Nightcrawler: A Noir Refresher

Oscar season came and went. There were definitely a handful of great movies that give a ray of hope for today’s cinema, especially from the independent sector. Birdman won best picture, Boyhood gets it due and Whiplash provided us with excellent performances all around. The movie I found most intriguing, however, was Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal never ceases to amaze me with the versatility of his craft and establishes yet again in this film that he is among Hollywood’s elite actors. Watching this film gave me chills and kept me in a state of suspense in a way that few contemporary films can. It wasn’t just the disturbing aura of the film that kept me occupied, but rather the reminiscent feel of classic neo-noir that can instantly be seen by staring into Jake’s eyes.

As I watched the film, I kept imagining Travis Bickle from the Martin Scorsese masterpiece Taxi Driver as if he was employed the ratings-hungry station from Network (you can even view it as American Psycho with a camcorder).Seeing as one of the most predominant themes of those classic films are the cynical emotions the characters feel about their surroundings, Dan Gilroy provided a perfect blend of cynicism and apathy and formulated a violent and sinister plot that leaves you in shock of how anyone could succumb to such as mental disposition. In the film, Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, a petty thief who receives payment from the possessions he steals. After witnessing a crash on the highway one night, Bloom also sees a freelance camera crew recording the accident to sell to local TV stations. Louis sees this and instantly becomes fanatical about the line of work. He purchases a camcorder and a radio scanner, employs a young assistant named Rick who’s simply looking for some type of employment and begins to take graphic close up recordings of the victim’s death that morning TV director Nina can’t get enough of.

As he becomes a more dominant freelance recorder in the area, Louis becomes so consumed with getting a story that his sanity is thrown even more into question(as if it wasn’t in question already). He manipulates Nina into having sex with him, begins to sabotage his competition that results in a critical accident (which is used as a morning news story) and goes deeper into the underbelly of Los Angeles crime, risking himself and his partner night in and night out. In essence, Bloom has become an anti hero that we become accustomed to seeing in noir films. What separates him, however, is how we view him. In traditional noir films, the anti hero is someone who’s better qualities outweigh his negative, still giving us a reason to root for him. With Bloom, his negative attributes have completely overtaken any positives, causing us to reconsider our stance with him. If there were any questions about his humanity thus far, none will be asked after his biggest story yet.

When a home invasion occurs one night, Bloom enters into the home immediately after it occurs, even seeing the two invaders leave in their black Escalade. Once he enters the home, before the police arrive, and takes gruesome footage of the victims soaked in blood, getting an adrenaline rush from the thought of this being the breaking news everyone will be talking about. To make matters even more sinister, he elects not to contact the authorities about the suspects who killed the residents, so that he may set up a situation where he can capture footage of the murderers getting arrested. Staking them out for a short while and following them to a diner, Bloom contacts the police, in which officers enter and a shootout begins. After a car chase, with the suspects car overturned, Bloom calls Rick over, claiming that the suspect is dead, to capture footage. Rick is then shot on the spot, with Bloom catching it all on camera. In this instance, he has become the villain. Nina is infatuated by the footage, and ultimately by the presence of Bloom. The film ends with Bloom giving directions to his new employees before they depart in their vans to catch the next story.

When watching Nightcrawler, I see a film in modern Hollywood cinema that made me felt like I time traveled back to time when films weren’t predictable and plot structures wasn’t based of a typical Hollywood ending. The film embodied a certain level of cynicism that many neo-noir films broadcasted, in which only a few production companies would dare to emulate today. What I mean by this is showing the dark side of people that was the main topic of film until the early 2000’s. In the film, Bloom states “What if my problem wasn’t that I don’t understand people but that I don’t like them?” This one quote personifies what noir films represent: The lack of optimism in humanity gives them a justifiable reason to act the way they do, regardless of what the outcome may be. Perhaps the film’s primary recipient of cynicism is greed,or the media/journalist ethics or the contemporary “American Dream.” It could very well be a combination of all of these. Regardless, it still brings back stylistic elements of plot structure and aesthetics that make a film enthusiast like me smile, no matter how twisted the plot might be.

A Crash Course in Discrimination

Paul Haggis wrote his passion-project Crash to “bust liberals,” meaning he wanted to expose the inner racial discrimination we all carry. Through multiple story lines that intertwine, we see the experiences of different racial stereotypes in Los Angeles and the hardships each one undergoes. While the majority of these post have been an analysis of the whole film, I wanted to focus on a central character who went through the seemingly most enlightening turnaround.

