--- title: Cancersploitation and Art: A Cancer Survivor On The Fault in Our Stars description: Whether we view cancer films as outsiders or insiders, the best movies in the genre provide catharsis. canonical: https://time.com/2848720/cancersploitation-cancer-survivor-reviews-the-fault-in-our-stars/ author: Lani Horn article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-09T18:31:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-09T08:20:02.338Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Difference Between Cancersploitation and Art—According to a Cancer Survivor og:description: Whether we view cancer films as outsiders or insiders, the best movies in the genre provide catharsis. og:url: https://time.com/2848720/cancersploitation-cancer-survivor-reviews-the-fault-in-our-stars/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9646ab9cf1e9bc/698696a33bc99977f41a3f99/the-fault-in-our-stars-fios-115-07416r_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Films about cancer, such as 'The Fault in Our Stars,' can offer a new understanding of humanity. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Difference Between Cancersploitation and Art—According to a Cancer Survivor twitter:description: Whether we view cancer films as outsiders or insiders, the best movies in the genre provide catharsis. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9646ab9cf1e9bc/698696a33bc99977f41a3f99/the-fault-in-our-stars-fios-115-07416r_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Difference Between Cancersploitation and Art—According to a Cancer Survivor > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Lani Horn](https://time.com/author/lani-horn/) ## Lani Horn Jun 9, 2014 6:31 PM UTC  Films about cancer, such as 'The Fault in Our Stars,' can offer a new understanding of humanity. Films about cancer, such as 'The Fault in Our Stars,' can offer a new understanding of humanity. James Bridges— Twentieth Century Fox by [Lani Horn](https://time.com/author/lani-horn/) ## Lani Horn Jun 9, 2014 6:31 PM UTC In _The Fault in Our Stars,_ Hazel, the story’s teenage protagonist played by Shailene Woodley, wears a t-shirt imprinted with Magritte’s famous painting of a pipe, _ceci n’est pas une pipe_ (“_this is not a pipe”_). She explains the picture to her confused mother, saying “All representations of a thing are inherently abstract.” Art, in other words, imitates life: it is not meant to be life itself. So it is with cancer films. These stories are not meant to be literal representations. What it means to watch them depends on whether we come as outsiders, wanting to understand an experience beyond our own, or as insiders, coming to see our own lives reflected. I am in the latter category. Five years ago, when I was only 38, I was diagnosed with a locally advanced, aggressive cancer. The doctors told me that if the chemo and relatively new therapy did not work, I would have a 10% chance of surviving five years. If the treatment worked, the odds would reverse in my favor. The world looks different after you have spent time pinned to the mat by death. The gaps between reality and representation are no longer theoretical. They are contentious. Beautifully bald actors shorn to portray chemo patients betray reality with their thickly lashed eyes, much to the chagrin of those of us left lashless by the real medicine. Some of the most egregious side effects of treatment cannot be artfully depicted on film ­— mouthsores and constipation, anyone? — while vomiting, which has become more manageable thanks to newer side-effect medicines, continues its prominent role as a cancer-flick leitmotif. Obviously, filmmakers are not making medical documentaries. Indicating pain and suffering should suffice without having to make audiences endure it. In fact, film critic Roger Ebert, a fellow cancer insider, found the movie _Wit_ [too graphic to watch](http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/when-a-movie-hurts-too-much), as it brought back many vivid and painful memories of treatment. So what does it mean to use cancer as a backdrop to a story? To be sure, a prolonged or terminal cancer experience is a crucible of one’s character, as well as the characters of those around you. The fractures in our relationships break or heal under the strain of mortal threat. Cancer is an economical dramatic device. Some of the Hollywood cancer tropes get it right. When you can see the finite number of your days, you might go on a truth-telling bender (_Funny People_), indulge deferred dreams (_Bucket List, Now Is Good_), or heal relationships (_Terms of Endearment, My Life_). You might decide you do not care about society’s conventions (_Breaking Bad, Y Tu Mamá También_) because you just want to take care of your own needs and desires. I know some people — though I do not count myself among them — do find they live life with a renewed passion after diagnosis (_My Life Without Me_). The make-or-break question for me as a former patient comes down to one thing: is cancer simply a storytelling device — shorthand for eliciting sympathy and turning up the heat on the issues in a character’s life — or do the filmmakers take it seriously as a situation to explore? This question sorts the cancersploitation from real cancer art. Two recent films, _50/50_ and _The Fault in Our Stars_, portray young adult cancer. As representations, they each have their artifice: _ceci n’est pas cancer_. Despite this (or maybe Roger Ebert would say _because_ of this), they find ways to reflect the human experience of having cancer. _50/50_, written and directed by Will Reiser, who himself had cancer, explores the profound identity loss and the insult-to-injury trajectory many patients endure. Adam, the young adult patient played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has numerous relationships tested and feels the peril of his illness to his young career. In _The Fault in Our Stars_, Hazel exhibits delightful self-consciousness about the world she calls Cancervania: the cancer perks, the pitying looks, the treacly cheeriness that mark too many support groups. The stories get enough details right to earn plausibility with us insiders: the outrageously obtuse bedside manner of some doctors, the devastating loss of fellow patients, the need to lay perfectly still for an MRI, the desire to change clothes after an appointment to purge the hospital smell. Whether we view these films as outsiders or insiders to the cancer world, the best movies in this genre provide catharsis. As I watched _The Fault in Our Stars_ with my 11-year-old daughter this past weekend, we dried our eyes as the credits rolled. The story opened up discussions about her memories of my illness and her uncle’s death, helping her make new sense of these painful experiences. Art may merely be a representation of reality, but if it deepens our humanity, then it has done its job. _Ilana Horn is an associate professor of mathematics education at Vanderbilt University. She has been a breast cancer patient since 2009, two years after losing her stepbrother to cancer. On her blog,_ [_chemobabe.com_](http://chemobabe.com/)_, Lani writes about caregiving, end-of-life issues, doctor-patient communication, cultural expectations of patients, and other issues._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2848720/cancersploitation-cancer-survivor-reviews-the-fault-in-our-stars/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2848720/cancersploitation-cancer-survivor-reviews-the-fault-in-our-stars/"},"headline":"The Difference Between Cancersploitation and Art—According to a Cancer Survivor","datePublished":"2014-06-09T18:31:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T08:20:02.338Z","description":"Whether we view cancer films as outsiders or insiders, the best movies in the genre provide catharsis.","url":"https://time.com/2848720/cancersploitation-cancer-survivor-reviews-the-fault-in-our-stars/","keywords":["movies","Cancer","Shailene Woodley","The Fault In Our Stars","ansel elgort","john green"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9646ab9cf1e9bc/698696a33bc99977f41a3f99/the-fault-in-our-stars-fios-115-07416r_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lani Horn","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lani-horn/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f9646ab9cf1e9bc/698696a33bc99977f41a3f99/the-fault-in-our-stars-fios-115-07416r_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Films about cancer, such as 'The Fault in Our Stars,' can offer a new understanding of humanity.","caption":"Films about cancer, such as 'The Fault in Our Stars,' can offer a new understanding of humanity.","creditText":"James Bridges— Twentieth Century Fox","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2848720/cancersploitation-cancer-survivor-reviews-the-fault-in-our-stars/","name":"The Difference Between Cancersploitation and Art—According to a Cancer Survivor"}}]}] ```