American Beauty

American Beauty, is apparently a widely beloved film, I surmised this based on the gasps and awkward looks I received when I said that I had not seen it. After watching it this past week I can understand why. If I were to try to describe the movie to someone else who had not seen it without giving anything away, I would tell them that the film is for lack of a better term a wonderful clusterfuck.

 I love movies that attack what to me is the absolutely ludicrous idea of the nuclear family. This statement is not meant to be an affront to anyone belonging to such a family; but rather the notion of an idyllic, and pristine family, as portrayed on shows like Leave it to Beaver. That whole deal makes me sick. So, you can imagine my relief when the façade of such a family quickly unravels in the film. Despite the Burnham family’s best effort to portray themselves as such, it is abundantly clear that they hate each other.

The first character to “cast off the veil” so to speak, is the Father, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey); he is also fittingly the character who is the most comfortable living with said veil removed. Not long into the movie, he begins acting out, perhaps due to a mid-life crisis, but whatever the reason is, Lester starts smoking pot, quits his job (only to take another job at a local burger joint), and having sexual fantasies about his daughter’s best friend. Just about every middle-aged Dad in the world would probably daydreams about living the life that Lester creates for himself, but doesn’t have the stones to   go through with it.

Lester Burnham is not, however, the only member of the Burnham clan who starts behaving bizarrely in the film, his jilted wife also begins acting strangely, she starts sleeping with her boss, shooting guns, and flying off the handle at the slightest provocation from Lester- suffice to say that just about every member of the family, including their daughter gets drug into the whirlpool of selfish indifference; making for a rollercoaster ride of a movie. American Beauty is a film full of self indulgent and fucked up people, whose personas and actions do not necessarily match up. No doubt a device utilized by the writer of the film to keep you guessing right up until the very end.  For those of you who’ve not seen the movie, I encourage you to check it out.  My scant use of details is deliberate, as to not give away too much for anyone who has not seen the movie; and for those of you who have seen it, I’m sure you had little trouble filling in the blanks.

"Into" by;Common

Hello, Hello, Hello, readers! It’s that time again, another review of something or another that somebody told me to check out. I know some of you have been looking forward to this, and others of you have probably been dreading it; regardless of whether you’re the former or the latter let’s get to it. In this installment I’ll be reviewing “Be-Intro” by Common.

For those of you who don’t know it (I’m assuming most of you don’t), I am what some might call a connoisseur of Rap and Hip Hop music. I’ve been thumping, and bumping the likes of 2pac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Bone Thugz n’ Harmony and the like since the early 90s, and in true OG fashion, I have become disenfranchised with today’s brand of rap. I loathe Lil’ Wayne, 2 Chains, and most especially Kanyezus, so when my source asked me to review Common, I cringed. However, this blog is based on recommendations, so what choice do I have?

I know Common for his acting, he plaid Elam Furgeson on the AMC western drama hell on Wheels, but never his music, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I really and truly hoped that it wouldn’t be some flamboyant, auto tuned dub step mix kinda thing, and surprisingly it wasn’t. The song starts out slowly with an almost bluesy kind of riff, then escalates into, a sort of 8 bit NES kinda thing, then common lets lose. His lyrics are deep, articulate, and almost prophetic; which is more than can be said of a majority of his peers- No made up words here (Sorry Weezy). It’s to early to tell if Common will make it onto any of my playlists, but it’s not unprobable. For me, three premises 1 define good rap, 1. Structure, 2. Substance,  and 3. Flow. These are all criteria that this song in particular meets, as for the rest of his music…We’ll see. If you want to check it out for yourself, to see exactly what I'm talking about, just follow the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJwAkpfcEj4

The I.T. Crowd

A brutally Honest Review of the British television comedy; The I.T. Crowd: I’m relatively new to British tv- I guess all the hours my old man spent watching Benny Hill put me off of it for a while. So much so, that I was even afraid to watch Monty Python for the longest time. It didn’t matter what anyone had to say about it either, I simply would not watch it. Then lo, one glorious day that all changed; let’s just say that on this particular day I was in the right frame of mind, and when I sat down and watched “Live at the Hollywood Bowl” I laughed hysterically through the whole thing. I guess you could say, that day taught me a valuable lesson about preconceived notions. So, when this recommendation came across my proverbial desk, I was hoping that this too would be a pleasant surprise.

            The IT crowd was aired in the early 2000s, when most of my class mates (who make up the bulk of my audience) were still in Huggies, as for me, I was in my prime so for me the show provides a solid dose of nostalgia; PlayStation 2, Myspace, and crackling high speed DSL internet. Ten years (give or take) removed from these aged, if not obsolete technologies, we’ve got a pretty firm grasp on how these things work; but in the 00s it’d take a special kind of person(s) to wield power over such cutting edge platforms. In the case of Reynholm Industries, That responsibility falls upon the narrow, gangly shoulders of Roy Treneman (Chris O’Dowd), and Maurice Moss.

            The bulk of the show takes place in the basement hovel of the I.T. office, where Moss and Roy “hone their skills;” by which I mean they fritter away their days aimlessly. Roy, a slightly pudgy fellow, pisses and moans about his lack of a date, and being socially awkward, and occasionally answers the phone to ask the caller, "Is it plugged in? Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again?"  And the bespectacled Moss busies himself with games or some other stereotypically nerdy activity. Of the two, Moss is definitely the foil, and Roy the protagonist, because Moss seems okay with his job, his life, and even himself even though Roy seems to be his only friend. Whereas Roy yearns for a life in the “normal world” beyond the walls of his office, and that’s where the trouble starts; especially for Moss, because he always seems to get caught in the middle of whatever scheme Roy hatches to help him/them assimilate into a regular crowd.

In what is definitely my favorite episode (so far) Roy decides that he feels left out, and out of touch with the other guys who work for the company, many of who discuss Football (Soccer). So, in order to fulfill his need for social acceptance, he and Moss go to the Pub after work. Once at the pub they ingratiate themselves with a group of West Ham United supporters by using tidbits of jargon they picked up from the guys at work. Little do they know that their newfound friends are lowly hooligans of the worst kind.  Bank robbers to be precise, and unfortunately for Roy, he ends up along for the ride.

I’ve gotta say, I don’t really have anything snarky or cynical to say about this show, I really enjoyed it.  In fact, I’m going to thank the person who recommended it to me. The fact that it at one point involves Soccer Hooliganism is just an added bonus, all and all I give The I.T. Crowd, an unprecedented 10/10