What the film Crash does so well is not make us aware of the racism that surrounds us but makes us question if we are part of the never-ending cycle of racial tensions that dominates suburban America. Through the emotionally tortured characters and the intertwining plot lines, we see some characters enter into a quest, weather it is for the good or bad. Some characters we see remain stagnant, such as detective Waters(Don Cheadle), who closes the film with the same hopeless mindset as we saw in the beginning. But one particular character we see undergo a transformation in some capacity that exemplifies what a redemptions story is Officer Ryan.

Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon) is a character built purely out of bitter intentions. As bell hooks states, “The culture most movies are making when it comes to race, both in mainstream cinema and independent work, is on that still upholds, either covertly or overtly, white supremacy.” While the character of Officer Ryan may not accurately reflect the “white supremacy “culture in film, it shows the intolerance of African-Americans he contains and demonstrates to us in his words and actions. Officer Ryan feels these acidic emotions because of how affirmative action laws put his father, who employed 27 black people, out of business. From the first time we see him on screen, he has some angst towards blacks when he is arguing with the insurance agent about getting his father quality care, in which he implies she got the job because of being black. But this is just the preliminary sign of his racial disgust, for he then pulls over a black couple in an SUV when he witnesses the wife(Thandie Newton) performing fellatio on her husband (Terrance Howard). He immediately gives them a hard time and has them step out of the car. He does a salacious weapons search on the wife, seemingly taking pleasure in her public humiliation, while his young partner Tommy is paralyzed in shock. After viewing this scene, you feel there is no possible way Ryan is capable of any compassion whatsoever. Ironically enough, this scene, coincidently or not, epitomizes the constant battle between the black community and police officers.

Ryan’s act led his young, innocent partner Tommy(Ryan Phillippe) to request for a new partner. When the two interact after the change, Ryan says the single, most crucial line that refers to the introductory sentence, “You think you know who you are, but you really have no idea.” After hearing this, it would be safe to assume Ryan has a change of heart, and enters on his quest. As with all quests, however, comes a change where the character undergoes a moment of clarity that could potentially reveal the heroism or expose the cruel nature of that character. With Ryan, we are led to believe he falls in line with that of a hero through his moment of redemption. When the same woman he molested the night before is trapped in her flipped over car after a brutal crash (a fitting motif in reference to an earlier line in the movie “we crash into each other just so we can feel something”), he goes into the car to pull her out. When she discovers it his him attempting to save her, she screams for him to get away, preferring to die a painful death than to be saved by his hands.

Officer Ryan undergoes a somewhat epiphany while he is trying to save her. He speaks to her in a nurturing voice that we normally hear a father when he is comforting his daughter, aiming to regain her trust while trying to save her life. We almost forget this is the same man who maliciously mistreated the black couple just the night before. While you could argue he is only doing this as his duty as a cop, we have a reason to believe his intentions are not self centered after he crawls back into the car to save her after his fellow officers pull him out of the car before it explodes.

Despite the high intensity of the rescue, it is subordinate to the closing shots when she is saved. As she is being carried away by the police to receive medical attention, she turns back and states deeply at Ryan, who also is staring deeply back at her. As she is being carried away, the camera shoots in slow motion to magnify the emotion in each other’s eyes. She looks back at him in a bittersweet manner, thankful for being saved but to have it been by the very same man to had shown cruelty to her. With Ryan, I can’t help but to see guilt expressed in his eyes, as if the years he spent resenting the black community had flashed right before his eyes as he could only feel the need to reconcile for his motives. While it will never truly be known if Ryan completely changed, I believe we have enough to label Ryan’s redemption as a quest of heroism.

What captivated audiences when watching Crash wasn’t necessarily the explicitness of racial animosity but rather how each character responds to racism or their own racial tendencies. We saw some character left with more questions than answered and others finding themselves out in ways they never thought they would. What made Officer Ryan so appealing was the difficulty it takes from turning bad to good, to relieve yourself of such pride and a hard heart that you see what you’ve done wrong. Going off of John Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance, Ryan, in that instant of the crash, placed no moral judgment based of social structure, but rather in an empathetic way. For the only hope to overcome any source of blind distrust is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

The Tyler Durden Effect, Part 2

With the amount of discussion that goes into such a dynamic film, it’s only fitting to break this up into two parts. Part one dealt with an introduction to the ideals presented in the film and then a synopsis of what happened. In part two, we will look even closer at the dialogue in the film and how it relates to our society.

