Spoilers ahead but that shouldn't matter since the movie is almost 2 decades old!
The good: Mid-life crisis is often misunderstood. As per Jung, this is the time people start working towards self-realization but most fail when they let the social constructs hold them back. The conflict between the collective reality as we know it and the inner person makes it a traumatic experience when it doesn't have to be one. This is that linchpin moment that catapults people to incredible growth. This can also potentially throw them down a deep, dark abyss. A difficult subject deftly handled by the creative team.
The best part of the movie is when Lester admitted that he didn't always feel this sedated. That's a great place to be in. The truly sedated ones wouldn't know.
I consider Ricky's character the most impactful one in the movie. I am in awe of him. He knows exactly what he wants out of life and he owns it with aplomb. Confident. Unabashed. Guilt-free. He is grateful about everything, even the beauty of mortality found in a dead š¦ He is not grateful because his life is happy. He found happiness because he is grateful. And, he lives in a state of constant bliss despite his circumstances of an abusive home, a distant mother, and a father who committed him to a mental institution to break him. Thug life!
He is also the catalyst responsible for most of the plot lines.
He is also the catalyst responsible for most of the plot lines.
- Jane came out of her shell when Ricky recognized her beauty. His fascination with Jane's beauty made him approach Lester.
- Lester was inspired to quit his job when he saw the flamboyance with which Ricky quit his catering job.
- Ricky's father's obsession with Lester started when he mistook Ricky's relationship with Lester.
- Angela felt insecure when Ricky called her ordinary and that made her vulnerable before she approached Lester.
The supporting characters are well thought-out. 'Gun' happens to be a supporting character as well with others engaging with it in different ways.
The bad: Inspiration that sets someone on their life's purpose always starts with Love - Love for beauty/a person/pet/art/altruism/ideology....And, it's strong and majestic when it is unconditional. That's the energy that makes strangers lay down their lives for a greater cause. We see love as a positive energy but not a powerful one. It's not the most positive energy in the world that takes over. The most powerful one does. Recognizing the power of Love is creation. When we pigeon-hole love into boxed roles and make it about possession, yearning, and weakness, misery follows.
The way Lester deals with the Angela situation has its high and low points. I loved how he embraced the moment without guilt and turmoil. That kick started his purging. They both were not promiscuous though she tends to project a different image. So, there was a lot of innocence and tenderness in that fantasy. However, he made that about his obsession with sex alone when what he gained from her energy was a disregard for social image. He was able to peel off the layers one by one till he literally went back to his child hood and flipped burgers. She introduced him to his authentic self.
The highest form of romantic love as per the Sufi philosophy is not about posession. It sees God in someone. The absolute form of Love has nothing to do with another person. It's about remembering the authentic self, finding the divine within, and finding completion with self-love. It's a human construct to equate pain with Love when all the mystries of the world are hidden in finding it without the pain.
The highest form of romantic love as per the Sufi philosophy is not about posession. It sees God in someone. The absolute form of Love has nothing to do with another person. It's about remembering the authentic self, finding the divine within, and finding completion with self-love. It's a human construct to equate pain with Love when all the mystries of the world are hidden in finding it without the pain.
Rumi's mentor Shams Tabriz was the one who introduced Rumi to himself. Shams was traveling in search of 'something' that he was supposed to find in Konya. One day, he found Rumi riding a horse. After their first conversation, Rumi felt struck by light ande remained unconscious for an hour. When he woke up, Shams grabbed his hands and took him to teach him in seclusion for 40 days.
The period after this teaching was described as Rumi's mysticism. The sufis danced, played music (rabab), and drank wine. The concept of "whirling dervishes" originated after this.
Rumi, an orthodox Islamic scholar became a lover, a poet. Rumi ended up writing 70,000 verses after his encounter with Shams. Rumi's family and disciples were jealous of Shams and that prompted Shams to leave him after staying with him for 2 years. Rumi was awakened by then.
