philosophy in film

[iambiguous]

Every fuck-up in every family is different. There is always a different dynamic that can never be repeated in exactly the same way. I wasn’t exactly a fuck-up in my own family, for example, but I was by far the one who never, ever could come up with a way to fit into it. I faked being able to a lot but in the end I had to walk away from them.

And other than the times that I do, I have never regretted it. Here the problem is exaserbated however because the fuck-up was usually doped-up too. I tried every drug imaginable way back then but not the kind that you become so hopelessly addicted to it can completely wreck your life. I was fortunate enough to avoid that fate. Almost certainly because I became a father. Without that I may well have taken the plunge.

Anyway, here Kym [the fuck-up], is still in contact with her upper-middle class family and is thus struggling to come up with a way to meet them somewhere in the middle. There is still a certain measure of love and civility between them. But there is also a certain measure of “long simmering tensions” too. Also, when Kym was on dope there was a tragedy.

And then there’s “the group”. On the one hand, empathy and support. On the other, all the other shit you have to endure being around them. Like God and all that “spiritual” bullshit.

Even the big fancy wedding stuff is just bullshit to me. I got married in my old Army fatigues by some government official. And then after it was over my ex-wife and I [both in college at the time] went back to class.

Just to note: the bride is white, the groom is black. The wedding consist of dozens and dozens of black and white folks interacting. And not once did the question of, say, race, IQ and evolution come up. Go figure.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Getting_Married
trailer: youtu.be/8tIvMUy8UDs

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED [2008]
Directed by Jonathan Demme

[b]Walter: I want my fucking Zippo now!
Rosa: Walter, this is a behavior…
Walter: Fuck you!
Rosa: And you are making a choice.
[Rosa’s cell phone rings]
Rosa: Hold on… hello?
Walter: God!
Kym: Don’t you get it, Waldo? She’s making a choice not to give you your lighter because you’ll torch the Self-Help library again.
Walter: Kill anybody recently? Run over anybody with a fucking car?

…

Counter Girl [after Kym walks into the convenience store]: Hey, Kym! Didn’t I see you on Cops?

…

Kym [at the clinic]: Hi. Hi, I’m here to pee into a cup.

…

Kym [late to rehab meeting, she stumbles, knocking over chairs]: Cocksucker!
Kieran: [who is addressing the group]: Uh, only once. Only once. My dealer. I was very hard up for cash.

…

Rachel: And this is the best man, Kieran.
Kieran: Hey.
Kym: Hi, there.
Kieran: How are you?
Kym: Good.
Kieran: How’s your knee?

…

Kym [to Rachel and Emma]: You know, everyone in the house is looking at me like I’m a visiting sociopath. I mean, seriously, what do you expect me to do, burn the house down?

…

Kym: You’re a lawyer?
Kieran: Was. For about five minutes.
Kym: Say something Legal.
Kieran: Tort.

…

Kym [toasting the bride and groom her way after all the conventional renditions]: I am Shiva the destroyer, your harbinger of doom this evening. I would like to thank you all for coming and welcome you. Even though I haven’t seen most of you since my latest stretch in the big house. But you all look fabulous. So during the 20 minutes or so that I was not in the hole for making a shiv out of my toothbrush, I actually did participate in the infamous 12-step program. Twelve steps. Step-ball-change. Step-ball-change. Still waiting for the change part…[/b]

And on and on and on…making herself the point rather than her sister. Kind of excruciating to watch.

[b]Rachel [reading from the dictionary]: Amends. Noun, usually followed by ‘for,’ off-set a disability “or frustration by development in another direction.” Mmm-hmm. Yes. But you’ve never said anything to me that’s remotely apologetic, yet all of sudden at my wedding dinner in front of everybody, you decide to grace us all with your development.
Kym: I just got home.
Rachel: Gee. Hey, everybody and guests, just in case you might be thinking about something else for five minutes, like, I don’t know, my sister’s wedding, they just cut me loose. I’m a loose cannon! Hey! Anybody up for some rehab humor? Because I’m really, really fine with acknowledging my disease. Hey, and now watch me be really selfless and weave a lovely blanket apology to my sister for being just a tad out of her loop.
Father: Rachel, enough. Rachel, she is making an effort here.
Rachel: Oh! An effort, is that what that was? Because I think she presumes that since everything has always revolved around her disease, that everything else is going to revolve around her recovery. That’s what I think.

…

Carol: Kym. Kym, look at me. In the end, nobody can make you feel any kind of way unless you let them.

…

Rachel: I wish Ethan were here.
Father: You what?
Rachel: I wish Ethan were here.
Father: I know, sweetheart. Me, too. Me, too.

…

Kym [speaking before “the group” at a 12 step meeting]: When I was sixteen, I was babysitting my little brother. And I was, um…I had taken all these Percocet. And I was unbelievably high and I…we had driven over to the park on Lakeshore. And he was in his red socks just running around in these piles of leaves. And, um, he would bury me and I would bury him in the leaves. And he was pretending that he was a train. And so he was charging through the leaves, making tracks, and I was the caboose, and I was, um…so he kept saying, coal, caboose! Coal, caboose! And, um, we were…it was time to go and I was driving home…and…I lost control of the car. And drove off the bridge. And the car went into the lake. And I couldn’t get him out of his car seat. And he drowned. And I struggle with God so much, because I can’t forgive myself. And I don’t really want to right now. I can live with it, but I can’t forgive myself. And sometimes I don’t want to believe in a God that could forgive me. But I do want to be sober. I’m alive and I’m present and there’s nothing controlling me. If I hurt someone, I hurt someone. I can apologize, and they can forgive me…or not. But I can change. And I just wanted to share that and say congratulations that God makes you look up, I’m so happy for you, but if he doesn’t, come here. That’s all. Thank you.[/b]

I mean what else is there? Unless, of course, there is a God.

[b]Rachel: You were lying about us, Kym, instead of telling the truth about yourself.

…

Rachel: Dad, look at me. Okay? I am right here. Okay? And I am telling you that after Ethan died, I wanted her to get better or just die.
Father: Rachel, she’s better. And…
Rachel: No, no. Recovery doesn’t work if you lie. She knows that.

…

Kym: I love you guys. I need you guys, but you don’t get to sit around for the rest of my life deciding what I’m supposed to be like. I mean, you weren’t there. You weren’t inside of my head when I was fucked-up. You are certainly not there now. You haven’t got any idea how I feel.
Rachel [almost at a whisper]: Kym, you took Ethan for granted. Okay? You were high for his life. You were not present. Okay? You were high.
Kym [whispering]: Yes.
Rachel: And you drove him off a bridge…and now he’s dead.
Father [weeping]: Rachel, it was an accident.
Kym: Yes, I was. Yes, I was stoned out of my mind. Who do I have to be now? I mean, I could be Mother Teresa and it wouldn’t make a difference, what I did. Did I sacrifice every bit of love I’m allowed for this life because I killed our little brother?

…

Kym: Why did you leave me in charge of him? You knew. All of you knew.
Mother: Kym.
Kym: People told you. I was a junkie. I was a crazy drug addict. I stole from you. Yes. I lied to your face. I weighed six pounds. My hair was falling out. I spent every dinner in the bathroom.
Mother: Honey, you were sick. That was an illness.
Kym: You know what I was. I stayed in my room for days. I passed out all the time. What were you thinking? Why would you leave me in charge of him?
Mother: Because you were good with him.
Kym: Mom, Mom, why would you leave a drug addict to watch your son?
Mother: No! You were good with him! You were the best you were with him!
Kym: Listen to me! Listen!
Mother [hysterically]: I didn’t expect you to kill him, sweetheart! You were not supposed to kill him!!

…

Susanna: I was wondering, have you ever thought about public relations?
Kym: The public’s kind of afraid of me.

…

Kieran: You making a break for it?
Kym: Yeah. Yeah, I got to go.
Kieran [giving her a business card]: Yeah. Okay. If you ever need anything…
Kym: If I need to post bond?
Kieran: No. If you ever need anything.
Kym: Thank you.[/b]

[iambiguous]

There are two directions a movie like this can go. In one, the character acting strange can be someone who has a complex intellectual, emotional, psychological, spiritual etc. narrative. Then it comes into conflict with another who either does not understand it or is not really interested at all in exploring it. In the other, the character acting strange turns out to be, say, psychotic?

So, which one is this? Unfortunately, it is more the latter. But the context [and all the other characters…not to mention the plot twists] are still fascinating to ponder. One of those, “suppose this happened to me?” kind of films.

To wit: When do you hold someone morallly responsible for choosing a behavior that you would not have chosen yourself? Or for not choosing a behavior that you would have? And how do we determine the optimal choice when the context just suddenly bursts into existence and becomes basically an emergency – a set of circumstances where everything has to be decided [more or less] in the blink of an eye?

And then the part about love. About enduring love. It works both ways. It can be a love that endures or [as seems more the case here] it can be a love that you endure. Joe gets it from both directions. And he [being a post modern intellectual for the most part] doesn’t even really believe in love.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enduring_Love_(film
trailer: youtu.be/vjS6zwUx1hA

ENDURING LOVE (2004)
Directed by Roger Michell

[b]Joe: There’s not a lot we can do now.
Jed: We can pray. I find it helps at times like this.
Joe: Well…it’s really not my thing.
Jed: I think you really need to.
Joe: Look, sorry, no. You, please. I…If you need to, then go ahead.
Jed: Why won’t you?
Joe: Well, don’t you think he prayed?

…

Joe: But I let go of the rope. I let go…
Claire: But if you hadn’t…
Joe: Yeah, but I let go.
Claire: If you hadn’t, I’d be here without you.
Joe: Yeah, but if I hadn’t have let go…If none of us had let go…we could’ve brought that balloon down. [/b]

Maybe. But that’s the gamble. Gambling on the unknown. But he was the first to let go. Or was he?

[b]Joe [to his class]: When we say we’re in love, what does it mean? Could it be that this complex, dazzling, transformative feeling is just an illusion? Could it be just a trick? A trick played on us by nature just to make us fuck? We imagine that love is meaningful. But, could it in fact be… meaningless?

…

Jed: You…You know what I’m talking about. Do you want me to spell it out?
Joe: Yeah, I think I would, actually. I’m a bit in the…
Jed: Come on, Joe, be a sport.
Joe: I’m in the middle of something. I don’t know what this is about.
Jed: Nonsense. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Joe: Well, I don’t.
Jed: Why can’t you just say it? Just say it. Open up to me.

…

Joe: So, we’re saying art is just an evolutionary tool. Perhaps all sorts of complex human behaviour serves the same purpose. Perhaps moral behaviour’s another one. Fairness. Kindness. Self-sacrifice.
Student: So…So, it’s nothing to do w- w-with character or… or p-personality, or, you know, simple… goodness.
Joe: Maybe that’s an illusion, too.

…

Joe: I thought you said we weren’t going to see each other again.
Jed: Haven’t you got something to say to me?
Joe: You’ve got to stop following me like this. This is getting a bit weird.

…

Jed: Don’t you think it’s time you faced up to who you really are?
Joe: Who I am. I don’t…
Jed: “The fruit of the Spirit is love.”
Joe: What?
Jed: Love. Galatians, chapter five.
Joe [really starting to get exasperated now]: Oh, Jesus, no. Come on.

…

Claire: You can’t help feeling responsible. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Joe: Yeah, but I can’t help thinking that we might have saved him.
Claire: I don’t think so.
Joe: Well, he thinks so.
Claire: How? In a helicopter? There’s no way you should feel responsible.
Joe: I just wish I’d been able to do something. I wish we’d saved him, I really wish we had, because, you know, it would just be so much easier now.
Claire: Why? So you wouldn’t feel so bad?
Joe: No, because he fucking died!

…

Joe: I’m saying all these things have meaning, but only because we, as human beings, give them meaning.
Student: That’s your theory? Life is a meaningless Darwinian expedient. It’s just biology, but humans struggle to give it meaning. That’s what makes us human.
Joe: It’s a good theory. Simple but effective.[/b]

And now he struggles to fit the dead guy into it somehow.

[b]Joe: I should…you know…do something constructive. Instead of sitting on my fucking arse. I need to do things. I never do anything. All I do is pontificate about… I have never ever made anything that you can hold in your hand. I’ve never…I’ve never helped anybody. I just have… theories.

…

Jed: I remember we prayed. We knelt and prayed together, remember?
Joe: Yeah. Well, it was…I was humouring you.
Jed: You touched me on the shoulder and you looked at me, and the way you looked at me, I could tell you knew what had passed between us.
Joe: What passed between us?
Jed: Love. God’s love.
Joe: For fucks sake! You’re mad.
Jed: That’s what they said about Jesus once.
Joe: They also said it about a lot of mad people.

…

Jed: Joey. Jo-Jo. Come on. Everything’s going to be all right. Forget about Claire. I’m here now.

…

Robin: It’s physics, dear.
Joe: No, it’s not. It’s biology. When we’re in love, or when we think we’re in love, we do the things we do to ensure good breeding. To ensure a fuck. We’re just stupid organisms. It’s meaningless. Don’t even know why we fucking bother.
Robin: I think what Joe’s trying to say is um…that to have an understanding of the science of love doesn’t make it any less remarkable.
Claire: Yes, but most people don’t need to understand the science of it, do they?

…

Frank: If you want to turn two people into two-headed fire-breathing dragons overnight, just put rings on their fingers.

…

Joe [to his class]: When we fall out of love…What explains that? What? Just a misunderstanding? A communication breakdown? And when we do fall in love with somebody, somebody who we’re completely incompatible with, then it’s all just tedious and horrible and terrible and just not going to work. I mean, why do we do that? Why do we do that? I mean, is this just an aberration? Are these people just…just deviants?

…

Jed: Hey, come on. Look, I was just having a bit of fun, come on.
Joe: Fuck off.
Jed: I was just trying to cheer you up, Joe.
Joe: Fuck off.
Jed: I was just trying to cheer you up. Come on, Joe, Jo-Jo.
Joe [grabs Jed and shoves him up against the wall]: Listen to me, listen to me. If you ever, ever, ever fucking bother me again, if you ever come anywhere fucking near me, I wil follow you, I will find you and I will gut you like a fucking fish, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!!
Jed: You started this, you made this happen. Why don’t you admit it? You pretend it’s not happening, nothing’s happening?
Joe: YOU FUCK!
Jed: Giving me all your secret fucking signals so that I come towards you!
Joe: Why don’t you leave me alone, eh? What do you want? What do you want?
Jed: I love you! I love you!

