It’s painful to admit, but one of this summer’s most successful blockbusters was The Fault in Our Stars, an exploitative YA melodrama about two teenage cancer victims who fall in love. With a budget of just $12 million, the movie earned over $301 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable YA films/cancer comedies (!) of the last decade. According to the hilarious humans over at Screen Junkies, who recently released an “honest” trailer for the film, the success of the film can be attributed to: Aryan protagonists, crafty dialogue, and adorable, bald-faced lies about terminal illness.
“But instead of sugarcoating the truth,” the trailer tells us, “get ready for two well-rounded characters with a powerful message: everyone you love will die.” I rarely LOL (for reasons of self-respect), but I came very close at multiple points during the sequence. The Fault in Our Stars prides itself on being ‘an honest’ look at cancer, yet it’s often anything but: the characters too verbal to be teenagers, too happy to be victims, too handsome to play virgins. I’m not sure if I’d want to see a true-to-life cancer story, but I definitely don’t want to see Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort swap tongue in a holocaust’s victim house (No. Sarcasm. Added).
For a full look at other ‘honest trailers,’ check out Screen Junkies’ link here, and for the movie’s real trailer, check out the link below. If you’re interested in seeing in the actual Fault in Our Stars, I will not help you.