Rumi would later write this about Shams:-
These are two straight men, one young Islamic judge and one old nomad. There was no hint of a sexual relationship either. However, if we read this with bias, it sounds like something straight out of a fantasy scene from American beauty.
I am not one for ageism. Our society gives undue importance to age difference since the life expectancy has significantly increased. LEB (Life expectancy at birth) was 26 during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Age of consent remains a cultural construct. The magic number is 15 in France and 18 elsewhere. Our educational system ensures that the teens are babies who don't need diapers. Of course, there are predators who groom and take advantage of young people for their sexual needs. And, that deserves the harshest punishment. This isn't the case with Lester. So, the scene where Lester sees Angela as a 'daughter' figure looks forced. It was too sudden, too soon, and his character arc left no clues that could have led to this.
The original screenplay had Lester running away with Angela. The makers were afraid of pushing the boundaries further. The movie would have been like Citizen Kane, considered one of the greatest movies ever made though it flopped when it was released in 1941. It would have won over the continuum of time. But, our current social standards meant that the audience had to see Lester redeeming himself with a fatherly turn coat moment. And, for the movie to become a hit, we needed to see him punished. He paid with his blood. It was gruesome. And, it was glorious! That expunged his guilt and ours for rooting for him . The world is changing though. Brigittete Macron could teach Lester how to have his cake and eat it too ;-)
The period after this teaching was described as Rumi's mysticism. The sufis danced, played music (rabab), and drank wine. The concept of "whirling dervishes" originated after this.
Rumi, an orthodox Islamic scholar became a lover, a poet. Rumi ended up writing 70,000 verses after his encounter with Shams. Rumi's family and disciples were jealous of Shams and that prompted Shams to leave him after staying with him for 2 years. Rumi was awakened by then.
Rumi would later write this about Shams:-
These are two straight men, one young Islamic judge and one old nomad. There was no hint of a sexual relationship either. However, if we read this with bias, it sounds like something straight out of a fantasy scene from American beauty.
I am not one for ageism. Our society gives undue importance to age difference since the life expectancy has significantly increased. LEB (Life expectancy at birth) was 26 during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Age of consent remains a cultural construct. The magic number is 15 in France and 18 elsewhere. Our educational system ensures that the teens are babies who don't need diapers. Of course, there are predators who groom and take advantage of young people for their sexual needs. And, that deserves the harshest punishment. This isn't the case with Lester. So, the scene where Lester sees Angela as a 'daughter' figure looks forced. It was too sudden, too soon, and his character arc left no clues that could have led to this.
The original screenplay had Lester running away with Angela. The makers were afraid of pushing the boundaries further. The movie would have been like Citizen Kane, considered one of the greatest movies ever made though it flopped when it was released in 1941. It would have won over the continuum of time. But, our current social standards meant that the audience had to see Lester redeeming himself with a fatherly turn coat moment. And, for the movie to become a hit, we needed to see him punished. He paid with his blood. It was gruesome. And, it was glorious! That expunged his guilt and ours for rooting for him . The world is changing though. Brigittete Macron could teach Lester how to have his cake and eat it too ;-)
Brigitte and Emmanuel met when he was 15. She was 40. Apparently, they waited till he was 18, often long periods when Emmanuel was sent to a different school and they tried to figure out what it all meant. Social expectations build a heirarchy of different forms of Love. I remember reading about a stranger who took a bullet to save a woman and she had said that she felt the need to do it since the woman had young kids. How do we quantify a Love like that. Jesus said 'Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.'
If Lester had asked himself what made sense for Angela and donned the role that Angela really needed at that point, perhaps they would have got the gift of time to figure out if it was a sexual relationship or a platonic one that they needed. And Oh, he wouldn't have to die ;-)
If it was really about a perfect partnership, Angela would have channelled Macron because she had gained a mate + mentor with life experience and Lester would have gained someone who brought forth his younger self without any boundaries. The alternative is Lester living his life the way he wanted and Angela finding a way to break away the illusion of beauty and its hold on her other choices in life. Perfect options.
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