…

Claire: It’s over.
Joe: Claire? Claire! All right, then, let’s get married, then, shall we? Let’s get married. Let’s get married and have lots of children. Let’s have dozens of the fuckers and a big dog! Move to the country. See what fucking good it does! See how long we last!

…

Jed: Oh, Joey. Joey. Joey. There’s no such thing as love, you said. It’s just biology, you said. That’s all it is. Just science.

…

Claire: How’s the flat?
Joe: Small. Dark. Cold. Damp. Lonely.
Claire: Good. I’m glad.

…

Joe: I’m still… I still…
Claire: Don’t, Joey.
Joe: I made it so complicated, and…And it doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s not complicated. It’s really…I don’t know what to say.
Claire: Don’t say anything…Don’t say anything… [/b]

Oh, it’s complicated alright. So complicated in fact that, sometimes, it’s almost beside the point to say anything.

[iambiguous]

Long distance relationships just don’t work. Except when they do. But, come on, really, how many of them actually do. Supposedly, the film is based on a relationship the director once had.

Of course, lots and lots and lots and lots of short-distance relationships don’t work either. Even when the couple are in the same room. Or, sometimes, especially when they are in the same room.

Fortunately, there are alternatives out there to choose from. Different ways for them to fail altogether.

I know what you’re thinking, but you’ll just have to trust me: I’ve earned my cynisism.

The way relationships work is that the more people you come into contact with in the course of living your life the more you risk running into someone you might come to love even more than the one you are with now. And then of course the more important sexual fulfillment is in your life the more problematic the relationship that is only at a distance. And that is exactly what happens here. They get married and have lots of sex. Just not with each other.

You almost have to be someone very, very different from others who just happens to bump into someone you can share that difference with. You just don’t want to risk losing being able to share that “apartness” from others. I met a woman like that myself at a distance. The distance revolving around the fact that she was married to someone else under a set of circumstance that made it practically impossible for her to end it.

Then there’s the part where love gets all tangled up in a lot of absurd bureaucratic bullshit. And then, finally, in the ever thickening shadows of ambiguity.

IMDb

At the Toronto International Film Festival (2011), the director admitted that much of the movie was improvised. The script outlined what would happen, but Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin improvised much of their dialogue.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_Crazy
trailer: youtu.be/r-ZV-bwZmBw

LIKE CRAZY [2011]
Written in part and directed by Drake Doremus

[b]Anna [reading something she wrote to Jacob]: “I thought I understood it, that I could grasp it, but I didn’t, not really. Only the smudgeness of it; the pink-slippered, all-containered, semi-precious eagerness of it. I didn’t realize it would sometimes be more than whole, that the wholeness was a rather luxurious idea. Because it’s the halves that halve you in half. I didn’t know, don’t know, about the in-between bits; the gory bits of you, and the gory bits of me.”

…

Jacob [rhetorically]: Have you been sleeping with loads of people?
[but then more seriously]
Jacob: Have you?

…

Anna: Let’s not talk about this.
Jacob: Just tell me.
Anna: Not yet.

…
Anna: Have you?
Jacob: I said maybe

…

Jacob: I don’t feel like I’m part of your life. I feel like I’m on vacation.

…

Anna: Well, it would be easier if you felt like you could see other people…when we’re not together.
Jacob: Is that what you want to do?
Anna: No.
Jacob: Then why did you bring it up?[/b]

And then there is the whole question of why they just don’t get married. Maybe because Jaco has a girlfriend back in L.A. Samantha. Sam. Sam played by Jennifer Lawrence.

[b]Anna [on the phone from London to Jacob on the phone in Los Angeles]: I just…it doesn’t feel like this thing is going to go away. It’s always there. I can’t…I can’t get on with my life.
Jacob: We agreed.
Anna: I know, Jacob, but the things we have with each other, I don’t have with any other person…when any other human being apart from you. We should be with each other. And I feel it so strongly. And I feel it’s…it’s right for us to get married.

…

Anna: So, is it worth talking about you moving to London?[/b]

But then she reads the text message from Smantha. And then there’s Simon.

[iambiguous]

The first thing I always note when watching a film like this is the vast difference between the lives these people had lived and the life I have lived myself. We might share the same language and the same “Western” culture, but in other respects we might just as well have come from different planets.

Talk about a place for everyone and everyone in their place. From the cradle to the grave [and from day to day] behaviors were more or less carved in stone. It’s a world where the word “penniless” has a particularly important role to play. As with the word “inherited”. So much can ride on which word is more applicable to you.

On the other hand, Jane comes [eventually] to straddle both worlds.

The young Jane Eyre of course is clearly not cut out to perform on cue in her liturgical nightmare. For example, she insists on having a mind all her own. But there are consequences for that.

But when the child becomes an adult she gets lucky. And that is because where she goes to is so much more tolerant of her intelligence than where she comes from. And so much in life revolves around fortuity. On the other hand, so much revolves in turn around the manner in which the past can play havoc with the present. For better or for worse.

But, in the end, it is all straight out of Hollywood.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre_(1996_film
trailer: youtu.be/jKvO2TYPuTw

JANE EYRE [1996]
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli

[b]Mr. Brocklehurst: I hear you are a wicked child, Jane Eyre. Do you know where the wicked go after death?
Young Jane: To Hell.
Mr. Brocklehurst: And what is hell? Can you tell me that?
Young Jane: A pit full of fire.
Mr. Brocklehurst: And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there forever?
Young Jane: No sir.
Mr. Brocklehurst: What must you do to avoid it?
Young Jane: Keep well and not die, sir.

…

Mrs Reed: You must warn her teachers to keep an eye on her, and to guard against her worst fault, her tendency to deceit.
Mr. Brocklehurst: Deceit? We do not tolerate that at Loowood
Mrs. Reed: That’s why I wrote to you. I want her to be brought up in a manner befitting her prospects. To be made useful, to be kept humble.

…

Young Jane [to Mrs. Reed]: I am not deceitful! And I am not a liar. For if I were, I should say that I loved you. I do not love you. I dislike you more than anyone in the world, except your son.

…

Mr. Brocklehurst: The stool. Place this child upon it.
[then to all the other children]
Mr. Brocklehurst: You see this…this girl? Her name is Jane Eyre. Be on your guard against her. Avoid her company. Shut her out of your conversations. This girl, take a good look at her, this girl is a liar. Let her stand there all day. She shall have no food. And let no one speak to her.

…

Mrs. Fairfax [to Jane, now an adult]: Mr. Rochester is well travelled and very intelligent. But when he talks to you, you can’t be sure whether he is in jest or in earnest. Whether he is pleased or the contrary. He is not a happy man.

…

Mr. Rochester: You examined me, Miss Eyre. Do you think me handsome?
Jane: No sir.

…

Jane [to Adele]: And remember, the shadows are just as important as the light.

…

Jane [looking at her reflection in the mirror]: You’re a fool.

…

Mrs. Fairfax [to Jane]: In the past he couldn’t wait to leave Thornfield, now it seems he’s determined to fill the house with guests.

…

Bianca: You can tell a Governess at first glance. They are plain…but in a very special way.

…

Jane [angry at Rochester]: How can you be so stupid? How can you be so cruel? I may be poor and plain but I’m not without feelings. It’s not the house, but the life here. I was not trampled on. I was not excluded. I was treated as an equal.

…

Mr. Rochester: Jane, you are a strange and almost unearthly thing.

…

Mr. Rochester: This is my wife. Your sister, Mason. Look at her. She is mad! So was her mother. So was her grandmother. Three generations of violent lunacy. I wasn’t told about that, was I, Mason? All I was told about was that my father had made a suitable match, one that would prop up his dwindling fortune and give your family the Rochester name! I did what I was TOLD! And Bertha was kept away from me, until the wedding was cleverly done. Everyone got what they wanted… except me. Even she is better off here than she would be in a lunatic asylum, but I have spent the last fifteen years in TORMENT!
[looks at Jane]
Mr. Rochester: And this what I…what I wished to have. This young girl who stands so grave and quiet at the mouth of hell. Look at the difference. Then judge me, priest on the gospel and man of the law, and remember with what judgment ye judge, ye…[/b]

[iambiguous]

Talk about a film that is hard to pin down…

On the one hand the narrative is plausable. There are dance contests all over the world. And there will always be a clash between those conservatives who want to conduct them in exactly the same way year after year after year. And then there will be those who want to shake things up – new dances, new ways to do the old dances.

You really do find yourself being drawn to the two main characters and genuinely rooting for them to prevail in the end.

But the characters are often depicted as caricatures of characters instead. And their behaviors border on the surreal at times. Things become hopelssly exaggerated, hyberbolic, blown up…cartoonish.

Still, you can readily imagine that something like this might happen. But then what do I know about ballroom dance contests in Australia? On the other hand, there are people who become fixated on something like this – becoming the best at it – while the vast majority comprising the rest of us wonder what the hell all the fuss is about.

And then there is Fran’s family. Wait until Scott sees them dance. And his dad.

A really one of a kind movie experience. It’s mostly to make you laugh…but that’s not quite all it does.

IMDb

[b]The film received a 15-minute standing ovation when it played at the Cannes Film Festival, where an agent of Rank Films promptly snapped up the UK release rights for a million pounds in cash.

The flashback about Doug’s past was originally planned as being realistic but due to budget constraints, the makers had to change it to the present cartoon version.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strictly_Ballroom
trailer: youtu.be/7dtfxf3FFx4

STRICTLY BALLROOM [1992]
Written in part and directed by Baz Luhrmann

[b]Shirley [after Scott starts doing his “flashy, crowd pleasing steps”]: I keep asking myself why. Did I do something wrong? Did I fail him as a mother?!

…

Kendall: Well, to pick what was actually wrong with the streps you would have to be an experienced professional…like myself.

…

Barry Fife: Well, of course, you can dance any steps you like! But that doesn’t mean you’ll…
[camera zooms in to his mouth]
Barry Fife: …win.

…

Liz [to Scott]: I’m not dancing with you. I’m not dancing with you until you dance how you’re supposed to!

…

Scott: I’m just asking you what you think of the steps.
Liz: I don’t think! I don’t give a shit about them, we lost!

…

Liz: What do I want? I’ll tell you what I want! I want Ken Railings to walk in here right now, and say ‘Pam Shortt’s broken both her legs, and I wanna dance with YOU!’
[the door flies open. It’s Ken]
Ken: Pam Shortt’s broken both her legs, and I wanna dance with YOU!
Kylie: That was unexpected.

…

Scott: Look, what are you carrying on about? You’ve never had a partner. You’ve been dancing with a girl for two years, haven’t you?
Fran: Yeah, but…
Scott: And now you’ve come up to me who’s been dancing since I was six years old and you say you want to dance non-Federation and convince the judges at the Pan Pacific Grand Prix with three weeks to train?
Fran: Yeah.

…

Scott: Look, a beginner has no right to approach an Open Amateur.
Fran: Yeah, well an Open Amateur has no right to dance non-Federation steps, but you did, didn’t you?
Scott: But that’s different.
Fran: How is it different? You’re just like the rest of them! You think you’re different, but you’re not, because you’re just, you’re just really scared! You’re really scared to give someone new a go, because you think, you know, they might just be better than you are! Well, you’re just pathetic, and you’re gutless. You’re a gutless wonder! Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias!

…

Scott [to Fran]: Where did that come from?
Fran: It’s a step I’ve been working on at home.

…

Scott: Fran, remember what I told you about the rumba being, you know, the dance of love?
Fran: Yeah.
Scott: Well…
Fran: Yeah?
Scott: …it’s pretend.

…

Barry Fife: Where do you think we’d be if everyone went around making up their own steps?
Scott: Out of a job.

…

Barry Fife: There are no new steps!

…

Fran: What happened to a life lived in fear and all that stuff?
Scott: Fran…
Fran: You really are a gutless wonder!
Scott: There’s a reason for this.
Fran: I don’t want to hear!
Scott: Listen to me!
Fran: No!
Scott: It’s hard for me too, Fran.
Fran: Hard? How hard do you think it’s been for me? To get you to dance with me in the first place? Frangipannidellasqueegymop. Wash the coffee cups, Fran, how’s your skin, Fran? Hard?
Scott: You don’t understand.
Fran: I understand. You’ve got your Pan Pacifics to win, and I’m back in Beginners, where I belong.

…

Doug: We had the chance but we were scared. We walked away. WE LIVED OUR LIVES IN FEAR![/b]

[iambiguous]

Real people living in the ersatz world of Hollywood. How long can it be before the people become ersatz too? And what could possibly go wrong then? That’s what Princess Leia aimed to explore in her eponymous novel. Or, rather, the actor who played Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher. A novel, but one of those “semi-autobiographical” novels. In other words, who the hell really knows which parts are true or not.

Dope and sex and love…and all the trials and tribulations of coping with one without the others. Especially when it, uh, runs in the family. Oh the humanity! Oh the travails of being rich and famous!

And all the rest of us think that we’ve got problems.

Back again with The Group at the rehabiltation center. Of course rehabilitation for the rich and famous works a bit differently.

Why is it that those who live lives that most would kill for seem drawn to dope? I suspect it is because it makes them feel so goddamn good while they are on it. While, at the same time, making all that stuff that makes you feel so goddamn bad, recede further into the background.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is just the latest casualty here. But who among us can get inside their heads and figure it all out?

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcards_ … Edge_(film
trailer: youtu.be/gSm7CJNzEFY

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE [1990]
Directed by Mike Nichols

[b]Lowell: You fuck up my movie, I’ll kill you.
Suzanne: What?
Lowell: You know what I’m talking about and so does everybody on this set. I don’t care what you do to your body on your time, but this is my time. I won’t have some spoiled, selfish, coked-up little actress ruin my movie.

…

Jack: I feel like I slept under an elephant’s foot.

…

Doctor Frankenthal: Suzanne! We’re going to have to pump your stomach.
Suzanne: Do I have to be there?

…

Julie [drug counselor]: I want you to deal with your feelings, Suzanne, before they deal with you.
Suzanne: Do you always talk in bumper stickers?

…

Doris: What is wrong with your hair?
Suzanne: I dunno; it’s all the rage in the rehab.

…

Doris: Your big problem is, you’re too impatient. You’re only interested in instant gratification.
Suzanne: Instant gratification takes too long.