Anti Consumerism

The most predominant philosophy embraced in the motion picture would be the criticism of material possessions and the elevated value we place on them. The narrator’s apartment is the biggest reflection of how we let our possessions define who we are as opposed to our actions, which eventually subjugates us to a lifestyle worrying more about what we buy, drive, wear, etc. This doesn’t stop at products, but extends to a class system that has identified themselves with their occupation and how much money they have. Seeing as the film is targeted towards men, the message being sent is that masculinity for a man is now defined by his career and the car he drives, which is evident in the narrator’s lifeless montage of audits for his insurance company.

Tyler aims to emancipate the men who have fallen victim to the consumer culture. While at the bar, he tells the narrator:

“The things you own end up owning you”

Let’s step back and examine what runs our lives. The people of my generation can’t go more than a handful of minutes without looking at their iPhone, either taking selfies every two minutes, texting or playing an app game. Reality TV continues to dominate network programming that contains nothing but useless content that more often than not serves no purpose other than networks looking to make a quick buck. Social media, while becoming a positive in many business sectors, still causes people to act remote to those around them and has ignited somewhat of a communication disorder among young adults and teens. While it is not necessary to wage an all out war against consumer products, we should keep in mind they are not the top priority in our lives. Minimalism teaches us that it’s good to have the things we gain enjoyment from, but let us not be completely identified with the what we purchased. So don’t be afraid to take a day and challenge yourself to limit the use of social media or burying your face in your iPhone. Embrace those and what’s around you.

Masculinity and Feminization 

While the question of masculinity is partly attributed to the consumer culture that Fight Club critiques, blame is also allocated to feminization in American society. Tyler states, “We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m starting to wonder if another woman in our lives is really what we need.” As mentioned in post one, Philip Wylie raised the war on momism in his 1942 book, A Generation of Vipers, in which he felt that a motherhood culture that babies their sons has become an epidemic that will cause a state of emasculation among grown men. It is reminiscent of Rebel Without a Cause in how young men with absent fathers(either literally of figuratively) become lost without a strong male presence in their lives. While this may seem like an over exaggeration, young boys that are raised without a father cling to their mother for support. However, this isn’t to suggest that mothers can’t raise a boy to be a man, it’s been done countless times. But the bond a father shares with his son contains unwritten standards that a father should demonstrate what it means to be a man to his son, as sort of birthright the child has. The inauthentic image we paint of woman, Tyler believes, has spread to men, through shopping, constant state of question about self image and the fear of imperfection. That’s why the fighting in the movie, although at times grotesque, signifies the ultimate test of a man’s fear that is overcome after this first altercation. As sort of “right of passage” that is part of a boys transition into manhood.

Nihilism or Meaning 

While often referred to as a nihilistic film due to the emphasis Tyler places on rejecting the morals and social constructs we’ve become accustomed to, I view it more as a film that puts us in the position to analyze and question why we think or believe the way we do. As societies are established, so are cultural universals regarding what we believe about ourselves, family, friends, institutions and God. In Tyler’s eyes, the men of his generation are without a purpose other than becoming subservient to possessions that provide no way of proving their livelihood. He states:

“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

In addition to this, Tyler also questions the involvement of God in the “middle children’s” lives,

“Our fathers were our models for God, if our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?”

With a multitude of quotes that could point to Tyler being proficient in Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy, we see the  gray area in determining nihilistic or skeptic dialogue in Tyler’s words. If Tyler truly felt all hope was lost, why engineer a fraternity of fist fights to reawaken the liveliness of then men who participate? We’ve all accepted, as we should, that each individual serves a meaning, wether inherited or self-proclaimed. Whatever that meaning is, we all face challenges of falsehood that steer us away from that meaning, and if it results in losing everything to discover who we truly are, then perhaps that is the ultimate test of finding out one’s true self and how they combat adversity. Even the narrator, who lost all meaning in his life, slowly overcomes his struggle and builds himself up again after these fights. Maybe that raises a greater theological question; did God bail on us or did we bail on ourselves? Tyler did bring up a generation with no great war or depression to combat. Maybe that is a from a lack of self accountability to fight for what they stand for.

