Jones’s apparent violence plays mask sentimental core plots

Evidence

By comparison, The Toilet (directed, like The Baptism, by Jerry Benjamin) and even The Slave were moderate. Set entirely in a high school boy’s room, The Toilet centers on a Black gang who plan to stomp a white fellow student, Karolis, who had been sufficiently indiscreet to send a homosexual mash note to their leader, Foots. Violence ensues but after Karolis is beaten unconscious, Foots tearfully cradles his head. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 620

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how the public ‘violent’ reputation of avant-garde works is built on what critics/publicity highlight, not necessarily what the work actually does.