…

Aretha: Flowers for you, Suzanne.
Suzanne: Who died?
Aretha: Both of us almost did for a start. Who are they from?
Suzanne: They’re from the guy who pumped my stomach.
Aretha: Bullshit!
[she reads card]
Aretha: “Dear Suzanne. Hope your stomach is better. You seem to be what my mother warned me about: A beautiful, overly-sensitive person.” He can tell all that by the contents of your stomach?
Suzanne: I’d have to be sensitive to need all that dope. I’m tempted to marry him so I can tell people how we met.

…

Neil: We’re talking about two minutes of film - two minutes of screen time out of ninety.
Suzanne: Is it correctable?
Neil: Oh, come on. It’s not as though you farted during all your dialogue; we sat there in rushes saying ‘what’s all that noise all over her lines?’
Suzanne: I’m so relieved. That analogy has bathed me in relief.

…

Doris: So, how long have you known Suzanne?
Jack: Oh, about a month. Seems like longer, though.
Doris: I know what you mean. I’m her mother and it seems like longer.

…

Jack [to Suzanne]: You’re the realest person I’ve ever met in the abstract.

…

Doris: Was I an awful mother? How would you have like to have had a mother like Joan Crawford or Lana Turner?
Suzanne: These are the options? You, Joan or Lana?

…

Suzanne: Can I ask you something personal?
Evelyn: You mean asking me who I have sex with isn’t personal anymore? What do you want to know, if I smoke?

…

Jack: I do not like this particular side of you!
Suzanne: I’m not a box, I don’t have sides. This is it, one side fits all!

…

Jack: What is it that especially bothers you, that it was on the same day or that it was Evelyn Ames?
Suzanne: It’s not the fact that you fuck around a lot, it’s that you lie about it. You could have just told me the truth and then fucked them all. Had the cigarette with me.
Jack: That is such bullshit. Women are always saying it’s not the fact that you left, it’s the way that you did it. It’s not that you fuck around, it’s that you lie about it. You’re all so full of shit. It IS the fact that I fuck around, and it is that fact that I WILL leave.

…

Suzanne [to Jack]: Relax, they’re blanks, asshole.

…

Suzanne [to her mother]: I know, you’ve told me. You don’t want me to be a singer. You’re the singer. You’re the performer. I can’t possibly compete with you. What if somebody won?

…

Doris: Will you please tell me what is this awful thing I did to you when you were a child!
Suzanne: Okay, you want to know? Do you?
Doris: I want to know! Tell me!
Suzanne: Okay, FINE! From the time I was 9 years old, you gave me sleeping pills!
Doris: That was over-the-counter medication, and I gave it to you because you couldn’t sleep!
Suzanne: Mom! You don’t give children sleeping pills when they can’t sleep!
Doris: They were not sleeping pills! It was store-bought and it was perfectly SAFE! Now don’t blame ME for YOUR drug-taking!

…

Suzanne: But that’s the problem. I can’t feel my life. I look around me and I know so much of it is good. But it’s like this stuff with my mother. I know that she does these things because she loves me… but I just can’t believe it.
Lowell: Maybe she’ll stop mothering you when you stop needing mothering.
Suzanne: You don’t know my mother.
Lowell: I don’t know your mother, but I’ll tell you something. She did it to you and her mother did it to her and back and back and back all the way to Eve and at some point you just say, “Fuck it, I start with me.”
Suzanne: Did you just make that up?
Lowell: Yeah, well, I was working on it when you came in. If you’d shown up a half hour later like you were supposed to, it would have been better.
Suzanne: It’s pretty good as it is.
Lowell: Yeah, you just like it because it sounds a little like movie dialogue.
Suzanne: That’s right, I don’t want life to imitate art, I want life to be art.[/b]

[iambiguous]

The good old U.S. of A. There is prablably no place on earth where a distinction between being an asshole and being a rich asshole is more important. After all, when you can afford to be an asshole it sometimes makes all the difference in the world. And when you can achieve this distinction while still being a Kid, all the better. Or all the worse.

This one was a real pig. And then he becomes a very, very rich and a very, very famous pig. Going back to the beginning though, I’m with Erica on this one.

And Facebook. A vast wasteland by and large. And getting vaster everyday. But, hey, a buck is a buck. Billions of them by now. Only [it seems] Mark Zuckerberg was never really in it for the money. At least not at first. Instead, he was all about Facebook being “cool”. But sooner or later “cool” meets dog-eat-dog capitalism. And “cool” soon learns to play by the rules. Or there are consequences.

Here’s a guy who was born very, very lucky. Meaning he was born very, very smart. Meaning it was mostly a matter of biology. Meaning he only had so much to do with it at all. He was just able to take that gift to the very top of the capitalist food chain. And being born of the male persuasion didn’t hurt. As did the part about born with a white skin.

Let’s face it, even at Harvard University, you are never really all that far removed from American Youth. That and its insidious pop culture. After all, this all unfolds there not in 1902 but in 2002.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Network
trailer: youtu.be/lB95KLmpLR4

THE SOCIAL NETWORK [2010]
Directed by David Fincher

[b]Mark: Did you know there are more people with genius IQs living in China than there are people of any kind living in the United States?
Erica: That can’t possibly be true.
Mark: It is.
Erica: What would account for that?
Mark: Well first, an awful lot of people live in China. But, here’s my question: how do you distinguish yourself in a population of people who all got 1600 on their SATs?
Erica: I didn’t know they take SATs in China.
Mark: They don’t. I wasn’t talking about China anymore, I was talking about me.

…

Mark: I’m just saying I need to do something substantial in order to get the attention of the clubs.
Erica: Why?
Mark: Because they’re exclusive. And fun. And they lead to a better life.
Erica: Teddy Roosevelt didn’t get elected president because he was a member of the Phoenix club.
Mark: He was a member of the Porcelain, and yes he did.

…

Erica [angry]: I’m sorry you are not sufficiently impressed with my education.
Mark: I’m sorry I don’t have a rowboat, so we’re even.
Erica: I think we should just be friends.
Mark: I don’t want friends.
Erica: I was just being polite, I have no intention of being friends with you.

…

Erica [to Mark]: You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.

…

Mark: Let the hacking begin.

…

Eduardo: You and Erica split up.
Mark [confused]: How did you know that?
Eduardo: It’s on your blog.

…

Eduardo: Who are we going to send it to first.
Mark: Just a couple of people. But the question is, who are they going to send it to?

…

Marylin: The site got twenty-two hundred hits within two hours?
Mark: Thousand.
Marylin: What?
Mark: Twenty-two thousand hits.

…

Mark [to Gretchen]: Ma’am, I know you’ve done your homework and so you know that money isn’t a big part of my life, but at the moment I could buy Mt. Auburn Street, take the Phoenix Club, and turn it into my ping-pong room.

…

Eduardo: What did you write?
Mark: “Relationship status.” “Interested in.” This is what drives life at college. “Are you having sex or aren’t you?” It’s why people take certain classes and sit where they do and do what they do. And at its center that’s what The Facebook is gonna be about. People are gonna log on because after all the cake and watermelon there’s a chance they’re actually gonna…
Eduardo: Gonna get laid.
Mark: …meet a girl. Yes.

…

Cameron: What, do you want to hire an IP lawyer and sue him?
Divya: No, I want to hire the Sopranos to beat the shit out of him with a hammer!
Tyler: We don’t even have to do that.
Cameron: That’s right.
Tyler: We can do that ourselves. I’m 6’5", 220, and there’s two of me

…

Divya: Everybody on campus was using it. “Facebook me” was the common expression after two weeks. And Mark was the biggest thing on a campus that included 19 Nobel laureates, 15 Pulitzer prize winners, 2 future Olympians and a movie star.
Sy: Who’s the movie star?
Divya: Does it matter?

…

Erica: You called me a bitch on the Internet, Mark.
Mark: That’s why I wanted to talk to you.
Erica: On the Internet.
Mark: That’s why I came over.
Erica: Comparing women to farm animals.
Mark: I didn’t end up doing that.
Erica: It didn’t stop you from writing it. As if every thought that tumbles through your head was so clever it would be a crime for it not to be shared. The Internet’s not written in pencil, Mark, it’s written in ink. And you published that Erica Albright was a bitch, right before you made some ignorant crack about my family’s name, my bra size, and then rated women based on their hotness.

…

Marylin: What are you doing?
Mark: Checking in to see how it’s going in Bosnia.
Marylin: Bosnia. They don’t have roads, but they have Facebook.

…

Sean: And that’s where you’re headed, a billion dollar valuation. When you go fishing you can catch a lot of fish, or you can catch a big fish. You ever walk into a guy’s den and see a picture of him standing next to fourteen trout?
Christy: No, he’s holding a three-thousand-pound marlin.
Sean: Yup!
…

Sean [to Mark]: Drop the “The”. Just Facebook. It’s cleaner.

…

Gretchen: 18,000 dollars?
Eduardo: Yes.
Gretchen: In addition to the $1,000 you’d already put up?
Eduardo: Yes.
Gretchen: A total of $19,000 now?
Eduardo: Yes.
Mark: Hang on.
[Mark sarcastically adds up the 2 amounts on his notepad]
Mark: I’m just checking your math on that. Yes, I got the same thing.

…

Sean [to Mark]: A Stanford MBA named Roy Raymond wants to buy his wife some lingerie but he’s too embarrassed to shop for it at a department store. He comes up with an idea for a high end place that doesn’t make you feel like a pervert. He gets a $40,000 bank loan, borrows another $40,000 from his in-laws, opens a store, and calls it Victoria’s Secret. Makes a half million dollars his first year. He starts a catalog, opens three more stores and after five years he sells the company to Leslie Wexner and the Limited for four million dollars. Happy ending, right? Except two years later, the company’s worth 500 million dollars and Roy Raymond jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. Poor guy just wanted to buy his wife a pair of thigh-highs.

…

Sean: You think you know me, don’t you?
Eduardo: I’ve read enough.
Sean: You know how much I’ve read about you?
[whispers]
Sean: Nothing.

…

Eduardo [to Mark]: What did you mean, “get left behind”?

…

Gretchen: What was Mr. Zuckerberg’s ownership share diluted down to?
Eduardo Saverin: It wasn’t.
Gretchen: What was Dustin Moskovitz’s ownership share diluted down to?
Eduardo Saverin: It wasn’t.
Gretchen: What was Sean Parker’s ownership share diluted down to?
Eduardo Saverin: It wasn’t.
Gretchen: What was Peter Thiel’s ownership share diluted down to?
Eduardo Saverin: It wasn’t.
Gretchen: And what was your ownership share diluted down to?
Eduardo Saverin: .03 percent.

…

Eduardo: Mark!
Sean: He’s wired in.
Eduardo: I’m sorry?
Sean: He’s wired in.
Eduardo [picks up marks computer and smashes it on the ground]: What about now? Is he wired in now?

…

Eduardo: This is gonna be like I’m not a part of Facebook!
Sean: It won’t be like you’re not a part of Facebook. You’re not a part of Facebook.
Eduardo: My name’s on the masthead.
Sean: You might wanna check again.
Eduardo: Just because I froze the account?
Sean: Did you think we were going to let you parade around in your ridiculous suits pretending you were running this company?
Eduardo [cutting him off; screaming]: Sorry! My Prada’s at the cleaners! Along with my hoodie and my ‘fuck you’ flip-flops, you pretentious douchebag!
Sean: Security’s here, you’ll be leaving now.

…

Eduardo [in disbelief]: You… You did it! I knew you did it! You planted that story about the chicken!
Mark: I didn’t plant the story about the chicken.
Sean: What’s he talking about?
Eduardo: You had me accused of animal cruelty.
Sean: Seriously, what the hell’s the chicken?

…

Sean: We lived on farms, then we lived in cities, and now we’re going to live on the internet!

…

Mark: I’m not a bad guy.
Marylin: I know that. When there’s emotional testimony, I assume that 85% of it is exaggeration.
Mark: And the other fifteen?
Marylin: Perjury.

…

Mark: Farm animals. I was drunk, and angry, and stupid…
Marylin: …and Blogging.
Mark: And Blogging.

…

Marylin [urging Zuckerberg to make the $65 million settlement with the Twins]: Pay them. In the scheme of things, it’s a speeding ticket.

…

Marylin: You’re not an asshole, Mark. You’re just trying so hard to be.[/b]

[iambiguous]

And then there was the music. Which for some [as noted below] was more to be acclaimed than the movie itself. On the other hand, the film itself did get a 77% fresh rating at RT [on 146 reviews] and a 7.8 rating at IMDb.

The best of both worlds, one might say.

The film is said to be “loosely based” on Homer’s Odyssey. Whatever that means. Maybe if written as a situation comedy? As slapstick? As reconfigured into the deep South during the Depression years?

On the other hand, there are folks who actually lived through “that era” in American history who are amazed at how close the Coen Brothers came to depicting it as it was.

Also, in a more oblique sort of way, this is about economic travail and class and common folks and race and politics and all that other more…serious stuff.

Even death keeps poking around from time to time. And the Lord of course.

In the end though it all becomes rather clear: Keep on “the sunny side of life” and everything will somehow [eventually] find a way of working itself out. If only Martin Luther King had had to contend with cartoon characters like these.

IMDb

The film’s soundtrack became an unlikely blockbuster, even surpassing the success of the film. By early 2001, it had sold five million copies, spawned a documentary film, three follow-up albums (“O Sister” and “O Sister 2”), two concert tours, and won Country Music Awards for Album of the Year and Single of the Year (for “Man of Constant Sorrow”). It also won five Grammys, including Album of the Year, and hit #1 on the Billboard album charts the week of March 15, 2002, 63 weeks after its release and over a year after the release of the film.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Brother, … rt_Thou%3F
trailer: youtu.be/I1C2gCXo4Gs

O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? [2000]
Written and directed bu the Coen Brothers

[b]Everett [to hobos on a train]: Say, any of you boys smithies? Or if not smithies, trained in the metallurgic arts, before circumstances forced you into a life of wanderin’?

…

Pete: Wait a minute. Who elected you leader of this outfit?
Everett: Well, Pete, I figured it should be the one with the capacity for abstract thought.

…

Sheriff: Take cover, boys! That ain’t popcorn!