Conclusion

This film has enough material to write a book on. While it is indeed an intriguing film, remind yourself that this is only one man’s view of the world, and is mainly targeted at single man who only have themselves to care for. Too often, people fall victim to one man’s ideals that they lose their own identity(the men of fight club eventually became a byproduct of a violent lifestyle as opposed to consumers). As i mentioned earlier, don’t take the film for the explicit viewing. If anything, use the film as motivation to break yourself of fear and put your words into action. Having said that, lets exit with the best quote not released in the film:

 “Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned-Tyler.”

 

The Tyler Durden Effect, Part 1

How many different philosophies can you incorporate into one angry feature that reflects the devolution of a man? In Tyler Durden’s rhetoric, we hear anti materialistic soliloquies that can only matched by Henry David Thoreau’s poetry. We are introduced to the war against momism, a term coined by Philip Wylie in his angst filled book “Generation of Vipers.” Finally, the seemingly nihilistic qualities presented through Tyler is reminiscent of a Nietzche-based sociology class that rejects what we thought we knew about ourselves, each other and the institutions that command our lives. What perhaps might be the biggest cult classic ever produced, Fight Club has led a to a frenzy of imitators that only take the film at its face value of violence and self destruction. However, when examined for its implicit meanings, we notice that the movie aims to critique the spectator mindset and encourage us to destroy the barriers we build so that we may understand what true freedom is. Such barriers include our ungodly attachment to material possessions, the fear of the unforeseen and letting insecurities dictate every last word or action that occurs(or doesn’t occur).

Based of the 1996 transgressive novel, Fight Club centers on an unnamed, insomniac narrator(Edward Norton) that has lost all purpose in his life to the point where he has become a slave to his occupation as well as his material possessions, specifically furniture, that he feels will “define him.” After he discovers that going to group therapy sessions helps cry himself to sleep, he begins to pose as a victim of that disease, each with a different alias, yet never truly feels at ease with himself. However, it all changes when he meets charismatic soap salesman on a flight by the name of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). While talking to Tyler on the flight, he instantly becomes hooked to Tyler’s words before they part ways. Once the narrator arrives back and discovers his apartment has been blown up, he calls Tyler, where they go out for drinks.

Tyler sits there listening to the narrator complain about the loss of his possessions, as if he found out his life is ending, in which Tyler voices his opinion:

Tyler: We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.

Narrator: Martha Stewart.

Tyler Durden: Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha’s polishing the brass on the Titanic. It’s all going down, man. So fuck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns.

After this conversation, the two walk outside, in which the narrator eventually asks to stay at Tyler’s place. Tyler  says it’s fine, but only after asking the narrator to do him a favor: “I want you to hit me has hard as you can.” After hesitating at first, the narrator punches Tyler, in which the two start brawling, enjoying every punch. It is this moment where a man’s life has changed forever.

As more and more people are witnessing the two fighting, more people begin to partake in these bouts, eventually moving into the basement of the bar. In this underground society known as Fight Club, eight rules are established:

1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.

2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.

3rd RULE: If someone says “stop” or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.

4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight.

5th RULE: One fight at a time.

6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.

7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to.

8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.

While Fight Club is giving emasculated men purpose, it is also a platform for Tyler to promote his ideals on modern society.

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. Working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.”

Fight Club eventually escalates to radical idealist(Project Mayhem) waging war against the consumer culture that misconstructs our priorities. Destroying cars, setting fires to buildings, organizing chaos as only Tyler can. In a plot twister, we discover that Tyler is a split personality of the narrator, who eventually stops Tyler(himself) of these cult activities as he watches financial institutions collapses right in front of him.

This is a movie that can’t be watched from a naked eye point of view. While the over-the-top violence received criticism from many, it serves as a metaphor for what seems to be a crisis among Millennials; getting in the game as opposed to watching from the bleachers.

To be continued…

Update

Hi everyone,

I’m terribly sorry about the lack of post in the last month. I’ve been getting acclimated to this semester and settling into my class, but aim to get back on track with the Fight Club post coming up this Sunday. I hope everyone had a great break, saw some good movies and is already hard at work. I hope you are looking forward to reading the upcoming post as much as I am looking forward to writing them!

The Generational Gap in The Graduate

The 1960s were a time of change. Social movements were ample, conformity was thrown into question and young people began to venture into a future that expressed their individuality as opposed to what their elders preferred them to do. In The Graduate, we see times change, but we aren’t exposed to rioting against corrupt political turmoil or tuned in to a decade of getting stoned while listening to Jimi Hendrix that most people think about when you mention the 60s. The Graduate, rather, uses sex to show the generational gap in America that defined the transition into a time of ending censorship and freeing the youth in an emotional sense.

