Fuck Mel Gibson and Fuck Daddy's Home 2

I saw Valerian this afternoon at the North DeKalb Mall and one of the previews was for Daddy’s Home 2. I did not see Daddy’s Home yet I was nevertheless weirdly irritated that they felt the need to make a sequel to a movie that looked like such a forgettable, indifferently received mediocrity, and I write that as a fan of both Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. 

So I was definitely not the target audience for Daddy’s Home 2 going in. The trailer begins with Wahlberg and Ferrell as the best of friends at the airport, awaiting the arrivals of their fathers. The trailer really plays up the suspense of these patriarch’s introductions so I found myself guessing what acting heavyweight they might have gotten to play Wahlberg and Ferrell’s dads. 

For some reason, I assumed Robert De Niro would play Wahlberg’s dad, because that’s exactly the kind of cynical garbage he’s in these days. It would be totally on-brand for De Niro to play Wahlberg’s dad in Daddy’s Home 2. Nope. I watched in muted horror when Mel Gibson was introduced as Wahlberg’s hard-ass, macho dad. 

Granted, I’m sure most of you knew about this casting already, but I was genuinely surprised. I wasn't just surprised, I was a little shocked and a little angry, because fuck Mel Gibson. Fuck his homophobia. Fuck his anti-Semitism. Fuck his racism and narcissism and screaming, vitriolic hatred for seemingly anyone and everything that’s not white, Christian and male. 

The older I get, the less I’m able to separate artists from their art, and I have zero interest in paying money to see anything that Mel Gibson is involved with. The idea that we’re supposed to find Gibson’s toxic brand of masculinity cute and fun now that he’s served his time in Movie Jail disgusts me.  

I don’t want to laugh with Mel Gibson. I don’t want to support his comeback. I don’t want to normalize the things he’s said and done, and is on tape as having said and done, as the misbehavior of just another mischievous Hollywood rascal.

I don’t ever want to see that piece of shit in a movie ever again, just as I will never watch another new Woody Allen movie, or buy an R. Kelly album, or support the life and career of Casey Affleck. I’m done supporting the work of people I find reprehensible with my money, even in an indirect way. 

I’m not ready to welcome Mel Gibson back. I’m tired of honoring the worst among us because they’re successful and we live in a culture that worships success. I will never see Daddy’s Home 2 and honestly, you’d imagine a dude with a hate crime in his history like Wahlberg would think better of working with a public racist and misogynist like Gibson but apparently that’s not the case. 

Unless the movie turns out to be funny, of course. Then I’ll totally see it! 

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