…

Vendor: I can get the part from Bristol. It’ll take two weeks, here’s your pomade.
Everett: Two weeks? That don’t do me no good.
Vendor: Nearest Ford auto man’s Bristol.
Everett: Hold on, I don’t want this pomade. I want Dapper Dan.
Vendor: I don’t carry Dapper Dan, I carry Fop.
Everett: Well, I don’t want Fop, goddamn it! I’m a Dapper Dan man!
Vendor: Watch your language, young feller, this is a public market. Now if you want Dapper Dan, I can order it for you, have it in a couple of weeks.
Everett: Well, ain’t this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!

…

Pete: You miserable little snake! You stole from my kin!
Everett: Who was fixin’ to betray us.
Pete: You didn’t know that at the time.
Everett: So I borrowed it until I did know.
Pete: That don’t make no sense!
Everett: Pete, it’s a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.

…

Delmar: Care for a gopher?

…

Pete: Well I’ll be a sonofabitch. Delmar’s been saved.
Delmar: Well that’s it, boys. I’ve been redeemed. The preacher’s done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It’s the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting’s my reward.
Everett: Delmar, what are you talking about? We’ve got bigger fish to fry.
Delmar: The preacher says all my sins is warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo.
Everett: I thought you said you was innocent of those charges?
Delmar: Well I was lyin’. And the preacher says that that sin’s been warshed away too. Neither God nor man’s got nothin’ on me now. C’mon in boys, the water is fine.

…

Pete: The Preacher said it absolved us.
Everett: For him, not for the law. I’m surprised at you, Pete, I gave you credit for more brains than Delmar.
Delmar: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
Everett: That’s not the issue Delmar. Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi’s a little more hard-nosed.

…

Everett: Baptism?! You two are just dumber than a bag of hammers!

…

Tommy: I had to be up at that there crossroads last midnight, to sell my soul to the devil.
Everett: Well, ain’t it a small world, spiritually speaking. Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I’m the only one that remains unaffiliated.

…

Everett: What’d the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?
Tommy: Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good.
Delmar: Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?
Tommy: Well, I wasn’t usin’ it.

…

Everett: Damn! I left my pomade in the car!

…

George “Baby Face” Nelson [after robbing a bank]: Thank you folks. And remember, Jesus saves, but George Nelson withdraws!

…

Delmar: Sweet Jesus, Everett, they left his heart!

…

Everett: What kind of work you do, Big Dan?
Big Dan: Sales, Mr McGill, sales! What do I sell? The truth, every blessed word of it. From Genesis down to Revelations. Yes, the word of God, which, let me say, there’s damn good money in during these times of woe and want. People want answers, and Big Dan sells the only book that’s got 'em.

…

Homer Stokes [as Grand Kleagle at a KKK rally]: Brothers! Oh, brothers! We have all gathered here, to preserve our hallowed culture and heritage! We aim to pull evil up by the root, before it chokes out the flower of our culture and heritage! And our women, let’s not forget those ladies, y’all. Looking to us for protection! From darkies, from Jews, from papists, and from all those smart-ass folks say we come descended from monkeys!

…

Homer Stokes: The color guard is colored!

…

Man from the audience: Hot damn! It’s the Soggy Bottom Boys!

…

Pappy O’Daniel: Holey moley! These boys are a hit!
Junior O’Daniel: But Pappy, they’s integrated!

…

Everett: Me an’ the old lady are gonna pick up the pieces and retie the knot, mixaphorically speaking.

…

Delmar: A miracle. It was a miracle!
Everett: Delmar, don’t be ignorant. I told you they was flooding this valley.
Pete: No! That ain’t it! We prayed to God and he pitied us!
Everett: Well, it never fails. Again, you hayseeds are showin’ you want for intellect. There’s a perfectly scientific explanation.
Pete: That ain’t the tune you was singin’ back at the gallows!
Everett: Any human being’ll cast about in a moment of stress. No, they’re flooding this valley so they can hydroelectric up the whole darn state. Yes, sir, the south is gonna change. Everything’s gonna run on a paying basis. Out with the spiritual mumbo-jumbo and the backward ways. We’re gonna see a brave new world where they hook us all up to a grid. Yes, a veritable age of reason. [/b]

[iambiguous]

Another godawful bloodbath based on the actual exploits of a human being. Male, of course. As are most of the victims. Call it one of the few silver linings here. Unless his loss is something that you grieve in your own private hell.

I don’t see any of this ending anytime soon. Particularly in a culture where many folks will see him as a kind of “anti-hero”. Even “cool”. Besides, there is money to be made turning all of this into entertainment. And, really, didn’t I pay for my own copy of the DVD? Go figure the “human condition”.

The man the mob could not kill. But not for lack of trying. But lest you get the wrong idea, Danny Greene was not out to bring the mob down so much as to supplant it. But, unlike all the other gangsters, Danny was a…reader. And not just of comic books like all the rest of them. He’s was…different. And knew when to play ball.

Back then dealing with the unions [some of them] was like dealing with the mob. But at least back then they still had unions. The kind that could engender newspaper headlines when they went out on strike. How many times does that happen today?

And political and police corruption? Well, back then…

And now? You tell me.

Still, there are always the exceptions. And sometimes the exceptions even manage to become the rule.

Men and their balls.

Danny Greene at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Greene

IMDb

Tommy Reid’ noted that getting mobster Danny Greene’s story on film took 12 years. Reid, a native of New Jersey, says he learned about Greene while a student at Ohio State University. Reid went on to buy the options to the book by Rick Porrello titled “To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia,” on which the film is based.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_the_Irishman
trailer: youtu.be/w_uoDiEDEsY

KILL THE IRISHMAN [2011]
Written in part and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh

[b]Danny [after he barely escapes his car exploding]: Is that all you got? It’s gonna take more than a few firecrackers to kill Danny Greene!

…

Danny: What makes me so special?
Joan: 'Cause you’re different from all those idiots.

…

Danny: Come on Joe, let’s dance.

…

Danny: Mr. MacLeish, I’m Danny Greene.
Mr. MacLeish: I know who ya are. You’re the tool who sent me this…Four thousand to unload each vessel? Are you outta your fucking mind? The price is two thousand. We have a contract and you’re going to honor it or I’m going to lock out your union. Is that clear ya fuckin’ potato eater?
Danny: Potato eater? Seeing as how the potato was the only source of nutrition in Ireland for 300 years and half the population including my ancestors died in the great famine, I’d say that term is insensitive. Speaking of culinary tastes, Mr. MacLeish, you’re Scottish aren’t you?
MacLeish says nothing]
Danny: Let’s talk about Haggis. Haggis is seasoned lard stuffed into a sheep’s colon. So I may be a potato eater Mr. MacLeish but I don’t eat fat out of a sheep’s asshole…So, what do you think of the new carpet?

…

Joe [voiceover]: Every city has a Theatrical – the one place there crooks and cops sit side by side.

…

Joan [now Danny’s wife visiting him in prison]: Is it true? All of it?
[Danny just stares back at her…he says nothing]
…

John: Can you do this thing, Danny?
Danny: Frato’s got 10 kids, John. 10.
John: I don’t care. You gave him a reasonable option and he crapped in your face. You said you wanted to be in the bigs. Sometimes you gotta do things you don’t like. You gotta make Frato go away.

…

Grace [to Danny]: We’re drunks, we’re fighters, we’re liars! But there’s a bit of good in every Irishman… [/b]

All somehow part of God’s plan…

[b]Shondor [handing a thug an envelope full of cash]: You give this to the man who kills the Irishman.

…

Danny: Shondor? Nah, he wouldn’t do this.
John: The contract went out yesterday. Twenty five Gs for the head of Danny Greene.

…

Licavoli: 30%. That’s the arrangment. And characterize it any way you want.
Danny: Any way I want?
Licavoli: Any way you want.
Danny: Okay. How about this? A gang of hairy, greasy wops who came into existence when a Greek fucked a goat want to extort hard-earned money from a band of noble Irish stock? How’s that?

…

Danny [to Licavolio]: You guys have bled me dry for too long. The Irishman’s in business for himself now. Oh, and by the way. I know why you guys call each other Ronnie the Crab, and Peanuts and Frankie B. It’s cause you’re too fucking stupid to remember each other’s names. See you around, Lips.

…

Reporter: This is about the fourth time someone has tried to kill you. How do you account for the fact that you survived each time?
Danny: I’m an Irish Catholic with the grace of God on my shoulder. I’m not going anywhere until He says so. You see this trailer behind me? It’s where I work. See the bar at the end of the street there? Get a shot of that. I live on the top floor. Let me tell you something. If any of these maggots from the so-called mafia want to come after me, I’m not a hard man to find.

…

David Brinkley [broadcasting the news]: There is some kind of gang war in Cleveland. The figures over recent months show that for those involved life expectancy is very short and getting shorter.

…

Joe [voiceover]: That summer 36 bombs exploded in Cleveland. The Danny Greene war became the subject of national attention.

…

Joe [voiceover]: Ray Ferrito, the hit man who killed Danny Greene, got too big for his britches, so the Cleveland mafia took a contract out on him. What did Ray Ferrito do? He went to the feds and cut a deal. The resulting trial led to the indictments of Jack Licavoli and L.A. gangster Jimmy "the Weasel " Fratianno who testified against mafia associates across the nation. It would all lead to the famous Commission Trial which convicted bosses in New York’s five families. Danny Greene’s murder directly led to the indictment of 27 mafia associates and the collapse of organized crime in Cleveland. The Cleveland mafia has never recovered [/b]

Now the shakedowns are strictly legit. All just part and parcel of crony capitalism. And not just in Cleveland.

[iambiguous]

Everything gets old. And monogamous sex is clearly no exception. But love on the other hand grows older at a considerably slower pace. Or it does for some couples. Or for one partner. That’s the part most tempestuous relationships often come to revolve around. You still have feelings for the one you are with…but the one you are with is not the one who most turns you on. But then in going for one you are gambling with the other. Or when you’re with the lover you convince yourself it’s love. The possibilities here are fucking endless.

Think for example of Maggie and Martin on True Detective.

And none of that changes just because you are young white liberals. And even when you have kids [and so much more is at stake] love and human remains is always just around the corner. Here though both couples carry on in the grand tradition of the husbands bringing home the bacon and the wives staying at home cooking and cleaning and raising the kids. What’s that all about…in this day and age?

For a while there my ex-wife and I dealt with all of this shit by embracing an open-marriage. Only she fell in love with and/or slept with other women too. And then the tidal wave that was 60s politics finally swamped us [and our daughter] once and for all.

Here that doesn’t happen. Here you have two attractive couples that hang around each other a lot. You do the math. Somebody always ends up loving [or lusting after] someone more than the other. Someone always wants and needs the other more.

What’s new here? Not much. But once you’ve been through it yourself [or are thinking about going through it now] you just seem somehow drawn to all the other train wrecks out there. Even the made up ones. Bottom line: You have either been through something like this [with kids] or you haven’t.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Don’t_Live_Here_Anymore
trailer: youtu.be/bxmUE9aYQNg

WE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE [2004]
Directed by John Curran

Jack: Jesus. We’re not a couple of fucking honeymooners anymore, for chrissake.
Terry: Why aren’t we?! We’ve been married so long that you’re bored? Is that what it is?

Uh, bingo?

[b]Edith: I think Jack wants to have sex with Terry.
Jack: Why?
Edith: Why?
Jack: Yeah.
Edith: Because he likes her and she’s pretty. And he hasn’t had any strange pussy since that French cunt.

…

Edith: I wonder how we’ll get caught.
Jack: Hank’ll smell you on me at the gym.
Edith: No, I mean Terry.

…

Jack [to Edith]: Sometimes I think that I love you even more than I think that I do. Which is a lot.

…

Jack: Jesus, Hank, men have left their wives for other women and been happy.
Hank: Until they start cheating on their new wife.

…

Hank [to Jack]: Look, just love everybody you can. Love your kids, love your wife, keep the peace. Then once, just once, try fucking somebody else just 'cos it feels good. Your wife, you know, may be living exactly according to these principles.

…

Jack [to himself]: I have a girl, so Terry gets a lobster. We get a bottle of wine and the kids get this shit.

…

Jack [reading from Tolstoy’s, The Death of Ivan Ilyich]: “It occurred to him that what had seemed impossible before - that he had not spent his life as he should have - might, after all, be true. His professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life, of his family might all have been false.”

…

Jack [reading Tolstoy to his class]: “He tried to defend all those things to himself and suddenly felt the weakness of what he was defending. There was nothing to defend.”
Student: Everything in his life turns out false?
Student: Doesn’t do much about it.
Jack: Doesn’t do much? He finds God.
Student: That tiny bit at the end? Seeing a light and there being no more pain? Is that it?
Jack: Well, the guy does do one major thing.
Student: What’s that?
Jack: He dies. Or maybe Tolstoy didn’t have it in his head to write some big uplifting story about the way we’re supposed to live our lives. Maybe he just wanted to show us what it was like to die.

…

Hank [to his daughter and her friends]: Hey, you guys want to see something?
[he then burns the manuscript of a novel he can’t get published]
Hank: Pretty cool, huh?

…

Edith: I went to the zoo last week with Sharon.
Jack: That’s a depressing place.
Edith: Yeah, I know. But we were watching this gorilla. He took a crap in his hand and then he licked it. Made me cry.
Jack: I told you it’s a depressing place.
Edith: He just seemed so human, you know? Like he knew how trapped he was.

…

Edith: See, Hank needs us, but he can’t really love anyone, only his work, the rest is surface.
Jack: I don’t believe that.
Edith: I don’t mean his friendship with you. He’d give you a kidney if you needed one.
Jack: Yeah, and he’d give you one too.
Edith: Of course he would…but he wouldn’t go to a marriage counselor.
Jack: You know, you’re a funny girl. After a long carnivorous fuck, you’re talking about a marriage counselor? Who are you?

…

Edith: You know what I wanted. I wanted to know where we were. Now I know.
Jack: And?
Edith: You love the person you’re having the affair with.

…

Edith: Hank will be busting out soon. Trust me - I know the routine. He’s been hibernating with that novel so long, next thing you know he’ll look around and blink and fuck the first thing that walks into his office.
Jack: Jesus, I hope someone goes in there before I do.
Edith: Well, he screws his wife once in a while, why not another man?
Jack: And your husband making passes at my wife, how do you feel about that?
Edith: Well, everybody deserves to be happy, right.