Benjamin Barrdock comes home to a graduation party after graduating college, unaware of what he will do for the rest of his life. He goes through the motions in his home, saying hello to his parent’s friends as they attempt to give him life lessons, the most famous one being “plastics,” which I will touch on later in this post. But after seeing the wife of his father’s business partner, Mrs. Robinson, things begin to get interesting. After Ben takes her home, she invites him in, and begins to engage with him in a very seductive manner. When Ben is aware of this, he wants to leave before her husband comes home. She exposes her nude body to Ben, telling him she is all his whenever he wants it. From there, the affair begins. For a short while, everything that troubled Ben’s mind has escaped. Rather than applying to graduate schools, he spends his days floating in the pool and drinking beer, while having sex with Mrs. Robinson at night. But when Ben confesses he has feelings for her daughter, Elaine, she forbids him, and even calls of their affair. Ben and Elaine continue to see each other, but when Elaine finds out about the affair, she sides with her mother, and wants nothing to do with Ben. With Elaine off at college and engaged, Ben goes to break up the wedding, as he and Elaine drift off on the back of a bus, wondering what is left ahead after overcoming dissatisfaction.

As mentioned in the intro, sex was used as motif for how these characters escape the dissatisfaction that resides in their lives. Benjamin feels dissatisfaction from being done what is expected of him. While at the party, a friend of his parent’s says “There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?” Plastics mean just more than a product; it represents the propaganda of superficial proprieties that the youth of the 60s aimed to detach themselves from. We often see the 50s as a flawless generation and while in some ways the success they had in that decade will exceed any success the current generation will accomplish, it was just as scandalous(see Marilyn Monroe) and materialistic(the real “mad men” of the 50s) as any other period in American history. It was, however, not as explicit due to censorship. The scandalous affair aims to bring that censorship to an end and expose the hypocritical, risqué nature of the elders(Mrs. Robinson). He defies the rules and creates his own to the point of feeling free. Ben transforms from a boy with innocence and misguided tendencies to a man who is putting his priorities above everyone else’s. He has found himself and knows what he wants, and won’t settle for anything less.

Just like Rebel Without a Cause, The Graduate shows the frustrations from earlier generations that is expressed through sexual revelations as opposed to the angst of James Dean’s violence. Such a topic of adultery(especially with that big of an age difference) was seldom touched upon, if at all, during the 40s and 50s. The film, it shows how different times have changed. This isn’t to label the 60s as an indecent decade, but perhaps an emotional and explicit view of the underground 50s.

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A Wonder Life Lesson

“I suppose it would have been better if I’d never been born at all.”

Everyone has this thought at some point in their lives. Consumed in colossal self pity, they become blind to the impact, whatever the magnitude, they’ve bestowed on someone else’s life and how others have impacted their life. This was certainly the case for George Bailey, the protagonist in the critically acclaimed iconic Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life

This is a film that chronicles the life of George, showing him in the first hour and half or so of the film how he went from being a happy-go-lucky spirit to a suicidal manic depressant. We see Bailey’s sense of unfullfilmen in his life. With intentions of traveling the world before college, his plans are cut short when his father has a fatal stroke, leaving George to take over his father’s loan business until his brother Harry graduates high school. Upon his arrival, Harry notifies George he will be working with his fiancees father, leaving George stuck at the company. While he goes on to marry a girl from his childhood and start his own affordable housing company, he is still becoming increasingly unsatisfied with his life. He is unable to enlist in World War II due to his hearing ailment, while is brother goes on to become a war hero. The pressures of his business began to get to him as a mean spirited banker, Mr. Potter, continues to minimize George’s worth, saying, “You’re worth more dead than you are alive.” He says this when George goes to him asking for a loan when his Uncle Billy misplaces the customers money, in which he refuses and even calls the cops to report fraud on George. George has nothing left, he feels. After screaming to his family, he wandered off in s drunken state, coming up going to a bridge to kill himself. That is until an unlikely presence will come to save him

