Melania, as I was forced to endure on a cold Saturday morning, is an abomination of a cinematic experience, a ghastly parade of fun-house mirror herstory. But as dull as it was, I reckon that the film is more revelatory than it seems.
I'm talking about its aggressive push of the "good immigrant" myth, a narrative Melania goes out of her way to foreground, as she talks about her journey from Slovenian immigrant to American first lady. (She does this despite reports that she may have been working here years ago without a visa, and she does not mention the "chain migration" pathway her parents were able to pursue to become US citizens here—the same policy her husband talks about ending.)
But then the gut punch.
You can read about the specific remarks I found downright offensive, especially in light of the Trump administration's systematic kidnapping of immigrants and their children. Those remarks helped evince for me what Melania truly is: an American obscenity.
I would have asked what my fellow attendees thought, but not even a plastic cup of wine could help wash down the film in its entirety. I left 15 minutes before the credits rolled in, incomplete as they were.
—Inae Oh
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