There was huge potential for this documentary. For those of us who remember when Dita moved out and within seconds Evan was appearing in public with Manson, and then six months later they destroyed Dita's bed with fake blood in a video they called "a love letter to each other", we were ready to hear the backstory. We were ready to hear about how bad the relationship was even when it looked so exciting. Manson was head in heels over heels in love, calling her is "twin." She went on the interview circuit, defending and celebrating her relationship with him every time. Her career took off like a rocket, completing four movies and getting two roles in a series, and even being up for Emmy nomination, after doing Heart Shaped Glasses.
But then things got very very weird, and for a decade I've been waiting to hear the backstory and was so eager to hear her tell it. She moved out at the end of 2008, Manson spent Christmas alone, cutting himself for each time she refused to answer the phone as he told Spin magazine in June 2009. Then, they spent a year apart, during which she completed the movie The Wrestler, and Manson completed the album High End of Low with Twiggy. It was a huge thing, Twiggy coming back. And the album was extremely dark, and he told everyone, quite openly, that the album was about killing Evan and himself.
And then after her year away from him, dating four other people, she returned and accepted a marriage proposal. WHAT?! So, honestly, seriously, I have been waiting for YEARS to find out what really happened.
Instead, this documentary was itself psychological abuse. We are gaslit over and over. We are told that her career tanked after HSG and he enjoyed this because it isolated her -- you're right here on IMDB reading this, so go take a glance at her profile yourself and see if that's even vaguely true. We are told she returned after shooting The Wrestler and inexplicably Manson was not happy to see her and Twiggy didn't like her (uh, you were no longer together and Twiggy just helped put his friend back together after you leaving). She represents herself as a child. She says NOTHING about the album dedicated to Manson's murder-suicide fantasy, even though if one is exposing an abusive ex, you'd think that would be in your top 3 things to mention. But they don't. Why not? Probably because she'd have a lot to explain in her own behavior. So they opt to hide HIS effed up behavior if it will also hide hers.
They also depict her in epic fear and danger after naming him. What? They've been apart 13 years. Manson is married. He's in his 50s, out of shape, and walks with a cane. But you wouldn't know that because they only show footage of him in his 20s in the 1990s, a decade and a half before he even met her.
Their evidence is this: In his 20s he did awesome shows. In junior high he wrote sad things in his journal. As a teenager, he threw something at his mother and felt horrible about it. Again, this man was pushing 40 when he met her and is now over 50. What in the hell does his junior high moping have to do with anything? I wanted to hear about who he was when he was with Evan.
Worse, this "documentary" is going to make it so much harder for people stuck in abusive relationships to recognize that they need to get out. Women often compare their situation to others and then say "oh, this isn't so bad, I should make it work." Well, now Evan has set the bar absurdly high -- apparently abuse means you were trafficked, raped on a video set with none of the crew stopping it, whipped, and forced to drink blood. She represents herself as a child and lies about Manson being her first adult kiss. This again, is a huge disservice to women -- it's telling us that if we're not virgins and innocent it's not actually abuse. Evan, listen, we knew you weren't a virgin and you did a ton of racy edgy films before meeting him -- a young woman with that history CAN STILLL BE ABUSED. So why not tell us that -- that you weren't innocent, and yet even with your experience you fell prey to a real mess of a destructive relationship.
Why tell such unbelievable lies and rather than the godawful truth?
But then things got very very weird, and for a decade I've been waiting to hear the backstory and was so eager to hear her tell it. She moved out at the end of 2008, Manson spent Christmas alone, cutting himself for each time she refused to answer the phone as he told Spin magazine in June 2009. Then, they spent a year apart, during which she completed the movie The Wrestler, and Manson completed the album High End of Low with Twiggy. It was a huge thing, Twiggy coming back. And the album was extremely dark, and he told everyone, quite openly, that the album was about killing Evan and himself.
And then after her year away from him, dating four other people, she returned and accepted a marriage proposal. WHAT?! So, honestly, seriously, I have been waiting for YEARS to find out what really happened.
Instead, this documentary was itself psychological abuse. We are gaslit over and over. We are told that her career tanked after HSG and he enjoyed this because it isolated her -- you're right here on IMDB reading this, so go take a glance at her profile yourself and see if that's even vaguely true. We are told she returned after shooting The Wrestler and inexplicably Manson was not happy to see her and Twiggy didn't like her (uh, you were no longer together and Twiggy just helped put his friend back together after you leaving). She represents herself as a child. She says NOTHING about the album dedicated to Manson's murder-suicide fantasy, even though if one is exposing an abusive ex, you'd think that would be in your top 3 things to mention. But they don't. Why not? Probably because she'd have a lot to explain in her own behavior. So they opt to hide HIS effed up behavior if it will also hide hers.
They also depict her in epic fear and danger after naming him. What? They've been apart 13 years. Manson is married. He's in his 50s, out of shape, and walks with a cane. But you wouldn't know that because they only show footage of him in his 20s in the 1990s, a decade and a half before he even met her.
Their evidence is this: In his 20s he did awesome shows. In junior high he wrote sad things in his journal. As a teenager, he threw something at his mother and felt horrible about it. Again, this man was pushing 40 when he met her and is now over 50. What in the hell does his junior high moping have to do with anything? I wanted to hear about who he was when he was with Evan.
Worse, this "documentary" is going to make it so much harder for people stuck in abusive relationships to recognize that they need to get out. Women often compare their situation to others and then say "oh, this isn't so bad, I should make it work." Well, now Evan has set the bar absurdly high -- apparently abuse means you were trafficked, raped on a video set with none of the crew stopping it, whipped, and forced to drink blood. She represents herself as a child and lies about Manson being her first adult kiss. This again, is a huge disservice to women -- it's telling us that if we're not virgins and innocent it's not actually abuse. Evan, listen, we knew you weren't a virgin and you did a ton of racy edgy films before meeting him -- a young woman with that history CAN STILLL BE ABUSED. So why not tell us that -- that you weren't innocent, and yet even with your experience you fell prey to a real mess of a destructive relationship.
Why tell such unbelievable lies and rather than the godawful truth?