Right before he is about to jump, an old man jumps into the water, appearing to drown. George dives in to save him, only to find out his name is Clarence, George’s guardian angel. While skeptical, George is still consumed on grief to be aware of what’s in front of him. He tells Clarence he feels life would be better if he was never born, so Clarence shows him what life would be like if he never existed. His brother Harry would die, his Uncle Billy would be locked up in an insane asylum, his wife would become a lonely librarian, his mother would grow into a bitter woman and the town in which he resides would become a slum with filled with bars and strip clubs ruled of mean spirited people. George cannot fathom what he sees and tells Clarence he wants to return to his life. As he returns, those who love him dearly come to him in support for his troubles. They money is recovered, the town celebrates his return and his family rejoice to the sound of his voice. This exemplifies maybe the most powerful quote in the film said by Clarence, “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

Each life has meaning. Weather you believe that meaning comes from a higher power or that you create your own meaning, you only have one life to live. Too often people take about going back and changing what they don’t like about their lives or their past. This is nothing but insecure remorse that distracts us from the preciousness of our lives. Every experience you have in your life made you who you are today. Around this holiday season, reflect and be grateful for your life. More often than not, someone has it worse than you, yet they still find a way to be happy because they appreciate the good they do have in their lives. I’m not suggesting you settle for anything less, but when all else fails, try to look at the bright side of things instead of wallowing in regret and commiseration, just as George did when he saw just how wonderful his life is. For as Clarence said, “Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.”

Merry Christmas!

Office Space and the Everyday American Worker

All the movies I have reviewed thus far have been dramas, because typically dramas contain underlying philosophies and themes that reflects a certain issue or time period. Office Space, however, is a comedy that examines life in a cubicle in a humorous way that you come to the realization of your working life while you chuckle. This movie does a wonderful job of questioning our sense of enjoyment in our current occupation that may deprive us of our time with friends, family, spirituality and more. While it is absolutely necessary to make a living in today’s world to provide for you or you’re family, so much is lost when we fully give ourselves to our occupation. In the current industrialized world, America works more hours per week, takes less vacations and have lower paid vacations/sick days, as the graph below shows.

As Pete, the protagonist in the film, finds out, money isn’t going to buy you happiness; doing what you love for a living will.

Pete works at an IT company, Initech,  in which he feels he is serving a life sentence to his job. He’s feels no excitement in his life to the point where his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend takes him to see a hypnotherapist to bring him out off his funk. When the hypnotherapist hypnotizes Peter, the therapist dies of a heart attack, leaving Pete seemingly emotionless. However, the next morning, he abandons his expectations in terms of his work life, love life and does as he pleases without the fear of his boss, Bill Lumberg, breathing down his neck. From here, he begins to date a waitress named Joanna, who also despise her job. He comes into work abiding by his own rules: coming in as he pleases, wearing what he likes and working at his own pace(if he’s even working at all). In a pivotal point in the movie, Pete goes to speak with two corporate consultants, Bob and Bob, who are interviewing every employee to determine who will be getting laid off. When it’s comes time for Pete’s interview, he leaves it all out on the table, describing his everyday routine. Coming in late, staring off into space for about an hour before he begins working and confessing to working for only about 15 minutes of “real,  actual” work a week. Ironically, the Bobs feel Pete should be promoted to a manager.

The plot thickens when Pete’s only two friends at the company, Michael Bolton(not the singer) and Samir Nagheenanajar are laid off when they clearly take their job more seriously than Peter. In an effort to get back at their former employers, they commit theft electronically that didn’t go according to plan, with Peter slidding the amount stolen in Lumberg’s vacant office, willing to take the fall. But as fate would have it, the building is burned down, and the check is taken by one of the moronic employees for his vacation. Pete then leaves the white collar lifestyle for good and works as a construction worker, happy as can be.

I’m not advocating you quit your job, but don’t let it turn you into a soulless puppet that goes through the motions of life. As Pete said to Michael:

“It’s not just about me and my dream of doing nothing. It’s about all of us. I don’t know what happened to me at that hypnotherapist and, I don’t know, maybe it was just shock and it’s wearing off now, but when I saw that fat man keel over and die – Michael, we don’t have a lot of time on this earth! We weren’t meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements.”

We all have aspirations of doing something we love. If you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life. Some people don’t mind working well over 40 hours a week because they genuinely enjoy what they do. These are the people who are truly content in their lives because they are not grappled down by the pressures of an unwanted anxiety that they commit themselves too. Money is without a doubt beneficial, but is not the equivalent of happiness. It’s only when we strive to be a part of something that gives us honest purpose in our lives where we are truly happy. Some people dedicate there whole life to a job that once they get laid off, they are without purpose and take their own life. You are not defined by your job, and never mistake yourself for a falsified version of yourself in the workplace. You only have one life to life, don’t waste it on something you loath. Remember what is really important in life and your freedom will constitute your happiness.

