for 29 October 1999. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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Shamesploitation That was beautiful ... a deconstruction that inverts an intended irony to be a caricature of itself. Of course, if you tried to make a film that was/wasn't in a position to stradle its own antithesis in the moment of its statement, then you might end up with no statement at all — a film about nothing because anything you say would be ridiculously pointless. A blank white film screen that lasts for one-and-a-half hours that everyone hails as brilliant because of its sheer audacity. The marketing people would love it because of its price point. The critics would recognize it as "the Pet Rock of films!" Piper Carr <PiperC@corbis.com> Thanks for writing, Piper. Many films are able to maintain a sublime tension between what they think they're doing and what they're really doing or between what they're trying to do and the way they're surpassing it. For me, American Beauty is not one of them. And I bet you've noticed how many films about nothing are actually made that please critics anyway, without resorting to the kind of dead-end, statement less minimalism you propose. And how much longer those movies are than 90 minutes. And what big stars they have. Slotcar Hatebath  You half-assed cheeseball. It's almost amusing to read something that expends so much cynicism to denigrate so much cynicism. Your writing is probably a better example of shamesploitation than American Beauty is. When I was finished reading your righteous indignation I still wasn't sure what you were indignant over. Oh yeah, I think it was, how dare movies that show us stuff show us stuff. Damn those filmmakers for revealing various aspects of the grotesquerie that really is modern society. I guess the mixture of cynicism and sincerity that pervades these movies is offensive because, instead of harping on one note, they exploit the dualities that are ripping us apart at this point in history. We are so jaded and we so desperately want to be hip that we want to destroy those that are when we realize we can't be. Your tone runs along the lines of a moralist who hates finding that the brilliance of the surprise of his cynical turn is usurped by the banality of such a move when it's already ingrained in the culture. I think these movies are in some sense about stripping away the mundane and finding not Lynchian weirdness, but a sincere sense of self and hope. That this exhibits itself in some terrible irony is the unfortunate side effect of our postmodern, self-reflexive, self- conscious society. That perhaps it is fruitless due to the wretched state of mankind is still no reason not to go with it. Perhaps Kevin Spacey's character is "living in a state of irony" like Lara Flynn Boyle's character in Happiness. At least it's more of an attempt at a real existence than the slump-shouldered loser we see at the beginning. At least he makes contact outside himself by the end of the movie. The strangest thing to me about this movie is that the clichés are combatted with more clichés. Again, this seems to be the state of our "whatever," "yada, yada, yada" way of referencing things that makes everything a cliché, especially the use of "Lynchian." The restructuring of these clichés to try and make contact or make them implode on themselves is evident in so many movies coming out now (Hurly Burly, Buffalo 66), and hey, Jeff Koons made a big-ass art career out of doing just that. Is it wrong? What do we use as cultural themes to get at the heart of things now? I think when you point out that it is novel to see characters doing anything besides dodging bullets (or being involved in intense court cases), you are really getting at something that is problematic. But what do they do without guns and gavels? I guess tear each other apart in some other way. I wouldn't lump Happiness and American Beauty together because the schmaltz of the latter offers the possibility of transcendence, while Ben Gazzara's saltshaker finale and the ending line in Happiness don't really offer us a way out. Some of the movies that work these themes seem to just posit the fact that we do continue on, as testament to the human will. What we get out of such shenanigans is up to us. But I hope that it is more than you have to offer with our "tut, tut" to these films, while I bet you offer shameless cynicism in your critique of the bulk of Hollywood fare. Thus you get to be self-righteous, cynical (equated with hip), and anticynical in the guise of some sort of intellectual sincerity. Complaining pays the bills for you guys and I guess you have to take it where you find it to fulfill the editorial mandate du jour. Satanhausen <satanhausen@uswest.net> Well, I guess we disagree. I do, however, agree with you about the saltshaker ending of Happiness. The cut-in to the insert