God Bless America
I swear to God that Bobcat Goldthwait has a time machine. He has gone into the future and made a documentary of when I finally snap and go on a shooting spree. In “God Bless America” the camera follows me around as the never ending heap of human stupidity and rudeness continues to mount all around me. Reality television and the people it indoctrinates becomes too much and I just lose it. After I take out this spoiled upper middle class teen, a young jaded girl befriends me and joins me on my adventure. The movie takes great pains to showcase the indecent behavior of the people I decide to kill, and a great deal of it is even hard to watch. Reality television is pretty intolerable, so being blasted full force with so much at once is painful. I know the documentary is making a point, but that doesn’t decrease the pain you feel to watch it.
I also have a tendency to over explain myself verbally. I think anyone who has been stuck in a movie theater with rude people on cell phones can understand why I would pull out a gun and shoot up the place. The explanations, thinking out loud, and downright preaching gets to be a little much and unnecessary. The movie would have been a lot better if it just showed us why these people should be shot rather than talking about it to the point of ridiculousness. There is even a scene where the girl and I are in a standoff with a Glenn Beck wannabee, and we spent a few minutes to explain why we’re going to shot him. I might get all Jules Winnfield on him, but I would never explain myself so much.
I enjoyed watching this film about myself, but not as much as I expected to. The film has a very important message but has serious problems conveying that message to the audience. A little more subtlety and a little less clubbing over the head would have done the movie wonders. The film also has some pacing and structure problems that hurt it more than it should. I really wanted to like this film about my future self, but I just couldn’t completely love it like I should.
Being Flynn
As someone who wants to be a writer more than anything else in existence, I probably identified with “Being Flynn” more than the average person. I’m not saying I fell in love with the film, or overlooked its flaws, but I could see several reflections of myself throughout the film. The plot bounces back and forth between father Flynn and son Flynn as they both struggle as half crazy writers. It is in this aspect that the film maintains good pacing as both stories act independent of each other and then collides at random intervals. The plot also has a few nonlinear aspects to it, but this is just for son Flynn as he tries to deal with the trauma of his past. It is here that “Being Flynn” seems to pull the audience in too many places at once and sometimes staggers to maintain interest.
Being based on the memoir “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City,” I felt the writing was rather good and even perked my interest in the book. This tale of two Flynns has deep characterization with a large abundance of interior dialogue. Not to say that the supporting characters aren’t of any interest, but ninety percent of this film is the intertwining diaries of a father and son. I found both Flynns to be of high interest, but, since the film focuses so heavily on just the two of them, the film starts to repeat itself a little too much. Father Flynn, played by awesome veteran actor Robert De Niro, is a homophobic, a racist, and probably needs to be on several meds and the film repeats this plot point several times throughout the movie. Yes, the point is important to the definition of the character, but the film is only about hundred minutes and my memory isn’t that bad. The performances are also very strong, but that isn’t a surprise given the talented cast. “Being Flynn” is very interesting, but doesn’t convey the story as well as it should. In a lot of ways, being a writer myself, I was this movie’s target audience. And if I can’t fall in love with this movie, I doubt you would be able to as well.
Also, in a shameless plug to myself, check out Bruce Osborne on Facebook. I post/link all my stuff there, including chapters on a book I’m working on. Feel free to hit the ‘Like’ button as if you’re an addict.
I also write publish works of fiction on my Bruce Osborne Blog. Feel free to read, follow, or even hate my stuff. I don’t care if people like it, only that they read it.
There are too many movies for me to review in full, so I created a twitter account to give brief opinions on the many movies I view. If you wish to read my smart ass remarks, follow M.O.V.I.E. Reviewer @MutantOpossum.
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