Renfield... goofy-bad but also an unexpected & refreshing representation of codependency?

Superficially, this movie wasn't great. Granted, I don't think anyone went into this expecting something Best Picture-worthy. It was fun, goofy, gory, cringey, lovable, entertaining. It did its job. If I'd paid to see this in theaters I don't think I'd have been upset at the cost. Nick Cage was in his bag with over-the-top vampirism, Nicholas Hoult is perfect as the (sym)pathetic, handsome, dweeb that eventually overcomes himself and launches into the hero. Awkwafina is... Awkwafina as the moralistic cop 🤷‍♂️. Ben Schwartz and Shohreh Aghdashloo as the "Lobos" (presumably Hispanic??) crime family was... hard to believe. But it didn't really matter, they did a great job of intimidating-old-school-forged-in-the-flames boss and whiny-spoiled-inheritance brat. Plot was predictable from the get-go. Plenty of scenes were ham-fisted. The pseudo-romance was annoying and unwelcome and poorly justified. BUT. BUT. Ignoring all of that. Good lord. This movie felt almost spiritual to me. When it came out I was still with my ex. Wanted to watch it, wasn't up her alley, didn't think it would be good enough to push for it. Now, three years later and two years out. My god. This felt like an apotheosis. While it's completely goofy and corny and full of shit... it does NAIL the core feelings of a toxic, codependent relationship with a narcissist. And frankly part of the reason it nails it... is \_because\_ it's goofy and full of shit. There plenty of distractions and poetic license. But goddamn... at the end of the day... it really hit home in a way I couldn't have guessed a mile out. The feelings that it conveyed. The feelings of being tainted, irredeemable, that the behaviors and actions undertaken in that context were of free will, that they are yours to bear, that you are fundamentally broken for having been in that position in the first place, that rather than \*them\* being the narcissist... it is instead \*you\* that are the selfish one for daring to break away and ask that you have some space. The idea that you are the one responsible for both where \*you\* are and where \*the other person\* is. That it's all on you to fix it. That you have no real value outside of your ability to fix or appease someone else that you feel/are "owed” to. I'm not sure how much this resonates with those who were socialized as women in codependent relationships... but as someone who was socialized as a man... who often feels fundamentally lacking in inherent value and that my only value is as a foil, as a means of support, as a tool... This resonated unexpectedly deeply. Just... wow. I never would have guessed that a goofy, bullshit Nick Cage movie would hit me as square in the chest with the realities of codependency that I'd been both unaware of and grappling with for years. And to top it all off... it wasn't moralizing. It wasn't lecturing me, or warning me, or condescending, or any of that. It just... \_was\_. It was a \_depiction\_ of codependency and the journey to recognizing that and existing. At the end of the movie, Renfield absolutely still is codependent. He came out of that relationship. Faced and separated from his abuser. But also owned and recognized that that's also his problem and pattern in him. That he will continue to have to battle and own going forward. In that aspect, there was no happy ending. It wasn't all fixed. It was just over. So yeah... I'm sure I could ramble for another 500 words about this. But when I finished it and ran to the various forums ands I didn't see a lot of online discourse about this. So, three years later, here I am putting this out into the world.