Where's the chain saw, dear? The amusing antics
of the American Stock Exchange rich are unveiled
here is all their materialistic glory. Comparing
biz cards that all looked identical, posily
flourishing model phones the size of garden
sheds, trying in vain to get tables at impossibly
trendy restaurants, which, once in, the characters
would drop names and generally strut their macho
stuff.
The eighties were incredibly materialistic,
and yet they were an endearing time, before
the right-on political correctness thought police
had power. This was at a time when chaps were
macho and the "new man" was a joke.
(Actually the "New Man" never did
become the norm, thank heavens.) And this was
a time when at least record-company driven commercial
music was still bearable. Bands consisted of
kids who were song writers and musicians, unlike
today's boy-groups. (Although his film does
take the piss out of the worst of eighties music,
but not gratuitously.) The caring, sharing nineties
are just not as interesting, and sexy, as the
eighties. (My
novel
is set in the late eighties.)
This film was the type of film
The
Talented Mr Ripley seemed to want to be.
Unfortunately TTMR wimped out. This film, on
the other hand, had the guts to be a real psycho
film. It portrayed the creepy, shark-eyed type
of character one thinks of as being a serial
killer. The witty point the film made was that
such a character, utterly insane, blended in
so well with the New York yuppy culture that
he was not easy to spot as being more weird
than everybody else. And weird he was. Normal
on the surface but very very weird once he let
himself go. His commentaries on commercial junk
pop was so incredibly creepy they have to be
heard to be believed.
As I said earlier, this film has guts. If it
feels ever so slightly hollow, then good, because
this is how a psychopath is meant to feel, nothing!
This is not to say that you don't feel anything
watching this: at times it is incredibly uncomfortable
to watch, in the best possible way that it can
be uncomfortable to watch a film, if you see
what that means. Be warned, the violence, even
though mostly implied, is ugly, ironic or not.
By the way, this film was much,
much
better for not having a "star" in
it. If some ghastly star like DiCaprio or his
ilk were involved then it wouldn't have have
been half as good. This was reason this film
was strong whilst the Talented Ripley was relatively
spineless.
The
ending was surprisingly intelligent, I wouldn't
cut, chop or hack it in any way
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| From: |
ron | Subject: | 2001-10-31 09:46:48 |
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| From: |
ANGEL | Subject: | 2004-08-28 03:15:34 |
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