Anthropology 101 (2024)

It's easy to miss the deeper message.

A great watch, don't go in expecting any actual romance, the movie mainly highlights two very interesting things that I will try my best not to spoil too much (at the beginning of the review) so that you can get a rough idea and watch it yourself.


How does an ex husband psychologically deal with his wife becoming lesbian and how does he act around the girlfriend of that ex wife when he finds himself alone with her ?

The realism of his reaction and way of coping are exaggerated, not in the sense that "no one would ever act like that" but as in...most men would be more subtle, if even revealing anything about their inner feelings at all.

The exaggeration is genius, because as a viewer you're actually very much drawn onto how ridiculous the man is...

While missing how the wife's girlfriend is and even more subtly, how the wife is herself.

The script is written in such a way to draw your attention towards him, it's done so that you will miss the subtle parts of it if you're funnily enough similar to one of the two woman or strongly identified with "defending lesbianism" or anything like that.


I recommend that you watch it and see what this subtle thing is, hint: both sides are not that much better than the other, particularly the girlfriend.


Spoiler below:














The subtely is around the two woman, it's possible to pinpoint certain obvious aspects the ex girlfriend (hypocrisy, haughtiness, double-faced) but the deeper implications are kept vague and difficult to reach any conclusions with.

The man is obvious, the women are difficult to figure out.
This is roughly what can be understood from it.

The girlfriend mentions traveling, doing yoga, meditating.
It's implicated that she cares about her health and her step son, she is presented as highly tolerant and "kind" yet the reality behind her behavior is condescending, mocking, haughty and she seems to act in a justified way despite coming across as possibly knowing better.

One's behavior is not isolated from your mind, take care what you allow yourself to do, take care what beliefs and actions you allow to condition it.

“Like a beautiful flower full of colour but without fragrance, so are the well-spoken words of one who does not act accordingly.” Buddhist Dhammapada 51.


The ex-wife largely understands her ex husband and what kind of person he is, what his book is about and what he has done yet still allows herself to become involved with that person despite describing feeling mentally tired of it.

The divorce is also implied to not having occurred because of her coming out but because the husband cheated.

When the toy is discarded the ex wife asks her girlfriend whether or not they will really not use it anymore to which the girlfriend replies "we will see".


Depending on whether you side with the women or the man you will reach different conclusions from these informations.

And the more interesting and subtle part is, you can't really reach a conclusion on the two woman.

Deliberately so, the title is "anthropology 101".

What behaviors and tendencies are typically attributed to women and men ?

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