Knocked Up and Sopranos and old movies. I debate whether there's a point adding my voice to the fray. But I'm a pop culture junkie, especially when pop culture aims high. Such is my pop culture obsession that I realize now the indvidual word "fray" has been devalued by pop culture thanks to a band.
I'd be biased toward Knocked Up to begin with as a Freaks and Geeks devotee; I know of no other show that came even close to a dead on portrayal of adolescence. Even when it was sentimental it'd pull its punches with some well earned cynicism or a leftfield random bit of sadness that seemed real. Since then Judd Apatow's comedies have been my favorites, and I say that as an admitted dour, pretentious person who does not find that much funny. At all.
I checked it out with Cat and Emily and my friend Will who just moved to New York this weekend. We all liked it without fault. I often ramble on at length about how modern American movies lack the texture of what it's like to really live in America; it doesn't necessarily even need to be a dismissive or critical view. But one of the luckiest experiences of my life was getting to tour the country with a band and thus see the entire country from the road. That compressed experience left me with no doubt that a largely homogenized experience dominates outlying suburbs; the social environment and vernacular against which our lives play out is rarely reflected in our movies. People have to be falling in and out of love outside the Border's books parking lot; or having cosmic epiphanies in a Best Buy.
An enshrined figure in Hollywood is Billy Wilder; deservedly so. One thing that I love about his comedies from the past is that they do reflect the texture of the times. And they often forgo sentimentality entirely for a brutally comic truth. For years Cameron Crowe has been trying to emulate the best aspects of his work, but I think he tilts a little too much towards the soft side of things. Sneakily, it's been Apatow who bit by bit has figured out how to do it.
For all the raunch in his comedies its merely an expression of our modern vernacular, which in my day to day life borders frequently on the obscene. His perceptions of characters, too. There's a subplot involving a married couple in Knocked Up that's rarely funny and more depressing than anything in its stark truths about marriage. His referential dialogue could be put in a time capsule; from a 3 year old who wants to listen to Green Day (so that's who's been responsible for their megastardom) to a 5 year old girl saying she used google. Then there's the pack of losers, alumni from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared who are so aptly nailed that I feel embarassed to remember exactly what times of my life and friends were just like that. Anyway, most people love it. It's funny. It's affecting, even, and for all its brutal honesty it isnt mean or cynical. Enjoy a silly deleted scene, as sweet as the combination of cupcake and beer Will got in a diner last night after the movie.
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Another show that seems to get the texture of American life, albeit completely unreally, has been The Sopranos. This must be the definitive article on the series closing. I'm here to defend the ending; but I must say that in recent years I've only barely casually watched the show (whereas I know the first few seasons very well) so I am not a committed fan who has been following dangling plot threads. I've admired the shows refusal to committing to overarching narrative. It isn't a show like Lost that thrives on clever plot points. Last night the series ended with a final scene that within moments had the collective zeitgeist wailing online.
I thought it was brilliant. I thought it ended like a novel. I thought it was pitch perfect and brave. I do not think it was a simple fuck you to the audience, as so many have asserted, or even a cruel joke. In fact, again, it's a bit of brutal honesty. It refuses to assert any simple lesson for life; only that it goes on (or perhaps doesn't, in as terrifyingly blank a manner as possible) and there is no state without which memory doesn't punish somehow nor does your future even out into anything like a state of permanent happiness.
The ending of the Sopranos was what a 60 year old man should be writing and pushing especially when they've earned an audience. I'm all for colossal creative failure as long as the intention is brave and challenging. Ultimately the show was never really about the mob, but it handled that aspect of its story so well it attracted viewers because of it. It was really always a show about a mid life crisis writ large, about a sea change in our way of life in this country... One where a violent thuggish mobster sees a therapist. The final episode of the Sopranos fetishistically, obsessively cataloged modern day aspirant American life; materialistic worship above all else, when you can delude yourself enough to ignore the violence required to attain it.
