Rachel Not Getting Married
There is something about award-winning low budget films featuring "extraordinary people" living "extraordinary lives" which has been bugging my nerves for some time now, mainly because they are NOT extraordinary and in fact don't deserve our wasted attention. What better film to illustrate my point than Jonathan Demme's latest comi-tragic indie docu-flick, Rachel Getting Married. A young, recovering drug addict emerges out of rehab to join her family for a few days in celebration of her sister's marriage, only to rediscover the rifts between her and various people in her life, including her suddenly pregnant engaged sister, have not healed as much as she'd like to.
According to Demme, it's a film about "extremely interesting people in a supercharged environment". According to me, it bored me to zzzzzzzzzz. For one thing it's the semi-casually scripted dialogue all the way through the film that does not grab my attention or conjure up my emotion - not even with doe-eyed Anne Hathaway behaving badly. It's also the fact that I cannot RELATE to any of the characters - the white (or black) middle class American suburban setting with leafy surroundings, big detached houses, happy couples, three kids, three cars and stable jobs. Why the hell would you do drugs if you had all that going for you in the first place, you ungrateful brat?! You know most people in the real world can barely feed themselves on $1 a day. Then again, I think Jonathan Demme's foresight and wit as a director has long passed his Silence of the Lambs days.
Of course, my list of cinematographic grievances doesn't just stop with Rachel Getting Married. There are a whole host of indie movies, decorated with film festival accolades that have confused me over the last decade, when it comes to the pointless depressing cinematography that is used to portray the otherwise unexceptional characters. These include "Garden State", "Donnie Darko", "Mulholland Drive", "Anger Management", "Broken Flowers" and the really surreal "Lost In Translation" - to which, believe it or not, the name of this blog is loosely based on. Lost in Translation being the exception as it is something I can bizarrely see parallels in myself, since it features a certain Bill Murray, feeling isolated when he is thrown into Japanese cultural misunderstanding versus me, feeling isolated being thrown into an American cultural deluge. But even that film falls apart at the end, where you are left asking, just what is the point of any of this film and WHO CARES?
I guess I prefer my films to be cathartic on a personal level and being in a job that asks open ended questions constantly, I like to at least find some answers when I go watch a movie and relax. In that sense, I also don't like films that set themselves up for sequels or the forced continuation of TV series dramas (the likes of Lost, Heroes and 24 have now totally lost my respect, purely due to their weekly frustrating episode endings). If you're going to start off showing something to us, for goodness sake end it properly, on the day, hopefully with a bang! Is that too much to ask? But I guess, hollywood movie/TV writers and producers need to make a living and they need to keep going at the expense of creativity.
According to Demme, it's a film about "extremely interesting people in a supercharged environment". According to me, it bored me to zzzzzzzzzz. For one thing it's the semi-casually scripted dialogue all the way through the film that does not grab my attention or conjure up my emotion - not even with doe-eyed Anne Hathaway behaving badly. It's also the fact that I cannot RELATE to any of the characters - the white (or black) middle class American suburban setting with leafy surroundings, big detached houses, happy couples, three kids, three cars and stable jobs. Why the hell would you do drugs if you had all that going for you in the first place, you ungrateful brat?! You know most people in the real world can barely feed themselves on $1 a day. Then again, I think Jonathan Demme's foresight and wit as a director has long passed his Silence of the Lambs days.
Of course, my list of cinematographic grievances doesn't just stop with Rachel Getting Married. There are a whole host of indie movies, decorated with film festival accolades that have confused me over the last decade, when it comes to the pointless depressing cinematography that is used to portray the otherwise unexceptional characters. These include "Garden State", "Donnie Darko", "Mulholland Drive", "Anger Management", "Broken Flowers" and the really surreal "Lost In Translation" - to which, believe it or not, the name of this blog is loosely based on. Lost in Translation being the exception as it is something I can bizarrely see parallels in myself, since it features a certain Bill Murray, feeling isolated when he is thrown into Japanese cultural misunderstanding versus me, feeling isolated being thrown into an American cultural deluge. But even that film falls apart at the end, where you are left asking, just what is the point of any of this film and WHO CARES?
I guess I prefer my films to be cathartic on a personal level and being in a job that asks open ended questions constantly, I like to at least find some answers when I go watch a movie and relax. In that sense, I also don't like films that set themselves up for sequels or the forced continuation of TV series dramas (the likes of Lost, Heroes and 24 have now totally lost my respect, purely due to their weekly frustrating episode endings). If you're going to start off showing something to us, for goodness sake end it properly, on the day, hopefully with a bang! Is that too much to ask? But I guess, hollywood movie/TV writers and producers need to make a living and they need to keep going at the expense of creativity.
posted by Lost in Americana at 1:51 am
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