Ripping CD's is about as fun as watching Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger make out
Not that I've seen them make out. But I can imagine it'd be about as awesome as watching Maggie Gyllenhaal ride Tom Arnold. Which I saw earlier today.
I got a hankering to see Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin today, so I wandered over to Hollywood Video. Then I realized I hadn't been in a video store in months and decided to browse around, looking for weird art flicks--the type I've lost touch with since leaving college environments. After shaking my head at all the drivel (Bewitched) I stumbled upon a movie I had forgotten, the critically lauded Happy Endings and decided to get both. Subsequently I witnessed Tom Arnold get some from one of my favorite celebrity crushes--and two of the best films I've seen in a while dealing with humanity in the face of abortion, child molestation, alcohol/drug abuse, homosexuality, etc., despite their completely opposite deliveries.
After both films ended, I decided to enter them into my newly formed pantheon of Americana neo-realism films--movies that are so absurdly real and observant they make casual viewers squirm and critics fawn over them. What strikes me the most is that they are so real they only require the artistic ability of observation to create--yet they're still enthralling and more challenging than intentionally "thought-provoking" films like Vanilla Sky and The Matrix.
Although the successes of American Beauty and Magnolia (which even taught a lesson about the absurdities of every day life vs. fantastical absurdities [frogs raining down]) brought the genre to the forefront of public consciousness, it hasn't really stuck around in the mainstream. Though it had a nasty edge, Closer could probably be included (or at least brought up in the discussion) as the most recent popular neo-realist film to succeed critically and economically. But Weatherman--a certain nominee, bombed. Even Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, which I wasn't ready for when I saw it initially, seems to fit. It's explicit dealings with the inner thoughts of a man consumed with jealousy grow on me each time I watch it.
My first introductions to neo-realism had to have been Vincent Gallo's brilliantly ridiculous Buffalo 66 and Don Roos's The Opposite of Sex--although Trainspotting or Kids certainly played a role too. I was too young to figure out why I was drawn to those movies, but looking back at my viewing patterns it makes sense. I blame the dialogue in Pulp Fiction, primarily, for leading me down this path. Tarantino's characters were so real despite the fact their situations were absurd. They chatted about bullshit, meaningful philosophy and more bullshit. The characters in these movies weren't pompous fucks, or, if they were, they weren't caricatures.
Anyway, since those films, I've been drawn almost exclusively to movies like Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Gummo, Bully, Storytelling, Donnie Darko (which sorta fits in...), Ghost World, The Ice Storm, The Anniversary Party, Pecker, Requiem for a Dream, Secretary (again, loosely fitting), Me and You and Everyone We Know and even, for comic relief, Napoleon Dynamite.*
Each movie imitates life for me more than even biographical films...or even the brilliant "hood" films like Boys N the Hood and Menace to Society. I think it's the awkward pauses and inherent (often intentionally unintentional) humor that makes them more real to me, a casual observer who has the time to watch the obsurdities of society.
Anyway, comment if you know of other films I might be missing (I know I'm missing tons) that have this feel. And let me know what you think about The Royal Tennenbaums in relation to these films.
*I believe the movement is bookended by Blue Velvet, which has enough surreality to keep it out of the pantheon, but it's surreality comments on the absurdities of small town life--so it, like all David Lynch films, merits consideration. That film alone might even have started the movement.
Currently Listening to: Corm (John from Q and Not U's former band), His Name Is Alive and The Festival of Dead Deer.
posted by Jeremiah at 1:36 AM
7 Comments:
omg, Maggie Gyllenhall!
i have thoughts swirling around my head about movies and the etceteras of which you spoke in this post, but i just keep going back to look at Maggie Gyllenhall.
also,
i like the bumping up of all those links on yr sidebar.
i'm still thinking about this neo-realism post.
i watched Punch Drunk Love for the umpteenth time the other night... there's something i dig about PT Anderson films and i think you partially hit on it with your 'absurdities of every day life vs. fantastical absurdities' comment.