…

Edith: How’d the work go?
Jack: Burned my novel, wrote a shitty poem. How’d the shopping go?
Edith: Fine.

…

Terry: You’re being published. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?
Hank: It’s just a poem, Terry, it’s really not that important.
Terry: No, Hank, it isn’t. If you want important, go work in a cancer ward with people who are puking from chemo. Or teach math to a kid who’s brain damaged from fetal alcohol syndrome.

…

Jack: You fuck who you want, when you want…but don’t give me half-assed insights into the soul of a man you have never understood. Your insights suck.
Terry: Oh, Jesus Christ. My “half-assed insights.” “Into the soul of a man I don’t understand.” You poor baby. Oh, my God. You poor little baby.

…

Terry: See, Jack, I’m not sure what to do. I mean, tomorrow. What do I say? “Gee, Hank, that was last night and this is now, and I just don’t know if I wanna fuck anymore.” You gotta admit, even adultery has morality to it.

…

Edith [to Jack]: I’d like to just concentrate on hating his guts right now.[/b]

Why? Because Hank is fucking Terry now. On the other hand, she is saying this to Jack, the man she is fucking.

Terry: You say, “You are what you do”? Who really believes that? I mean, what does that mean? Does that mean I’m a cook, an errand runner, a fucker, a goddamn cleaning lady? Because if you, you bastard, lost all discipline and folded up, and turned drunk and got bald and lost everything, I’d love you. I love you. You, Jack. But if you love me for what I do instead of for what I am…and there’s a difference, I know there is…then what are you loving when I fuck Hank? What is it in you that lets me do that? Or is that just another one of the tricks I do for you? Screw Hank, shake hands, sit, roll over, play dead, fetch…Iove me like a dog?

That’s when he chooses to tell her he loves Edith.

[b]Hank: It’s much easier living with a woman who feels loved.

…

Edith [to Jack]: Hank said he was happy for us and now he’s sad for us. He’s happy that you were taking care of me and now he’s sorry that you can’t.

…

Edith: I’m not leaving you because you were unfaithful, Hank, I’m leaving because I was.
Hank: Look, none of that matters any more. It’s over. Isn’t it? Isn’t it, Edith?
Edith: Yeah. It’s over.
Hank: Well then, why leave now?
Edith: Because I can. [/b]

[iambiguous]

On thing for sure: No one will ever do this again.

And I would imagine the folks who watched him traverse the two buildings on a wire could not have imagined that less than 30 years later both buildings would come crashing to the ground. And though this film was made in 2008, that fact never once comes up.

The Twin Towers in other words. These were the two buildings that Philippe Petit “spent 45 minutes walking, dancing, kneeling, and lying on a wire” between. Why?

His explanation:

Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge - and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope.

That and because they were there, I suppose. Just not anymore.

And aside from the feat of traversing the two towers on a wire there is the feat of actually rigging the wire to and across the buildings themselves. That’s straight out of James Bond. Or Ocean’s Eleven. Like they were pulling off this extraordinary heist by way of a great engineering accomplishment.

One can’t even imagine – post 9/11 – someone doing something like this in New York today.

So, starting from the Big Bang to now…where do you fit in something like this?

IMDb

After Philippe Petit and his compatriots are taken into custody, they are processed by the police. The phrase “MAN ON WIRE” is entered on one of the forms used to document the incident.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_on_Wire
trailer: youtu.be/EIawNRm9NWM

MAN ON WIRE [2008]
Directed by James Marsh

[b]Annie: Philippe said to me: “I know what’s going to happen…we are going to go in, and we’re going to get caught.” But Philippe could no longer carry on living without having at least tried to…to conquer those towers because it felt like those towers belonged to him. It was as if they had been built especially for him.

…

Jean-Franois: Philippe had told me that it was illegal, but of course that’s what got me a bit excited! Against the law, but not wicked or mean. It was wonderful!

…

Annie: The time had come for us to part. There was a real madness in his eyes, a real rage. It was truly: " I’m going to do this, no matter what, now is the time". And he held me in his arms as if we would never see each other again.

…

Philippe: If I die, what a beautiful death!

…

Annie: One day he showed me a photo of two buildings in a magazine. And then I was a bit frightened. It was inhuman to want to go and walk up there, 450 meters high. This was all becoming demonic. I just wanted to say: “Stop!”

…

Philippe: So I thought, it’s impossible, that’s for sure. So let’s start working on it.

…

Annie: Someone had spoken to him about the elasticity of the building and the fact that the wind could cause the towers to sway. So there was a moment of great concern.

…

Mark: I never doubted Philippe’s talent, his prowess on the wire. It was the unforeseen things that really worried me. You know, America’s a very litigious society…you know, involuntary manslaughter, assisted suicide…I didn’t want to be liable for the death of a friend.

…

Alan: That’s when I saw him on a cable. I had never seen concentration like that…and I think I never have to this day. His face became this ageless mask…I mean he became like a sphinx.

…

Jean-Franois: When we arrived in New York on the Boston train, at one point we went past the Empire State Building. At that moment I looked up, I saw the height of the Empire State Building and I was horrified. My legs started to shake, it was terrifying! Especially when I realised the World Trade Center was even higher. I kept it all to myself but I was terrified.

…

Jean-Franois [from atop a twin tower]: I remember the vastness of New York! The altitude! The Statue of Liberty, the UN building, all looking so tiny. It was magnificent. And the sounds as well, the police sirens all night long!

…

Alan: The fact that I could not speak French, so I couldn’t hear vthe details of what was going wrong, was probably just as well.

…

Annie: I found a taxi willing to take me there. So I waited with the others. Other members of the team joined us. And our eyes were absolutely glued to the towers. I was looking out for the slightest movement, but we couldn’t see a thing. It was absolutely terrifying.

…

Annie: Suddenly we saw something, a shape, just for a second, falling down. There was a huge cry of relief…it was only a piece of clothing. We all thought: “He must have just dropped something, that’s ok.” We all thought: “Of course it’s possible he could fall.”

…

Annie: I saw Philippe. I saw Philippe up there, it was extraordinary. It was so, so beautiful. It was like he was walking on a cloud. And there weresuch amazing moments. When he lay down we were thrilled by this image of Philippe lying down up above.And another very powerful moment was when he…It was so beautiful. When he knelt down. There was a moment when he knelt down and saluted.

…

Sgt Daniels: I observed the tight rope dancer…because you couldn’t call him a walker… approximately half-way between the two towers. I personally figured I was watching something that somebody else would never see again in the world. Thought it was once in a lifetime.[/b]

Then he became a star. A celebrity around the world. And that suited him just fine.

[iambiguous]

The idea is to assemble three of the most renowned “horror” directors in the Asian Extreme genre and have them film three “shorts”. Think New York Stories if the whole point was to give you nightmares.

Of course there is extreme and than there is extreme. Different strokes for different folks here. Some are repulsed more by different things.

Take the first segment, “Dumplings”, for example. It is said that Mei’s dumplings are by far the most unique to be found. And certainly the most expensive. But then we find out why. And some will be repulsed more than others. Repulsed enough to either stop buying them or not. But then, some will do almost anything to stave off the ravages of aging…of time.

Still, you won’t believe what Mrs. Li does.

In the second segment, “Cut”, the age-old quandary of the moral dilemma is explored. Either you do something deplorable or something even more deplorable will happen. And here it focuses further on what might happen when in choosing one over the other, there is considerably more at stake for you personally. Also, there is the quandary of living a lie.

Look for the one who is “trying to get you down inside the hole that he is in.”

So much more of this would no doubt go on if not for the consequences of telling the truth. This one is truly ghastly.

In the final segment, “Box”, we delve into twins [very special twins] and mysterious deaths; and frames of mind in which we never can be entirely sure what is or is not a linear reality. More a blurring of reality and the surreality of dreams. Just gorgeous to look at. And yet dreadful to imagine.

Some might be disturbed by an element of child abuse here. Or is that just me reading into it something that is not even there?

But then what is real here?

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three…_Extremes
trailer: youtu.be/4-lnf01j7kw

3 EXTREMES [Saam Gaang Yi] 2004
Directed by Fruit Chan, Takashi Miike, Chan-wook Park

DUMPLINGS

Mei: Don’t worry, you’ll soon regain your youth…so as the heart of your man.
Mrs. Li: Do you have more potent stuff for faster results?
Mai: The best are those in the 5th or 6th month. Have to remove it only by breaking the water sac, then sliding it out. It’s covered by a layer of creamy fat. The colors are defined; you can even see the cranium. Its tiny limbs would still be moving around. It’s only this small in the 1st trimester. But the meat would be too tough by the third trimester. The 5th month ones are perfect, kitten-like. So cute and so nutritious.

See if you can guess what’s in the dumplings.

[b]Mrs. Li: What’s this crunchiness about?
Mei: It’s okay, they have hands and feet already, you know And ears, too!
Mrs. Li: Those were bones?
Mei: No…their bones are hardly hard. I’ll just chop finer next time.

…

Mei: It was a boy.
Mrs. Li: A boy?
Mei: See that little thing? So beautiful and rare. Boys don’t get aborted in China.[/b]

CUT

[b]Actor [to director after chopping off one of his wife’s fingers]: And… CUT! She’s a pianist…I know that of course! I’ve done my research. Got to be the pianist’s fingers for the “cut” to mean something. Only an idiot would want her toes instead!

…

Director: Why are you doing this to me?
Actor: What do you mean “Why”? Because this world is so fucked up! That’s why!

…

Actor: The rich people I’ve ever met…They’re all scumbags, no respect for people. I don’t even consider them as human beings. But you, you are a good man! That’s so fucking unfair! You’re rich, handsome, educated in America…a genius director, and you have a pretty wife! If you’re also a “good” man on top of that what are guys like me supposed to get?!

…

Actor: I can let your wife go. On one condition…[/b]

Wait until you see that.

[b]Actor: I’ve been dirt poor ever since I was a kid. My bastard father was always dead drunk. He beat the hell out of us day in and day out. Needless to say my grades were bad. And this ugly face of mine could get me nowhere near stardom. So you see, now I’m the one who always gets drunk. I go home and I kick my boy’s ass. And, I beat my wife, too! When I sober up in the morning and see that beat-up face of hers…Guess what I think of? Your face!

…

Actor: You call this shit a confession? Do I look like an idiot to you? I’ve never said that you were a saint! Who the hell hasn’t done a thing as tedious as that? Give me a break. Let me show you what a confession really is. For example, before I left home this morning, I killed my wife. I must have strangled her for over 30 minutes. Her tongue hung out all the way and she shit everywhere. I was going to finish my son too, but it was not that easy…I just couldn’t do that. Now, that’s what I call a confession!

…

Director [to actor]: You son of a bitch. Your dad was a moron and he made you a loser. Is that my fault? Did I rob your bank?! Did I steal your wife?! What do I have to do with your unhappy existence? Shame on you, moron. Why don’t you just kill yourself? Your life is a waste of time anyway. Do you know who you’re talking to? I’m Ryu Ji-ho, the Ryu Ji-ho! You’re merely a lowlife extra!

…

Wife [less three fingers]: Kill her! Kill her! What are you waiting for, idiot? I’M TELLING YOU KILL HER! KILL HER![/b]

BOX

[b]Kyoko: Sister, dear? It’s you, isn’t it? It’s me Kyoko…Say something Sister!
Shoko: It’s hot… I’m burning…
Kyoko: It wasn’t what you think! It really wasn’t! It wasn’t!

…

Yoshii: Shoko…you did well today. A little reward. Keep up the good work.
Shoko: Kyoko, keep trying! Someday you’ll be rewarded too.

…

Yoshii: Oh, Kyoko…Why did you do it?
Kyoko: Don’t…
Yoshii: You thought I only loved your sister? Poor thing…The heat was unbearable…
Kyoko: Don’t!
Yoshii: She couldn’t get out…She’s trapped…
Kyoko: Don’t!!
Yoshii: In that tiny box!
Kyoko: No! No!
Yoshii [holding open Kyoko’s eye]: Look. LOOK! If you hadn’t done it, she’d be here now!
Kyoko: I’m sorry…I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…

…

Yoshii: I saved one for you too.
Kyoko: What?

…

Kyoko: I had a weird dream.
Shoko: Me too.
Kyoko: But then…
Shoko: …our dreams…
Kyoko: …differ slightly.[/b]

[iambiguous]

Who hasn’t wondered what going to a public school in France must be like?

Actually, I am always curious to compare the Youth Culture of other nations with the Youth Culture here at home. Can it really be more apalling?

Now, by high school, we’re talking public education. And, in particular, public education in a community inhabited by and large by working class boys and girls. That’s my own experience after all. But all too many years ago. I hardly recognize much at all. Neither here nor there.

Here the school is, to say the least. bursting at the seams with…multiculturalism? Though the teachers [and the administrators] are overwhelmingly white. I can’t imagine there are many public schools in America that approach it. Not that I’m making anything other than a guess.

Then there is always the gap between what these working class kids are taught in school and the extent to which they either can or cannot make a connection between that and the lives they live. As with here, there really isn’t much in the way of “upward mobility”. And none of the students sparked much of an interest for me. Just listen to them read their own “personal profiles” in class.

And the segment where they are reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Learning about her life. The looks on their faces as the camera spans the classroom speaks volumes: What does any of this have to do with me? It simply doesn’t interest them. Instead, they just complain about how boring and uneventful their own lives are by comparison.

And yet there is something about the way the parts come together here that draws you in. It’s less about imagining school [or public education] as you might want it to be and more about the actual nuts and bolts of running one or attending one or teaching in one from day to day.

Is it based on a true story? imdb.com/title/tt1068646/faq … q_3#.2.1.4

Also, all of the students use their actual names in the film. Though I’m not sure if they were the actual students he taught.

IMDb

First French film to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival since 1987. According to jury president Sean Penn, the choice was unanimous.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Class_(2008_film
trailer: youtu.be/oUzKu51bY04

THE CLASS [Entre les Murs] 2008
Written in part and directed by Laurent Cantet

[b]Student: What’s with the Bills?
François [teacher]: What bills?
Student: The name Bill. You always use weird names.
François: Weird? A recent US President was called Bill.
Student: Why don’t you use Aissata or Rachid or Ahmed…You always use whitey names.
François: What names?
Student: Honky names.
François: What’s honky?