Oh yeah, and the use of a Journey song, that was the real fuck you cruel joke. Loved it.
I'd be biased toward Knocked Up to begin with as a Freaks and Geeks devotee; I know of no other show that came even close to a dead on portrayal of adolescence. Even when it was sentimental it'd pull its punches with some well earned cynicism or a leftfield random bit of sadness that seemed real. Since then Judd Apatow's comedies have been my favorites, and I say that as an admitted dour, pretentious person who does not find that much funny. At all.
I checked it out with Cat and Emily and my friend Will who just moved to New York this weekend. We all liked it without fault. I often ramble on at length about how modern American movies lack the texture of what it's like to really live in America; it doesn't necessarily even need to be a dismissive or critical view. But one of the luckiest experiences of my life was getting to tour the country with a band and thus see the entire country from the road. That compressed experience left me with no doubt that a largely homogenized experience dominates outlying suburbs; the social environment and vernacular against which our lives play out is rarely reflected in our movies. People have to be falling in and out of love outside the Border's books parking lot; or having cosmic epiphanies in a Best Buy.
An enshrined figure in Hollywood is Billy Wilder; deservedly so. One thing that I love about his comedies from the past is that they do reflect the texture of the times. And they often forgo sentimentality entirely for a brutally comic truth. For years Cameron Crowe has been trying to emulate the best aspects of his work, but I think he tilts a little too much towards the soft side of things. Sneakily, it's been Apatow who bit by bit has figured out how to do it.
For all the raunch in his comedies its merely an expression of our modern vernacular, which in my day to day life borders frequently on the obscene. His perceptions of characters, too. There's a subplot involving a married couple in Knocked Up that's rarely funny and more depressing than anything in its stark truths about marriage. His referential dialogue could be put in a time capsule; from a 3 year old who wants to listen to Green Day (so that's who's been responsible for their megastardom) to a 5 year old girl saying she used google. Then there's the pack of losers, alumni from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared who are so aptly nailed that I feel embarassed to remember exactly what times of my life and friends were just like that. Anyway, most people love it. It's funny. It's affecting, even, and for all its brutal honesty it isnt mean or cynical. Enjoy a silly deleted scene, as sweet as the combination of cupcake and beer Will got in a diner last night after the movie.
-
Another show that seems to get the texture of American life, albeit completely unreally, has been The Sopranos. This must be the definitive article on the series closing. I'm here to defend the ending; but I must say that in recent years I've only barely casually watched the show (whereas I know the first few seasons very well) so I am not a committed fan who has been following dangling plot threads. I've admired the shows refusal to committing to overarching narrative. It isn't a show like Lost that thrives on clever plot points. Last night the series ended with a final scene that within moments had the collective zeitgeist wailing online.
I thought it was brilliant. I thought it ended like a novel. I thought it was pitch perfect and brave. I do not think it was a simple fuck you to the audience, as so many have asserted, or even a cruel joke. In fact, again, it's a bit of brutal honesty. It refuses to assert any simple lesson for life; only that it goes on (or perhaps doesn't, in as terrifyingly blank a manner as possible) and there is no state without which memory doesn't punish somehow nor does your future even out into anything like a state of permanent happiness.
The ending of the Sopranos was what a 60 year old man should be writing and pushing especially when they've earned an audience. I'm all for colossal creative failure as long as the intention is brave and challenging. Ultimately the show was never really about the mob, but it handled that aspect of its story so well it attracted viewers because of it. It was really always a show about a mid life crisis writ large, about a sea change in our way of life in this country... One where a violent thuggish mobster sees a therapist. The final episode of the Sopranos fetishistically, obsessively cataloged modern day aspirant American life; materialistic worship above all else, when you can delude yourself enough to ignore the violence required to attain it.
Oh yeah, and the use of a Journey song, that was the real fuck you cruel joke. Loved it.
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