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What Even Is This San Francisco Chronicle Tweet About Greta Gerwig?

Huh?

By Jan 17th, 2021, 3:42 pm

Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha.

It’s no secret that Twitter is filled with some truly bananas takes and opinions. After all, what is social media for, but to share deeply unpopular views with a perplexed audience? But a tweet yesterday from the San Francisco Chronicle has puzzled even the most veteran Twitter scholars. The tweet comes courtesy of the newspaper’s arts and culture writer Tony Bravo, who tweeted, “Dear Greta Gerwig, Please resist the temptation to recast the riots as a coming-of-age love story where Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan play congressional interns from different sides of the aisle swept up in the chaos.”

greta gerwig confused

(via Giphy)

The tweet refers to an article by Bravo titled, “A message to Hollywood: Don’t make the insurrection your next blockbuster“, where the writer begs Hollywood not to quickly churn out a cinematic retelling of the violent insurrection at the Capitol building. Bravo writes,

“Generally, the more chronological distance from an historic event, the better artists and historians can understand it. Something as paradigm shifting as an insurrection on the legislative branch of government is going to take a while to analyze in a way that makes sense of the larger picture. Also, the gaping wound of the incident is still fresh. I don’t want to be triggered in six months seeing Netflix ads for a movie with Nicole Kidman uglied up to play “woman wearing Trump flag as cape who got kicked off her Delta flight.” Please, Hollywood, don’t do it.”

Bravo makes a good point: let’s not churn out a Hollywood response to a trauma that is still so fresh in our minds. Within the article he pens opening salvos to a variety of A-list directors like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Clint Eastwood, Steven Soderbergh, and Sofia Coppola, among others.

For Gerwig he writes, “Dear Greta Gerwig, Please resist the temptation to recast the riots as a coming-of-age love story where Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan play congressional interns from different sides of the aisle swept up in the chaos. That said, I think the pair would be perfect to play James and Dolley Madison in a film about the burning of D.C. in the War of 1812.”

The article is meant to be a flip take on what the Capitol riots would look like from different directors, which, fair enough. But singling out Gerwig in the tweet left many Twitter users confused as to why she would be the one adapting the Capitol riots into a film. Wouldn’t this be a dig better served to Aaron Sorkin or Oliver Stone?

By singling out Gerwig, Bravo has (intentionally or not) taken an acclaimed indie director to task over a film she would never make. Clearly he’s never seen a Greta Gerwig film, or he would know that she tells small, intimate stories about women coming of age and not bombastic political blockbusters. Many questioned Bravo’s motives and the inherent sexism within the tweet:

The San Francisco Chronicle, quickly realizing their sexism was showing, added some tweets to the thread:

Dear San Francisco Chronicle, please don’t trip over your own feet in your rush to lobby a lame joke about a woman director. And show Greta Gerwig some damn respect already.

(featured image: IFC Films)

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Chelsea Steiner - Weekend Editor

Chelsea was born and raised in New Orleans, which explains her affinity for cheesy grits and Britney Spears. An pop culture journalist since 2012, her work has appeared on Autostraddle, AfterEllen, and more. Her beats include queer popular culture, film, television, republican clownery, and the unwavering belief that 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' is the greatest movie ever made. She currently resides in sunny Los Angeles, with her husband, 2 sons, and one poorly behaved rescue dog. She is a former roller derby girl and a black belt in Judo, so she is not to be trifled with. She loves the word “Jewess” and wishes more people used it to describe her.