…

Esmeralda: Why the imperfect indicative? Why not just imperfect?
François: All right, Esmeralda, why the indicative?
Esmeralda: If I knew, I wouldn’t ask.
François: I can imagine. Anyone know why we specify the imperfect indicative? Why not just the imperfect?[/b]

Not many of the students seemed enthralled by the distinction. Instead, they seem more interested in finding out if François is or is not a homosexual.

[b]François: Start by mastering it, then you can call its use into question.
Student: Sir, why are you criticizing us?
Student: They’re right, that’s the way people talked in the old days. Even my gran didn’t say that. It’s from the Middle Ages!
François: No it isn’t.
Student: It is! It’s bourgeois…
Student: Tell me, when was the last time you heard someone talk like that?
François: Yesterday, with friends, we used the imperfect subjunctive.
Student: No, someone normal!

…

Angry teacher [in the teacher’s lounge]: Im sick of these clowns! Sick of them! I can’t take any more. They’re nothing, they know nothing…they look right through you when you try to teach them. They can stay in their shit…I’m not going to help them. Go ahead, guys, I tell them, stay in your crap neighborhood. You’ll be here all your lives and it serves you right!

…

Khoumba [in a letter to François]: “I shall sit at the back to avoid any other conflicts unless you come looking for them. I admit I can be insolent…but only if provoked. I won’t look at you again, so you can’t say my look is insolent. In theory, in French class, you talk about French, not your grandma or sister or girls’ periods. And so, from now on, I won’t speak to you again.”

…

François [to a student defending his Goth attire]: There’s a contradiction in what you say. You want to be you. Are those clothes you? Those clothes are worn by a huge number of people.
Student: Most people who wear them are gloomy inside…so we’re all kind of alike.
François: You’re all alike, you’re all gloomy, so that’s not you. By being different, you’re different and the same.

…

Esmeralda: Do you know what ‘skank’ means?
François: I never called you skanks!
Esmeralda: Yes, you did. For me skank means prostitute.
François: It’s not that at all. For me, it doesn’t mean that. It’s nothing important at all, just a girl laughing stupidly.
Esmeralda: Hey, skank means prostitute, right?
Student: You bet!

…

Esmeralda: Socrates stops people in the street and asks them: “Are you sure of thinking what you think?” “Are you sure of doing what you do?” And so on? After that, people start getting confused. They ask questions. The guy’s too much.
François: What does he ask people about?
Esmeralda: Everything. Love, religion, God, people, everything
François: It’s good you read it.
Esmeralda: I know. It’s not a skank’s book![/b]

[iambiguous]

Someone takes your child and the authorities return him to you. Only it is not your child they return. And the more you struggle to bring this to their attention, the more they insist you should just accept the child they gave you.

And the fact that all of this is based on a true story means you are hooked: What the hell is happening here?

It’s one of those films where something fortuitous happens that sets into motion a series of events that have enormous consequences. Jean can’t come to work. So Margaret asks Christine to come in her place. She goes but that means leving her son alone in the house until the neighbor can stop by to check in on him. The rest [for them] is history.

Then it all comes down to this: Who is in on the fraud and who is not? Or is it even a fraud at all? And it is a really scary reminder of what those in position of “authority” can and will do if the stakes [for them] are high enough. And that never changes. Here the mother is deemed to be “mad” and put in a mental institution. And the more she struggles to expose the fraud the more it “proves” how dangerous she is. This is all straight out of Kafka. Everywhere you look another Nurse Ratchet on steroids. And that’s before we get to the flagrant police and government corruption.

And then all of that is connected to all of this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wineville_ … op_Murders

IMDb

[b]The title refers to a European folk legend. Supposedly, fairies, elves, trolls, or even the devil would occasionally steal young children from their cradles, and leave a false child - a “changeling” - in its place.

J. Michael Straczynski first learned of the story of Christine Collins from an unnamed source at Los Angeles City Hall. The source had stumbled across case files regarding the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders among other discarded documents scheduled for destruction. Straczynski took the files himself and became obsessed with the case, doing extensive research over the course of a year. Virtually every event depicted in the film appears as cited in legal documents, with dialog often taken verbatim from court transcripts. Straczynski wrote his first draft of the screenplay in only eleven days.

The fate of Sanford Clark, the 13-year-old boy who was forced by his uncle, Gordon Northcutt, to participate in some of the Wineville Murders, is not mentioned in the film. After leading the police to the bodies at his uncle’s farm, Clark was sentenced to five years at Whittier Boys School in California. A sympathetic L.A. District Attorney, Loyal Kelly, later had Clark’s sentence reduced to 23 months after the school reported that Clark showed promising job skills and a genuine desire to reform. Clark returned to Canada, where he served in the Canadian military during World War II, and later worked as a mailman for 28 years. He married, adopted and raised two children, and served local community causes throughout his life. Sanford Clark died in 1991.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling_(film
FAQs IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt0824747/faq?ref_=tt_faq_sm
trailer: youtu.be/VvHquOz-lDU

CHANGELING [2008]
Directed by Clint Eastwood

[b]Walter: I got in a fight with Billy Mankowski.
Christine: What happened?
Walter: He hit me.
Christine: Did you hit him back?
Walter: Yes.
Christine: Good. Rule number one: Never start a fight, but always finish it. So why did he hit you?
Walter: Because I hit him.

…

Rev. Briegleb [to his congregation]: We are told that the Los Angeles Police Department is doing the best it can to reunite mother and child, and I am sure that is true. But given its position as the most violent, corrupt and incompetent police department this side of the Rocky Mountains, that’s not saying a great deal.

…

Capt. Jones: Mrs. Collins…listen to me. I know you’re feeling uncertain right now, but that’s to be expected…a boy this age changes so fast…but we’ve compensated for that in our investigation. We’re experts in child identification. There’s no question that this is your son.
Christine: It’s not Walter.
Capt. Jones: It’s not Walter as you remember him. That’s why it’s important for you to take him home, on a…trial basis.
Christine: A trial basis?
Capt. Jones: Once you’ve put him back in familiar surroundings, and given yourself time to recover from the shock of his changed condition…you’ll see that it is him. I swear to you, Mrs. Collins. I give you my word. Trust me…this is your son.

…

Christine [after “Walter” falls in the tub]: You’re circumcised…

…

Christine: He’s not my son.
Capt. Jones: Mrs. Collins…
Christine: No, I don’t know why he’s saying that he is, but he’s not Walter and there’s been a mistake.
Capt. Jones: I thought we agreed to give him time to adjust.
Christine: He’s three inches shorter; I measured him on the chart.
Capt. Jones: Well, maybe your measurements are off. Look, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this.
Christine: He’s circumcised and Walter isn’t.
Capt. Jones: Mrs. Collins, your son was missing for five months, for at least part of that time in the company of an unidentified drifter. Who knows what such a disturbed individual might have done. He could have had him circumcised. He could have…
Christine: …made him shorter?

…

Christine: He’s not my son!
Capt. Jones: Why are you doing this, Mrs. Collins? Why are you doing this? You seem perfectly capable of taking care of the boy. Your job pays you enough to attend to his personal needs, so I don’t understand why you’re running away from your responsibilities as a mother.
Christine: I am not running away from anything! Least of all my responsibilities! I am even taking care of that boy right now, because I am all he has! What worries me is that you have stopped looking for my son!
Capt. Jones: Why should we be looking for someone we’ve already found?

…

Christine [to a sleeping “Walter”]: I was wrong to yell at you. You’re still a child, and I think you don’t really understand what you’re doing, the hurt you’re causing. Maybe this is all just some big game of pretend to you, but I need you to understand. Walter is…he’s all I have, he’s everything to me, and every day we lose because of this puts him further away from where I can help him. Whatever the police think, whatever the world thinks, we know the truth, don’t we? We both know you’re not Walter. Getting you to admit that may be the only chance I have to straighten this out before it’s too late. Maybe you’re afraid of getting in trouble, that you’re in too deep. But you’re not. You don’t have to tell me who you are, you just have to tell them who you’re not. Just… tell them the truth.

…

Rev. Briegleb [to Christine]: The police chief picked fifty of the most violent cops on the force, gave them machine guns and permission to shoot anyone who got in their way. He called them the Gun Squad. No lawyers. No trials. No questions, suspensions or investigations. Just piles of bodies. Bodies in morgues, bodies in hospitals, bodies by the side of the road, barely alive. Not because the police wanted to wipe out crime, they just wanted to get rid of the competition. Mayor Cryer and half the police force are on the take. Prostitution, gambling, bootlegging, you name it. When the gloves came off, pretty soon the rest of the department got into the brutality act. Didn’t want the Gun Squad to have all the fun, after all. The more they got away with it, the worse things got, because when you give folks the freedom to do whatever they want, as God saw in the Garden of Eden, they’ll do just that.

…

Mrs. Fox [teacher]: Mrs. Collins, if that boy’s your son I’ll eat my yardstick.

…

Carol: I heard them talking. You’re here on a code 12, police action. The doctors, the staff, they figure that if the police sent you here, there must be a good reason for it.
Christine: There isn’t a good reason for it. I’m perfectly sane and I will explain that to them.
Carol: Yeah? How? The more you try to act sane, the crazier you start to look. If you smile too much, you’re delusional or stifling hysteria. If you don’t smile, you’re depressed. If you’re neutral you’re emotionally withdrawn and potentially catatonic.
Christine: You seem to have given this a great deal of thought.
Carol: I have. Don’t you get it? You’re code 12. So am I. We’re here for the same reason: We pissed off the cops.
Christine: They can’t do that.
Carol: Are you kidding? Hey, everybody knows women are fragile, right? They’re all emotions, no logic, nothin’ goin’ on upstairs. And sometimes, like when they say something that’s a little, y’know, inconvenient…they just go fucking nuts, pardon my French. If we’re insane, nobody has to listen to us. I mean, who are you going to believe, some crazy woman trying to destroy the integrity of the force, or a police officer? Then once they get us in here, we either learn to behave, and shut up, or – or we don’t go home.

…

Dr. Steele: By signing, you certify that you were wrong when you stated the boy returned by the police was not your son. It further stipulates that the police acted properly in sending you here for observation and absolves them of all responsibility for…
Christine: I won’t sign it.
Steele: Then your condition is not improved. Sign it, and you can be out of here first thing tomorrow.
Christine: I won’t sign it! I was not wrong! That boy is not my son! And I am not going to stop telling the truth about this! And you’re not going to stop me, and the police aren’t going to stop me…
Steele: Mrs. Collins, you’re becoming agitated.
Christine: I will tear down the walls of this place with my bare hands if I have to, but one way or another –
Steele: Orderly! The patient is disturbed, hyperactive and is threatening the staff. See to it she is properly sedated.

…

Det. Ybarra: Nobody can just up and kill 20 kids, okay?
Sanford: We did.

…

Det. Ybarra [to Sanford]: Dig. You put them in the ground, now you can take them out.

…

Dr. Steele: Six days, Mrs. Collins, and no progress. We may have to go to more…strenuous therapies. Unless you’re willing to prove you’re doing better…by signing this.
Christine: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
Dr. Steele: Room 18.

…

Christine [to Rev. Briegleb]: I used to tell Walter, “Never start a fight… but always finish it.” I didn’t start this fight… but by God, I’m going to finish it.

…

Reporter at Precinct [as Northcott is being taken into custody]: How did you avoid capture?
Northcott: Well I didn’t did I?

…

Rev Briegleb [to Christine]: The Lord works in mysterious ways, Mrs. Collins. Does he ever.[/b]

Well, where was the Lord when those 20 boys were being chopped into pieces by Northcott?

Christine: Three boys made a run for it that night, detective, and if one got out, then may be either or both of the other two did too. Maybe Walter’s out there having the same fears that he did. Afraid to come home and identify himself, or afraid to get in trouble. But either way, it gives me something I didn’t have before today.
Det. Ybarra: What’s that?
Christine: Hope.

Nope. She never stopped searching for her son. But she never found him.

[iambiguous]

Why am I so often drawn to films that depict just how utterly, utterly shallow Youth Culture in America is? Generations – literally generation[b][u]s[/b][/u] – now deplorably hooked on the ravages of pop culture, mindless consumption and the worship of celebrities.

Well, it does make me feel rather smug and superior. Of course, how much different [really] was I in my own youth. A lot actually. On the other hand, I know that I was often hooked like everyone else on “stuff” the “cool” kids had. Like, say, Jack Purcell sneakers?

But, then, the crass capitalists have won, right? Let’s go shopping.

Of course, this is one of those films that teenagers are suppose to watch as an object lesson in how not to behave. And then react to it instead as an object lesson in how to behave. Only all the more cunningly. If all the more mindlessly. It’s amazing how some manage to combine the two.

It’s a monkey see, monkey do world. Or it is for a certain demographic.

IMDb

Throughout the film, there is a very prominent ad that shows a woman’s white face, and underneath it are the words “Truth Is Beauty”. The eyes of this woman belong to lead actress Nikki Reed. Throughout the movie, as Tracy falls deeper into trouble, the face becomes more distorted and dirty.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_(film
trailer: youtu.be/7yxrc2W-czA

THIRTEEN [2003]
Written in part and directed by Catherine Hardwicke

[b]Tracy [after inhaling a computer cleaning aerosol]: Hit me. I’m serious, I can’t feel anything, hit me! Again, do it harder! I can’t feel anything, this is so awesome! Do it harder! Oww! I can’t feel anything! This is so awesome! I hear this little “wah-wah-wah” inside my head.
Evie: That’s your brain cells popping.
Tracy: Do it.
Evie: You want me to do it?
Tracy: No, no, no. Hit me! Harder! Punch me! Hit me really hard. Really.
Evie: Okay. I’m gonna punch you.
Tracy: Okay! Go!
Evie [after really hitting her]: Oh, shit! Oh! Oh, fuck!

…

Tracy [on the phone in a tattoo shop]: Mom, do you know the difference between point-slope form and slope-intercept form? See, that’s why I need to be here at the library. They have tutors.

…

Tracy [in the afterglow of sex with Javi]: We are so perfect for each other. You know, if everybody married someone from a different race, then in one generation there would be no prejudice.

…

Tracy: Mothers, lock up your sons!

…

Luke [as underage Evie tries to seduce him]: No. Bad. Danger, Will Robinson, danger.

…

Tracy [to Melanie]: Would you like me to model my new thong? Perfect for pooping on the go!

