Young Adult

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Young Adult!

Original image located here. Accessed 13th May 2022

You know how it happens: You put a movie on your To Watch List and it stays there. It stays there for so long that you eventually forget why you put it there in the first place. But then again, there is something to be said about approaching something with fresh eyes.

So what this movie is putting forth is a character study: Of a woman who is wrapped up in the idealised teen life that her own life is in a period of stagnation. It's billed as a comedy but I don't believe it is. It is quite a bleak movie. Sure there are laughs but they are few and far between. As mentioned above, I forgot why I wanted to see this movie but somehow I think the anxiety of my approaching middle age could have something to do with it.
So far what I may have typed up sounds anything but a crowd pleaser but the movie works purely through the lead Charlize Theron, who certainly does a lot to make a potentially dislikable character appear in a sympathetic light.
But here's a thought: Does it make all the difference that this character is a female one? Somehow i can't help thinking that if this character was played by a male actor the movie would be disregarded as either a) a Taxi Driver clone or b) incel bait.
So yeah, not an easy watch - more akin to a car crash if anything - but it certainly was compelling.

The King of Comedy

And this week's Friday night movie was....The King of Comedy!

Original image located here. Accessed 21st June 2019

As some of you who have been following this series may know, i ma something of a newcomer to the films of Martin Scorsese. And from the outset, this movie has a reputation of being an under-appreciated gem. This, along with comparisons being made to this and the recent trailer to the upcoming Joker movie, makes a compelling case to check it out.

Make no mistake: This is a triumph of unease. It is indeed unsettling but the best kind of unsettling (if such a thing exists) in just how subtle it is.
A lot of the movie rests on Robert de Niro's performance as Rupert. I am used to see Robert being tough guys and psychopaths and whilst he is playing a psychopath here he does so in a more subtle way: Rupert is indeed bonkers and mentally damaged but he does what he does with so much confidence - to a point where one would think it's bad thing.

But ultimately much like Taxi Driver, this a movie about the person trapped in isolation. The person who is in dire need of the basic human need of social interaction - only to go about it the wrong way. While this movie was made in 1983 it somehow still comes across as being relevant, over three decades later, in the internet age where everyone is hiding behind a screen, a keyboard and the mother-skirt of anonymity but will struggle beyond it.
Indeed, would it be amiss to say that i can see shades of people I know in both Rupert and Masha?

As for the Joker connection, I have to ask: is this DC's strategy of remaking older movies as superhero movies (after all, isn't Shazam a retread of Big?). That maybe the case but, as Incels/keyboard warriors/socially-maladjusted loners continue to be a talking point, maybe a movie about the isolated person could continue to have a place...

Taxi Driver

And this week's Friday night movie has been.....Taxi Driver!

Original image located here. Accessed 23rd June 2017

There's not a lot I can say about this movie that hasn't already been said before: A major step in Martin Scorsese's career, a star-making role for Robert de Niro, Bernard Herrmann's final movie score, and a very unflattering portrayal of New York City.

What I find interesting about this movie however, is it's still relevant some forty-one years later. The main character is a guy, Travis, who is paranoid, lonely, woefully cut off from modern society and has no idea how to interact with anyone else. Thing is, such people still exist only they aren't buying firearms, they're yelling at other people on the internet.
It's quite a demand on me, the viewer, to try and connect with such a character. Travis runs the gauntlet of being pathetic, frightening and strangely sympathetic. He is just like any other socially maladjusted misanthrope that we may have encountered at one stage in our lives in one form or another. So how am i supposed to react? Judging by the eventual fate of Travis by the end of the movie, it seems the movie is just as unclear as I am.
Which is why it succeeds.