is the story of David and Joan Shannon. The prosecution claimed that their 15 year-old daughter Elizabeth murdered her adoptive father at the request of her mother, who had fallen in love with a new man at a swinger’s club. Joan Shannon was sentenced to life in prison, despite the unbelievable notion that a mother would ask her 15 year-old daughter to hire a hitman, and then demand that she d the shooting. The daughter got over 31 years, and serving her sentence she has racked up over 30 offenses while her mother has served quietly. Some still doubt that Joan was behind it, as her daughter had a long history of acting out and violence.

There was a case where a couple that met at a swing club hired a hitman to kill the woman’s husband in 2009. In 1982 a swing club owner in Bethlehem, PA was brutally murdered by his business partner. In 2014 a home schooled Christian 24 year-old fireman and his decade older lover in California murdered her husband. The couple had been involved in swinging but she met her lover at a Costco.

There was a shooting outside of a Baltimore swing club. Three people were injured but all survived. The club had a spotless record for ten years up until then. They are still open to this day.

So, there have been a handful of murder cases connected with swingers in real life. Every single one of them had a more interesting plot than this movie.

Some of the true stories have been covered on true crime shows, and most fictional depictions of swingers in movies and on television tend to make things pretty negative. That is rather unfortunate consider how wonderful swinging is for those who can adapt to the concept of non-monogamy, which once you try it, feels very natural and normal.

Directed by Jessica Jano. Cast – Dana Davis (Lori) Jessa Rudd (Grant), James William O’Halloran (Noah), Elizabeth Leiner (Olivia)