…

Tracy: No bra, no panties. No bra, no panties.
Melanie: Stop it.
Tracy: No bra, no panties.

…

Brooke [to Melanie]: They cut off my ears.[/b]

No, it’s not what you think. Plastic surgery? Oh, then it is what you think.

[b]Melanie: How do you explain $863 in your purse?
Tracy: What do you expect me to say, Mom? We jacked it, okay? It’s not like your broke ass ever has any money to give me!

…

Brooke: We’re moving to Ojai, so you won’t be seeing Evie again. Ever. You’re really cruel, Tracy. I mean, I’m sure you can be a sweet kid when you want, but right now you’re a really bad influence. I mean, you cheat, you lie, you steal…
Tracy [shouting in disbelief]: Oh my God! Are you kidding me, who do you think I learned all this shit from!!
Melanie: Tracy was playing with Barbies before she met Evie!

…

Brooke [to Tract]: Did she teach you to beat the crap out of her as well? Don’t even start with me, I’ve seen the bruises, little one!
Tracy: What the hell did you tell her Evie?!!

…

Tracy [to her Mom…but basically to the whole fucking world]: Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. [/b]

[iambiguous]

There is racism so flagrant and blatant you know exactly where you are. Then there is racism that pervades all the rest of the world. Which is worse is sometimes hard to say. Unless you are smack dab in the middle of the first kind.

When you are you can sometimes run into the ontroversy that surrounds “taking the law into your own hands”. Is that ever justified? Or is it more that once you go down that road the rule of law itself comes into jeopardy? Suppose two racist scumbags brutally rape and nearly kill a ten year old girl? Suppose you’re the father. You find them and then kill them. Justice served?

This illustrates quite clearly just how cloudy things can become when you talk about “conflicting goods” out in the world. There just isn’t a one-size-fits-all resolution to be found.

After all, what is a just punishment to fit this crime? And this ain’t exactly unfolding 100 years ago.

Of course this one of those films where virtually all the folks in position of power are white. And the one needing their help is black. You hardly ever see films where it is the other way around, do you? What does that say about race in America still today?

This is also about having the balls to “buck the system”. And it’s not just you in the crosshairs. It’s your loved one and your family too. Magnified all the more when it is about race in the “deep South”. And it don’t get much deeper there than Mississippi.

The ending? Well, let’s just say some might call it a liberal fairy tale.

IMDb

[b]Paul Newman turned down the role of Lucien Wilbanks because he found the film’s message distasteful.

Like John Grisham’s novel, the movie was very controversial, and was widely accused of condoning murder.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_to_Kill_(film
trailer: youtu.be/O90-DO9P6q0

A TIME TO KILL [1996]
Directed by Joel Schumacher

[b]James: She looks a little young.
Billy Ray: You know I always say if they’re old enough to crawl, they’re in the right position.

…

Tonya: Daddy, I’m sorry I dropped the groceries.

…

Sheriff [to James and Billy Ray]: We’ll go to the courthouse, the judge will set your bail…then we’ll come back, nice and peaceful. If I get any trouble outta you guys, I’m gonna integrate this jail.

…

Carl [to Jake]: I figure there’s people out there tired of all the raping and killing and they’d be sympathetic to a man who took the law into his own hands…even if he is black.

…

Lucien: [to Jake]: Bear in mind that Mr. Hailey is guilty as sin under our legal system. It does not permit vigilante violence…and he took the law into his own hands. He murdered two people. Two people who raped his 10-year-old daughter.

…

Lucien [to Jake]: If you win this case, justice will prevail, and if you lose, justice will also prevail. Now that is a strange case.

…

KKK Grand Dragon: Now, you tell me…who’s that nigger’s lawyer?
Freddie: Local boy. His name’s Brigance. He’s got a pretty good reputation.
KKK Grand Dragon: He got family?
Freddie: Yes, sir. He has a wife and a daughter.
KKK Grand Dragon: Good.

…

Carl [to his wife]: You know, I think about them two boys. Dead, buried, probably starting to rot. And I remember them walking into court…one proud, the other scared. I remember how they fell. One on top of the other, screaming and squirming and not going nowhere. God help me Gwen, but that’s the only thought that give me comfort.

…

Harry Rex: Lucien, I thought you were dead.
Lucien: I’m trying.

…

Jake: There ain’t nothin’ more dangerous in this would than a fool with a cause…

…

Jake: Mr. Vonner, in short…you have the opportunity to work on a case that matters. Let me get this straight. You want me to put aside my empty, soulless, shady astonishingly lucrative, divorcee practice come work with you on an unwinnable, lose-all-my-friends case because it matters? It’s a novel idea, I know.
Harry Rex: No way. Never. You presumptuous little shit.

…

Jake: I need a drink.
Lucien: At three o’clock in the afternoon? What would your wife think?
Jake: I’m my own man, Lucien. I drink when I want to.
Lucien: When did she leave town?
Jake: This morning.

…

Ellen: You are opposed to the death penalty.
Jake: Why?
Ellen: You’re not?
Jake: I’m in favor of it. I’d like to go back to hangings if we could.
Ellen: You’re kidding.
Jake: No. The only problem with the death penalty is that we do not use it enough.
Ellen: Have you told Carl Lee this?
Jake: The men who raped his daughter deserved the death penalty, not Carl Lee.
Ellen: How do you decide who dies and who doesn’t?
Jake: Simple. You take the crime and you take the criminal. Now, say a crack dealer guns down an undercover cop. You strap him to a chair and turn it on.
Ellen: For some reason, I thought you were a liberal.
Jake: I am a liberal. What I am not is a card-carrying A.C.L.U. radical. I don’t believe in rehabilitation. I believe in safety. I believe in justice.
Ellen: I see. Well, let me ask you something. Ever seen an execution?
Jake: Not that I recall.
Ellen: I suggest you go watch a man be executed. You watch him die, watch him beg, watch him kick and spit the life out of him…until he pisses and shits and is gone. Then come back and sing this crap about justice…
Jake: Spare me your Northern liberal cry-me-a-river, we-are-the-only-enlightened-ones bullshit.
Ellen: I’m sorry, yes, you are the enlightened one. That’s why you brought me to this diner in this black neighborhood. So you can convince me you’re this JFK-meets-Christ white boy. Is that it? Or is it because you’re a repressed, hypocritical provincial who didn’t want to be seen around town with a woman like me. Yes, siree, you sure are enlightened. I’m terribly sorry, I’ve made a mistake. I thought you were one of the good guys.[/b]

So, who won?

[b]Carl [looking at the all-white jury]: That’s a jury of my peers…

…

Ellen: So…was he crazy when he did it?
Jake: No, he wasn’t crazy. He told me he’d do it. I tried to tell myself he wasn’t serious. I think I really wanted him to do it. I came home that night and looked at Hannah. She looked so tender. All I could think about was all the monsters out there…and any one of them can come steal her innocence. Take her life, if they want. Yeah, I wanted those boys dead. You’re goddamn right I did. I guess I helped kill them.

…

Ellen: Do you want me to stay?
Jake: Yeah, I want you to stay. So you’d better go.

…

Ellen: I keep thinking, what would Jake do? What would my father do? What would Lucien do?
Harry Rex: Well see, there’s your problem. What you should be thinking is, what would Harry Rex do?
Ellen: What would Harry Rex do?
Harry Rex: Cheat. Cheat like crazy.

…

Jake: Should he be punished for shooting you?
Deputy Looney: No, sir. I hold no ill will toward the man. I would have done it.
Jake: What do you mean by that?
Deputy Looney: I don’t blame him for what he did. Those boys raped his girl…I got a little girl. Somebody rapes her, he’s a dead dog. I’ll blow him away like Carl Lee did.
Jake: Should the jury convict Carl Lee Hailey?
Judge: Don’t answer that question.
Deputy Looney: He’s a hero.
[he turns to the jury]
Deputy Looney: You turn him loose. Turn him loose! Turn him loose!

…

Freddie Lee: You can’t blame a nigger for being a nigger, no more than you can blame a dog for being a dog. But a whore like you, co-mingling with mongrels, betraying your own. That makes you worse than a nigger. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll leave you tied up here naked. First, it’ll just be bugs eating at ya. One day, maybe two. That sun’s gonna be cooking you. And animals… they’re gonna pick on your stink. They’ll come looking for something to eat.
Ellen: Carl Lee Hailey should’ve shot you too.

…

D.A. Buckley: Mr. Haley, before you “stepped outside of yourself” and watched yourself shoot Mr. Willard and Mr. Cobb, were you aware that, if convicted, they could be free in ten years?
Carl: Yes sir. I’ve heard some people say that. Yes sir.
D.A. Buckley: Do you think men who kidnap a child should be free in 10 years?
Carl: No sir.
D.A. Buckley: Do you think two men who rape a child should be free in 10 years?
Carl: No sir.
D.A. Buckley: Do you think two men who hang a child should be free in 10 years?
Carl: No sir.
D.A. Buckley: Well what do you think should happen? What would be a fair sentence?
Jake: Objection!
D.A. Buckley: Did they deserve to die, Mr. Hailey? Answer that!
Carl: Don’t answer that Carl Lee!
D.A. Buckley: Do you think they should deserve to die?
Carl: Yes, they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!

…

Carl: Jake, I can’t do no life in prison. You got to get me off. Now if it was you on trial…
Jake: It’s not me, we’re not the same, Carl Lee. The jury has to identify with the defendant. They see you, they see a yardworker; they see me, they see an attorney. I live in town, you live on the hill.
Carl: Well, you are white and I’m black. See Jake, you think just like them, that’s why I picked you; you are one of them , don’t you see? Oh, you think you ain’t because you eat in Claude’s and you are out there trying to get me off on TV talking about black and white, but the fact is you are just like all the rest of them. When you look at me, you don’t see a man, you see a black man.
Jake: Carl Lee, I’m your friend.
Carl: We ain’t no friends, Jake. We are on different sides of the line. I ain’t never seen you in my part of town. I bet you don’t even know where I live. Our daughters, Jake; they ain’t never gonna play together.
Jake: What are you talking about?
Carl: America is a war and you are on the other side. How’s a black man ever going to get a fair trial with the enemy on the bench and in the jury box?. My life in white hands? You Jake, that’s how. You are my secret weapon because you are one of the bad guys. You don’t mean to be but you are. It’s how you was raised. Nigger, negro, black, African-american, no matter how you see me, you see me different, you see me like that jury sees me, you are them. Now throw out your points of law Jake. If you was on that jury, what would it take to convince you to set me free? That’s how you save my ass. That’s how you save us both.

…

Jake [in his summation, talking about Tonya Hailey]: I want to tell you a story. I’m going to ask you all to close your eyes while I tell you the story. I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to yourselves. Go ahead. Close your eyes, please. This is a story about a little girl walking home from the grocery store one sunny afternoon. I want you to picture this little girl. Suddenly a truck races up. Two men jump out and grab her. They drag her into a nearby field and they tie her up and they rip her clothes from her body. Now they climb on. First one, then the other, raping her, shattering everything innocent and pure with a vicious thrust in a fog of drunken breath and sweat. And when they’re done, after they’ve killed her tiny womb, murdered any chance for her to have children, to have life beyond her own, they decide to use her for target practice. They start throwing full beer cans at her. They throw them so hard that it tears the flesh all the way to her bones. Then they urinate on her. Now comes the hanging. They have a rope. They tie a noose. Imagine the noose going tight around her neck and with a sudden blinding jerk she’s pulled into the air and her feet and legs go kicking. They don’t find the ground. The hanging branch isn’t strong enough. It snaps and she falls back to the earth. So they pick her up, throw her in the back of the truck and drive out to Foggy Creek Bridge. Pitch her over the edge. And she drops some thirty feet down to the creek bottom below. Can you see her? Her raped, beaten, broken body soaked in their urine, soaked in their semen, soaked in her blood, left to die. Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she’s white.

…

Jake [to Carl]: Just thought our kids could play together.[/b]

[iambiguous]

As a personal prejudice, I don’t like football. Professional, college, high school. In so many ways it embodies things I have come to believe are fucked up in America: violence and brutality, the sports mania, crass commercialism, that “winning is the only thing” mentality.

I ask myself why and I’m immediately transported back to the Summers I spent in Miners Mills – the northern most tip of Wilkes Barre. It was really like growing up in a small town. As Fall approached, it seemed the only thing the boys were talking about was the high school football team. And most other folks too. I just didn’t get it. There were so many other things more worth engaging instead.

Of course with sports everything is black and white. You’re good or you’re not. You win or you lose. The numbers, the stats. And there are hard and fast rules for just about everything. A whole lot less ambiguity and uncertainty, in other words.

And then there is high school football in a small town in Texas. Here it is all about this:

Coach: Gentlemen, the hopes and dreams of an entire town are riding on your shoulders. You may never matter again in your life as much as you do right now.

Like I said, I just didn’t get it. Somehow, in the midst of all that was pushing me to get it back then, I wouldn’t, couldn’t, didn’t buy into it. Dasein. But I guess this film does speak volumes about places like Texas. Or places like this in places like Texas.

Not that there isn’t the way other folks look at it. All their own prejudices. What other way [really] is there to think about it? But basically it is just one more existential narrative drummed into the heads of some – and then how they come to embody it as though it were some essential truth or something. As though “winning State” was a matter of life or death.

Watching this film is sort of like listening to this song: youtu.be/nAB4vOkL6cE

Except in the song…no football. Small town, big dreams though. Then one day you’re left with just remembering them.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_Lights_(film
trailer: youtu.be/Qzyp4qOW0F0

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS [2004]
Directed by Peter Berg

[b]Radio sportscaster: Jerry, there’s a lot of talk that Coach Gaines, with that $60,000 a year salary…
Jerry: I know where we’re goin’ with this.
Radio sportscaster: He makes a little bit more than the principal of the school.
Jerry: I read the book… Just last week, I was readin’this book about Babe Ruth, and they asked him if he deserved his salary…and he said, “Hey, you know…” They said, “You make more than the president.” He says, “Well, you know, can the president hit a baseball?”

…

Radio Listener: There’s too much learning going on at that school.

…

Reporter: Your dad played at Permian. What’s it like to be the son of a local legend?
Don: Next question.

…

Boobie: I get straight A’s. I’m a athlete.
Reporter: In what subject?
Boobie: Hey, there’s only one subject. It’s football.

