Lana and Lilly Wachowski

Contemporary Film Directors

by Cáel M. Keegan

Lana and Lilly Wachowski have redefined the technically and topically possible while joyfully defying audience expectations. Visionary films like The Matrix trilogy and Cloud Atlas have made them the world's most influential transgender media producers, and their coming out retroactively put trans* aesthetics at the very center of popular American culture. Cáel M. Keegan views the Wachowskis' films as an approach to trans* experience that maps a transgender journey and the promise we might learn "to sense beyond the limits of the given world." Keegan reveals how the filmmakers take up the relationship between identity and coding (be it computers or genes), inheritance and belonging, and how transgender becoming connects to a utopian vision of a post-racial order. Along the way, he theorizes a trans* aesthetic that explores the plasticity of cinema to create new social worlds, new temporalities, and new sensory inputs and outputs. Film comes to disrupt, rearrange, and evolve the cinematic exchange with the senses in the same manner that trans* disrupts, rearranges, and evolves discrete genders and sexes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

216 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2018

About the author

Cáel M. Keegan is Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Liberal Studies at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA. His research focuses on the analysis of queer and transgender media histories and aesthetics. Over the course of his career, he has published multiple articles on the circulation, reception, and politics of queer and transgender film, television, and photography.

Reviews

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

the race stuff is honestly pretty wonky sometimes and i often found myself questioning this dude’s perspective on it all considering he’s white. but as a piece of art criticism from an explicitly transgender perspective this is essential reading for anyone who enjoys the wachowskis’ work, and a great tool for understanding queer and popular cinema in general. i hope this is the first of many books on trans filmmakers and the wachowskis in particular because there is no one else like them. worth it for the lana interview alone.

[Mike Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you are really starved for inaccessible film criticism after 2+ months of only reading for work.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Cael Keegan reassesses the complete film oeuvre in light of their coming out as trans. Like any view through a very specific lens there are a couple of weak connections but overall the arguments Keegan puts forth are very compelling.

The films are approached chronologically, though connections are made forward and back, and this works very well. If you're familiar with the many academic interpretations of the films, particularly from Bound through the Matrix trilogy to V for Vendetta, you will be very pleased with the added levels Keegan adds. There is no attempt to make previous theoretical understandings less valid but rather to demonstrate the Wachowskis' overall work can be better understood through a trans* aesthetic.

Reading this reminded me of the new book Foucault at the Movies and the discussion there about the difference between finding where philosophical thought is illustrated in a film and in the possibility of film to be the message itself. Keegan makes a strong case that the Wachowskis aren't so much using philosophical thought and ideas in their films (though they certainly are) but rather creating philosophical texts in and of themselves. It isn't hard to see certain thinkers in the films, much like you can see Foucault in Judith Butler's work, but the films make their own fully contained arguments much as Butler's books make their own arguments. My use had always been to read into the films, such as Baudrillard in specific parts (or all of Speed Racer) rather than reading the films themselves as philosophical texts.

I found the discussion of the later movies particularly interesting. Many complaints centered on the action and effects overshadowing any narrative. This was also leveled against The Matrix as well. Keegan argues very eloquently that the action and the effects ARE the story as much as any other elements of the films. How the effects are used, the feelings they elicit, aren't just for entertainment or the thrills, they have meanings within the overarching narrative.

This is an academic book for the most part but is quite accessible for most readers. If you are familiar with various ideas within trans studies the reading is even more accessible, but Keegan makes his meaning clear even when he uses jargon from the field of study. This is not a biography and does not get into much that isn't directly applicable to a critical assessment of the films. For that reason this might not appeal to some readers who are looking for more of a biography or a behind the scenes tell all type book. But if you have enjoyed any or all of their films, or even had mixed feelings, this book will offer new and interesting ways to "see" these movies. the interview with Lana is also a wonderful glimpse into her thinking and, what I found interesting, her sincere interest in hearing what others think.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[M. (they)]

the first wachowskis movie i came into contact with was cloud atlas (2012). i was a teenager. yes. not even v for vendetta (2005), let alone the matrix (1999). i had no clue who the wachowskis were, what amazing pieces of fucking art they already contributed to society, nor that they were trans* — pretty weird for someone to be trans* and yet not knowing the two most famous trans* directors of our times, heh.
nonetheless, from the first moment i watched cloud atlas, it went straight up to my top 3 movies (and it’s still there). it took my heart, my head, it inspired me, it shaped my values. as unreal as it might sound, it gave me an angle with which i still look at the world, and i consequently act up to today. i was mesmerized by the transcendence of time, space, ethnicity, gender, class that was portrayed, and how the structural fight against the (current) status quo is always the same. “what is revolution, then, but the replacing of one power with another?” (kaneko fumiko, ca 1926).
not much later, i bumped into bound (1996) because of its lgbtqia+ theme, and obviously sense8 (2015-2018). had i drawn connections between the directors? not yet, but that was soon to change. i was looking for trans* media representation everywhere i could find it, and i happened to google something about trans* characters in movies and neo from the matrix came out. it was time to look into it. i reckon i had a quite privileged watching position as i already knew the trans* subtext of the movie and i could enjoy connecting the dots from the very beginning. now, who the wachowski sisters were was quite clear to me: trans* goddesses (directors) who impacted our pop culture beyond all recognition.
i am sooo ecstatic to have my hands on this book. i intend to (re)watch every movie before reading the related commentary as to have my own opinion shaped and later informed by keegan’s work. updates coming soon.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first encounter I had with the Wachowski's was The Matrix movie. I remember the "brothers names being everywhere at the time. A few years passed and I heard one on them switched genders, but didn't really pay much mind to it. Then I saw this book. I had to look into it. Well, it seems both brothers have now switched and are sisters. I had to read the book to puzzle this one out. Fans of the Wachowski's will find the book an entertaining and enlightening read. It's a great cinema study and look at transgender I've not encountered before. I'm sure that's true for many people. Fascinating and thought provoking.
I received a Kindle ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked Keegan’s critical analysis here (even when I didn’t agree with some of the points being made) and it taught me new ways to approach these movies I’ve been watching for some time.

The interview with Lana at the end of this book is worth its price alone. It’s really wonderful.

[Aladin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and very insightful read on the Wachowskis work but a difficult one, the language was a bit too academic for me.

[Sophie Abromowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love lana and lilly wachowski

[sky barwood]

awww yeah trans* phenomenology goes so hard! also the interview was very cool

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Wachowski sisters. My first encounter with them is likely the same as most people, The Matrix trilogy. Prior to a film class in university that made me watch movies through a different lens, I never paid much attention to film directors. So I had no idea that the siblings who directed The Matrix were also involved in so many other movies (and a tv show) I enjoyed—V for Vendetta, Speed Racer, Jupiter Ascending, and Sense8. During that same aforementioned film class, I wrote a paper on the trans* subtext in V for Vendetta, and a women and genders studies professor at my university photocopied for me a chapter from his just-published book to help me write it. That professor was Cáel Keegan and that book was Lana and Lilly Wachowski. Read the full review here

[J.D. DeHart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keegan's text is a perfect theoretical and analytical resource for readers who enjoy cinema and gender studies. This book draws on phenomenology and heuristics in making its case for narratology and notes prominent voices from the research field.

Even more so, Keegan explores individual examples of films and provides multiples scenes and elements in making the case for analysis. Thoughtful, well-developed, and ideal for building conversation about society and art.