The Interview and the Year That Voters Got Scared of Everything
Sony Pictures' 'The Interview' opens at the Plaza Theatre on, Christmas Day, December 25, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. Sony hackers have been releasing stolen information and threatened attacks on theaters that screened the film.
Photographer: Marcus Ingram/Getty ImagesNow that The Interview has screened in independent theaters, the news cycle has completed its natural revolution from awe to cynicism. In Delaware, where I've spent the holidays with family, three cinemas showed the film and patrons gushed with patriotic quotes. "We're the first state in this country and you're not going to stop us," one moviegoer told reporter Margie Fishman. "It was a matter of principle," said another star-spangled fan of Seth Rogen.
And it was the same story around the country, which has led, inevitably, to a backlash. "This supposed act of defiance against Kim Jong Un actually helps North Korea," wrote Max Fisher at Vox, "by buying into their disingenuous propaganda about the movie, as well as by aiding Kim in his mission to look more important than he is and to gin up conflict between his country and the U.S."