i love the drawn out opening with him doing his morning work routine... talking on the phone about the pudding, drinking coffee, waiting for his workers to arrive and etcetera. then there's the fantastical car crash, the harmonium, and the seeds for other fantastical situations (the pudding, the girl). i dunno. the dialogue and people's interactions in that movie strike something with me.
example, when his one sister's husband talks to him (i think it's Robert Smigel playing the character)... and Barry's asking for help, to see a doctor, and he admits 'i don't know if there's anything wrong with me, because i don't know how other people are.' i dunno. good stuff. that and all the awkwardness of conversations.
blah blah blah
and you can't not mention the fantastical porno situation with Philip Seymour Hoffman.
yeah, your thoughts? is this in line with what you were thinking when you mentioned the others? even boogie nights dealt with the every day absurdities of people... except those people were porno actors and it led to the larger, fantastical absurdities/issues/problems that were the bulk of the movie.
i gotta write my article on the Dunkirk Board of Education now.
nick dean...
PT Anderson is definitely necessary. Punch Drunk Love works as well as Magnolia...but i think Boogie Nights fits more in with Blow...that tragic drug type movie...Though the william H. Macy and Phillip Seymour Hoffman characters seem to fit...
I thought of another one the other day but, alas, forgot it...
Alright, so I keep coming back to this post and now I'm thinking that you need to define a little more about what you mean by your "Pantheon of Americana neo-realism films." You say the movement is bookended by Blue Velvet but what (in your mind) came before it? Is there a classical part to the movement? And what do you see as being part of it?
I dunno... I'm not well-versed in really early black-and-white soundless films, but I'm betting there must've been some shorts that were strictly observational because the filmmakers were still feeling out the new medium.
Then I was thinking of your comments on hood films and thought back to Sweet Sweet Back and whether that would have fit as realism for its time. Or the Grapes of Wrath, but that's a book and now i'm blah blah blahing.
And on a random note, parts of Bully were hard and disturbing to watch. As they should've been, but, oy, i don't even know what to say. i saw that a long time ago.
sorry mike...didn't see that you had posted...
In regards to blue velvet, I forgot to mention that I meant "of films I've seen." I even thought it as I was writing it, but hell, nobody's perfect.
In regards to the "hood" films, I find them to be real beyond real, and not quite what I see as what I'm calling neo-realism. Those are realism at their finest--in other words their characters do what they do and what they would do in real life. There's typically no sense of metaphysical reflection. Bio pics have too much reverence for the subjects to be considered. They, largely, have a "hall of fame" sheen to them--whether their subjects are drug addicts or heroes or boring.
And you're right about every film imitating life, yadda, yadda, yadda and each one has at least one aspect of realism.
But what I'm talking about in these particular films are those that take time to put in those awkward silences that are part of every day life. Those inquisitive characters who see through the stupidity and absurdity of life even existing. They actually notice the mundane while living. These films also have characters who embody the mundane and can't step out of it for real, human interaction.
I guess what I'm trying to do is categorize a feeling. I think it's tied in with existentialism. But they're films that question existence in the subtext of what's going on in the film.
One aspect of these films I now want to study after writing all of this is whether or not I find the main characters to be self-centered or not. I suspect they are, but not in the way some dumb chick is obsessed with her appearance. Instead they are obsessed with their existence. That's just a hypothesis.
Nick: in regards to Blaxploitation films, I think I would lump them in with "camp" films such as "But I'm a Cheerleader," "Psycho Beach Party" and most John Waters films. They're just too over the top.
Hope that helps some, because it's obviously something I'm having trouble defining myself.
Jeremiah, you said... 'I forgot to mention that I meant "of films I've seen." I even thought it as I was writing it, but hell, nobody's perfect.'
of course,
you must've meant
'pobody's nerfect.'
...and in RandMcNally people where hats on their heads and hamburgers eat people.
i meant
hats on their feet
and i think i royally botched that simpsons quote.
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