…

Brian [to Mike]: Remember every minute of it right now. You’re 17, but it goes fast. Don’t sleep. Don’t waste a second of it. ‘Cause before you know it, it’s done. Nothin’ but babies and memories. You hear me? Babies and memories.

…

Signs plastered on practically every business in town: CLOSED. GONE TO THE GAME

…

Boobie: Can a M.R.I. fix your knee?

…

Brian: We got to lighten up. We’re 17.
Don: Do you feel 17?
Mike: I don’t feel 17.

…

Coach [to Mike]: Now I’m gonna assume that by now you’ve learned that the world’s not fair… and sometimes you get the short end. That’s all you get. And if you don’t do something personally to fix it, that’s all you’re ever gonna get.

…

Coach [to Mike]: It took me a long time to realize that, uh, there ain’t much difference between winnin’ and losin’, except for how the outside world treats you. But inside you, it’s about all the same. It really is. Fact of the matter is, I believe that, uh, our only curses are the ones that are self-imposed. You know what I’m sayin’? We, all of us, dig our own holes.

…

Charles Billingsley: You just-you ain’t gettin’ it. You don’t understand. This is the only thing you’re ever gonna have. Forever, it carries you forever. It’s an ugly fact of life. Donnie, hell. It’s the only fact of life. You got one year, one stinkin’ year to make yourself some memories, son. That’s all. It’s gone after that.

…

Boobie: Now what we gonna do? I can’t do nothin’ else but play football.
Uncle: Hey, hey. Don’t worry about that.
Boobie: Don’t worry about it? I can’t be doin’ nothin’ else. I can’t do nothin’ else but play football. Why? We practiced and we practiced.
Uncle: It’ll be okay.
Boobie: You told me we were gonna go to the pros. What the hell am I gonna do without my knee?!

…

Carter coach: Let’s discuss officials.
Permian Coach: I think the simplest thing to do is get a zebra crew outta some neutral place like San Antonio, or somethin’.
Carter coach: Now are these zebras gonna be white or black?
Permian coach: Well, as far as I know, zebras are white and black.
Carter coach: What are we talkin’ about here? How many black stripes these zebras got?
Permian coach: I believe a zebra’s got about the same amount of black ones as he does white ones.

…

Coach: Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didnt let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasnt one more thing you could’ve done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman - you’re perfect![/b]

Unless, of course, you don’t win.

[iambiguous]

duplicate post

[iambiguous]

Fear of being alone. Fear of death. Fear of dying alone. What is to be done? Let’s ask Frank. Or maybe Jim Cunningham.

This is a weird world. We just live in it. For a couple of hours.

First [it seems] we start with every family in suburban America: the parents and the kids are at war, most of them are on one or another [legal and/or illegal] drug, most of them have one or another mental affliction, most of the time they communicate through layer upon layer of alienation and angst. So the whole point then is to come up with some way to figure out what this all…means. And eveything is here. The philosophy of time-travel, the tangent universe, daylight hallucinations, the living receiver, God…and lots and lots of New Age bullshit. You name it.

But at least they never have to worry about, say, subsisting from week to week on one or another increasingly problematic paycheck.

Or you can think about the film this way. Imagine a lifeline. At one end are the nilhilists and at the other end are the objectivists. Now, where would YOU place Donnie Darko along it?

This is really a work of science fiction…set in the present. Not many or those. What’s it all mean? Mostly this: Why this and not that? Why me and not you? Why now and not then? Well, like so many other things it depend on the parts you pick to put in the “big picture”; and the order that you choose to put them in.

That and the script.

Look for everything you need to know abnout the Smurfs. Or the really important stuff.

IMDb FAQs: imdb.com/title/tt0246578/faq?ref_=tt_faq_sm
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Darko
trailer: youtu.be/DR91Rj1ZN1M

DONNIE DARKO [2001]
Written and directed by Richard Kelly

[b]Elizabeth: You can go suck a fuck.
Donnie: Oh, please, tell me, Elizabeth, how exactly does one suck a fuck?

…

Frank: 28 days… 6 hours… 42 minutes… 12 seconds. That is when the world will end.

…

Samantha: Is there any way that we can make money from this? Couldn’t we get on television if we sue the airline?

…

Ms Pomeroy [regarding a Graham Greene short story]: Donnie Darko, perhaps, given your recent brush with mass destruction, you can give us your opinion?
Donnie: Well…they say it right when they are ripping the place to shreds. When they flood the house. That like…destruction is a form of creation. So the fact that they burn the money is… ironic. They just want to see what happens when they tear the world apart. They want to change things.

…

Roberta [whispering slowly into Donnie’s ear]: Every living creature…on this earth…dies alone.

…

Gretchen: My mom had to get a restraining order against my stepdad. He has emotional problems.
Donnie: Oh, I have those, too. What kind of emotional problems does your dad have?
Gretchen: He stabbed my mom four times in the chest.
Donnie: Oh.

…

Donnie: Smurfette doesn’t fuck.

…

Donnie [matter-of-factly]: First of all, Papa Smurf didn’t create Smurfette. Gargamel did. She was sent in as Gargamel’s evil spy with the intention of destroying the Smurf village. But the overwhelming goodness of the Smurf way of life transformed her. And as for the whole gang-bang scenario - It just couldn’t happen. Smurfs are asexual. They don’t even have reproductive organs under those little white pants. That’s what’s so illogical, you know, about being a Smurf. What’s the point of living… if you don’t have a dick?

…

Rose: Kitty, do you even know who Graham Greene is?
Kitty [scoffs]: I think we’ve all seen “Bonanza.”

…

Donnie: I just don’t get this. Everything can’t be lumped into two categories. That’s too simple.
Kitty: The Lifeline is divided that way.
Donnie: Well, life isn’t that simple. So what if Ling Ling kept the cash and returned the wallet? That has nothing to do with either fear or love.
Kitty: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Well, yeah… OK, but you’re not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You’re just lumping everything into these two categories…and, like, denying everything else. People aren’t that simple.
Kitty (not knowing how to argue with him): If you don’t complete the assignment, you’ll get a zero for the day.

…

Principal: Donald… let me preface this by saying that your Iowa scores are intimidating. So… let’s go over this again. What exactly did you say to Ms. Farmer?
Kitty [interjecting]: I’ll tell you what he said. He told me to forcibly insert the Lifeline exercise card into my anus.

…

Dr. Thurman: Do you feel alone right now?
Donnie: I’d like to believe that I’m not…but I’ve just never seen any proof. So I just choose not to bother with it. It’s, like, I could spend my whole life thinking about it…debating it in my head. Weighing the pros and cons. And in the end, I still wouldn’t have any proof. So…I don’t even debate it any more. Because it’s absurd.
[pause]
Donnie: I don’t want to be alone.

…

Rose: I don’t think telling any woman to forcibly insert an object into her anus is something that should go without consequence.
Edward: I think we should buy him a moped.
Rose: I think we should get a divorce.

…

Donnie [at the school assembly speaking out against Jim Cunningham]: You want your sister to lose weight? Tell her to get off the couch, stop eating Twinkies and maybe go out for field hockey. You know what? No one ever knows what they want to be when they grow up. You know, it takes a little, little while to find that out. Right, Jim? And you kid. Yeah, you. Sick of some jerk shoving your head down the toilet? Well, you know what? Maybe you should lift some weights or take a karate lesson. And the next time he tries to do it, you kick him in the balls.

…

Prof. Monnitoff: Well, you’re-you’re contradicting yourself there, Donnie. If we were able to see our destinies manifest themselves visually, then we would be given a choice to betray our chosen destinies. And the mere fact that this choice exists would make all preformed destiny, uh, come to an end.
Donnie: Not if you travel within God’s channel.
Prof. Monnitoff: Um, I’m not going to be able to continue this conversation.
Donnie: Why?
Prof. Monnitoff: I could lose my job.

…

Edward [to Donnie]: …what you gotta understand, Son, is that almost all of those people are full of shit. They’re all part of this great big conspiracy of bullshit. And they’re scared of people like you, because those bullshitters know that you’re smarter than all of them. You know what you say to people like that? Hmm? “Fuck you.”

…

Donnie: Why should I mourn for a rabbit like it was human?
Karen: Are you saying that the death of one species is less tragic than another?
Donnie: Of course. The rabbit’s not like us. It has no history books, no photographs, no knowledge of sorrow or regret. I mean, I’m sorry, Miss Pommeroy. Don’t get me wrong. You know, I like rabbits and all. They’re cute and they’re horny. And if you’re cute and you’re horny, then you’re probably happy that you don’t know who you are or why you’re even alive. You just wanna have sex as many times as possible before you die. I just don’t see the point in crying over a dead rabbit, you know, who never even feared death to begin with.

…

Donnie [voiceover reading from his letter to Roberta]: I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.

…

Gretchen: Hey. What’s going on?
David: Horrible accident. My neighbor, he got killed.
Gretchen: What happened?
David: Got smushed by a jet engine.
Gretchen: What was his name?
David: Donnie. Donnie Darko.
Gretchen: Hmm.
David: I feel bad for his family.
Gretchen: Yeah.
David: Did you know him?
Gretchen: No.[/b]

[iambiguous]

Dirty pretty things. That might conjure up all manner of conficting images and reactions. Especially when you make them applicable to people. Here what is pretty seems rather obvious. Some just are. And it seems to go beyond just proclivity. But what makes them dirty [or not dirty] can never be more than that. However much some will protest that this is simply not true. Simply. That’s the key word of course.

Here some are not only deemed dirty by others but dirty enough to be taken full advantage of. They are exploited and abused because they have no one really to turn to for recourse. They are not “legal” citizens, in other words. And even though they may have been, say, a doctor where they came from here [in London] they do whatever it takes to survive from day to day, from week to week.

Some, however, are exploited and abused more than others. As Okwe learns when he discovers what has blocked up a toilet: a discarded human heart. It seems he works in a hotel where very strange things take place in the wee hours of the morning. And the hotel manager is smack dab in the middle of it.

It’s a shitty world.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Pretty_Things_(film
trailer: youtu.be/t7pb2IClEys

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS [2002]
Directed by Stephen Frears

[b]Juliette [to Okwe]: Can you believe it? One of the fuckers wanted to put me on his Visa card! Oh, my bloomin’ feet! Lucky I don’t work standing up!
[Okwe looks at her blankly]
Juliette: What? Don’t they have hookers where you come from? Where are you from? Somewhere with lions, I bet.

…

Juan: What’s this? Lunch?
Okwe: It was blocking the lavatory in room 510. It is a heart. A human heart.
Juan: What? What the fuck do you know about hearts, Okwe?
Okwe: Perhaps you should telephone the police.
Juan: Police? You think I should call the police?
Okwe: Senor Juan, someone is dead.
Juan: OK. You speak to them. You found it. You do the talking.

…

Okwe: Guo Yi, today I also found something. In a lavatory, in one of the hotel rooms. Someone’s heart. A heart. A human heart. I’m only telling you because you are a rational man.

…

Okwe: Why would anyone do that to a human heart?
Guo Yi: These sound to me like questions. I don’t ask questions after eleven years here, and I’m a certified refugee. You’re an illegal, Okwe. You don’t have a position here. You have nothing. You are nothing…Stick to helping people who can be helped.

…

Okwe [to Senay who is Muslim]: This is a recipe from Nigeria. In Nigeria they do many interesting things with pork.
[he looks at her distressed face]
Okwe: But of course, I used lamb.

…

Okwe: Ask him which hospital they went to to have the kidney removed.
Girl [translating]: He says they didn’t go to a hospital.
Okwe: Ask him where they did this.
Girl: In a room.
Okwe: He had his kidney removed in the hotel, yes? How much did he get for risking his life?
Girl: He is English now.
Okwe: He swapped his insides for a passport?

…

Sweatshop owner: If you want to go to jail, fine. If you can’t give me a good reason, I will call the lmmigration. I’m a good man, Senay. I know where to draw the line. I don’t want to take your virginity, Senay. I just want you to help me to relax. You have such a beautiful mouth, Senay.

…

Juan [to Owke explaining his “business”]: You give me your kidney, I give you a new identity. I sell the kidney for ten grand, so I’m happy. The person who needs the kidney gets cured. So, he’s happy. The person who sold his kidney gets to stay in this beautiful country, so he’s happy. My whole business is based on happiness.

…

Guo Yi: Okwe, you didn’t know people sold their organs?
Okwe: Not here.
Guo Yi: What do you mean, “here”? Here in London, you think it doesn’t happen because the Queen doesn’t approve? I heard in London it’s ten grand for a kidney. For that, people take risks. If I had the courage, I’d sell my kidney. Just to get out of here.

…

Juan [on the phone]: What do you think of the girl? She’s my next customer. Eight years old. She’s called Rima. Her family brought her over from Saudi Arabia, hoping for a miracle. If she doesn’t get a new kidney in the next few weeks, she’s going to die. The doctor we use is no good. If he fucks up again, there’ll be another heart down the lavatory. Okwe, are you still there?
[pause]
Juan: So, I’m an evil man, right? But I’m trying to save her life. [/b]

That of course is incidental to the money. But you still see the moral quandary for Okwe.

[b]Okwe: For America you would need a visa, Senay. Or maybe a European passport. Keep away from Senor Juan! Because you are poor, you will be gutted like an animal. They will cut you here, or they will cut you here! They will leave you to rot.
Senay: One of the laundry girls did it, and now she’s free.
Okwe: Others are dead, Senay.
Senay: So, they are free, too.

…

Senay: I bit, Okwe. At the factory. He said he would report me to immigration, and he made me suck. But today I bit. I bit. I bit.

…

Guo Yi: You know, Okwe, good at chess usually means bad at life. You do realize that she’s in love with you, don’t you? I’ve been with her 20 minutes, and I know it. But then, I’m bad at chess…

…

Juan [to Okwe]: Stop acting like you’ve got a choice.

…

Senay [to Okwe]: I will need a pill. There is a pill you can take the morning after. You are a doctor. At least you can get me a pill.

…

Juliette: So, what did happen?
Senay: Before, I was a virgin.
Juliette: Jesus…
Senay: …Mohammed.
[they both laugh][/b]

It’s not funny though.

[b]The doctor: How come I’ve never seen you people before?
Okwe: Because we are the people you do not see. We are the ones who drive your cabs. We clean your rooms. And suck your cocks.

…

Okwe [calling his daughter]: Hello? Valerie? Yes, it’s me. At last, I’m coming home. [/b]