The Desire for Youthfulness in American Beauty

“I’ll be dead in a year…In a way, I’m dead already.”

These are the introductory words by Kevin Spacey, who portrays a lifeless father and husband by the name of Lester Burnham, an advertising executive for a magazine in which his role is quickly diminishing, just like the rest of his life. Lester has nearly no communication with his daughter, is constantly bickering with his unsatisfied wife and finds himself replaceable at work. The highlight of his day is masturbating in the shower every morning before he goes about a day of deprecation and isolation, as his daughter complains about her embarrassing parents to her friends and his materialistic wife is too consumed with getting ahead in her job than paying attention to her family. This is the lifestyle that incarcerates Lester, until his daughter’s cheerleading routine during a high school basketball game leaves him infatuated.

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While at the basketball game, he notices his daughter’s blonde, attractive friend, Angela, whom he fantasizes about her in a heavily sexualized manner during their routine. He stares at her deeply with such a strong sense of passion that can only be matched by the burning hearts of any true hopeless romantic. It’s at this point where Lester has been reborn. Every time Angela is over, he gets the excitement that a child gets on Christmas morning. After hearing Angela say Lester would be more attractive if he was in shape, he adopts a fixation for fitness, constantly lifting weights in his garage to impress her. As the film progresses, Angela is the only thing on Lester’s mind; nothing else matters. His wife having an affair? It means nothing. His daughter disgusted at the sight of her father after noticing his obsession with Angela? It means nothing. Being a corpse taking up space at the office that leads to him quitting his job? It doesn’t mean a fucking thing.

Angela has set Lester free. He is uninhibited by the pessimistic pandemonium that has captivated his life up to thus point. He embraces his freedom as much as possible; buying a 60s Pontiac, working at a fast food shack and embracing what the youth do so well: not having a care in the world. As the title of this post suggested, youthfulness is what American Beauty personifies better than most movies ever made.

Being young is truly a unique stage in life. You have desires that are unbounded by any force in which you can let your imagination run wild. Lester let himself run wild. He pictured himself young again, driving the car he wanted, working a job with few responsibilities, keeping his physique in top shape and fantasizing about girls in a way only a young man could. Author Franz Kafka once said “youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” No quote more accurately reflects the film than this one, for it is parallel with Lester’s monologue right before his unforeseen homicide:

” I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn’t a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time… For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars… And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street… Or my grandmother’s hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper… And the first time I saw my cousin Tony’s brand new Firebird… And Janie… And Janie… And… Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world.”

When you’re young, everything passes by because you don’t know how to cherish the moment because you don’t yet realize it will all be gone one day. In Lester’s days of feeling like and old and depressed loser, he had no purpose, no drive and no life. Since rediscovering his youth, he became inspired and full of willingness to rediscover himself. That’s why it’s so crucial to cherish the young years while you have them, because you’ll never feel like you were when you were young.

If you gain anything from this post, I hope it’s that when you grow older, hold on to something that makes you feel young again. I’m not saying you should fantasize about your daughter’s friend, but find something that reminds you of the glory days of your life.

You have only one life to live. Experience as much as you can, meet as many people as you can and cherish every moment that made you who you are to this point.

Films Coming Up

Hey everyone. Sorry it has been a little while since I last posted a review, I’ve been busy wrapping up this semester with finals, papers, etc. Seeing as I’m done now, be prepared for a vast amount of reviews and analysis between now and January,

First off, I wanted to thank everyone reading this blog. I never thought I would get the enjoyment from doing this, seeing as it was an assignment for one of my classes. But I’ve grown to enjoy blogging, and has inspired me to continuously improve my writing skills and possibly pursue a careers as a film critic. So for those of you who appreciate this blog, I appreciate you as well.

I decided to make a little mini-series of film reviews if you will. I call it the “Path to Purpose.” These are the five films reviewed as part of this arc:

1. American Beauty
2. Office Space
3. The Graduate
4. It’s a Wonderful Life
5. Fight Club

These movies all deal with a narrative that presents us with a man in a midlife crisis(excluding The Graduate) and the different ways they cope with it. Because many of these themes play off of each other, there may be some redundancies. However, all of these films carry a unique theme off of this narrative that separates themselves from one another. I look forward to writing them as much as I hope you enjoy reading them!