of Gazzara's hand is no different to me than the one with the janitor in Election. Both work the same way as American Beauty's spoon-fed transcendence. Thanks for writing. Slotcar Hatebath Raves Dear Sucksters, I have read many online e-zines (including the dreaded Salon), but you guys have have left 'em all in your dust. I love opening my email every morning, if not for a chuckle, then for a new perspective on current public (and private) affairs. The writing is witty, the subject matter relevant, and gosh darn it, I like you! Sharon Spilman <puamana@puamana.net> Well, you'll see in time that at Suck.com we have a strong commitment to putting out a quality product, day in and day out. We take all our feedback from our customers to heart, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to let us know. the Sucksters A disgraceful name, and a worse product. Warren L. Dean <wdeansr@juno.com> So don't read it, you big fink. the Sucksters Shamesploitation You'll recall from Slaughterhouse-Five that the aliens didn't really believe in death. Being able to see in all dimensions, they could look at a dead body and say that while he looked pretty bad here, if you just looked there, he was having a fine time. Did Vonnegut believe that? Of course not. He was recognizing that there is no workable response to mortality. What can you say about the murder of thousands? Of millions? What can you say about a single death? "So it goes." So, does Mendez believe his happy epilog? Of course not. Nor are you expected to believe it, any more than you are expected to believe in time-traveling aliens. You are expected to believe in the firebombing of Dresden and in an unexamined life meaninglessly ended. The coda is just another cheery kick in the teeth. Which isn't to say your basic point isn't valid. Anyone who watches a movie like American Beauty to feel superior to its characters — and I sat in a theater with lots of people just like that — has missed the point. It's not a movie about "someone else." "It is what you were born for. / It is Margaret you mourn for." Nice article. Thanks. Alan S. Kornheiser <ASKornheiser@prodigy.net> Your letter brings up an interesting point about American Beauty: To what extent are we supposed to see the Spacey character's life as "unexamined"? Spacey's after-death narration puts an unavoidable spin on his actions throughout. First-person narration is often muddling in films, even more so when the film presents so much information the narrator couldn't have been in on. I guess his point of view from The Beyond somehow mitigates that, or those parts of the movie are separate from his parts just because you can do that now — the pressure's off to make a film that hangs together. In any case, I didn't buy it. Spacey was likable even as a schmuck and his victories were well deserved if pathetic. Benning's reaction to his qutting his job, for instance, didn't work as noncommunication in a scene about noncommunication. She wasn't any more out of line than the scene was. The main point of American Beauty doesn't seem to me to be the senselessness of American life; it seems to be its emptiness. When you compare it to Slaughterhouse-Five (the novel, not the movie), I think you're placing slightly more weight on it than it can bear. I do agree there is something novelistic about shamesploitation that suggests comparisons to books instead of to other movies. They are literary, skeletal. In shamesploitation, the directors rarely allow emotion to build, only suspense, and they fill us in on the rest with narration and dialog. To create emotion in a movie demands that the director actually care about his characters, and I don't think these directors do. That's why the performances often don't jibe with the films. I think the actors do care about the parts they play. To make their points, the directors of shamesploitation have to disfigure their actors with freeze-frames and bee stings. When compared to a Douglas Sirk melodrama — American Beauty begs the comparison — I don't think it can hold a candle to the directorial control, level of insight, and meaningful (sometimes false, sometimes happy, sometimes false happy) endings of movies like his. Slotcar Hatebath Did you go to an Ivy League university? Should I feel bad that I haven't? Sincerely, Kevin Spacey <erik.schwartz@oberlin.edu> Dear Kevin-Erik, As it happens, I didn't go to an Ivy League school. And fear not, K-E: I don't have to tell you that Oberlin doesn't share any of those snooty Ivy attitudes, does it now? Thanks for writing! Slotcar Hatebath Hello, I was intrigued by your recent Suck article. I even learned a new word — odious, defined by Webster's as "exciting in that naughty kind of way." Having grown up under a communist regime, my views often conflict with those around me, probably because I don't spend all my free time chuckling along with laugh tracks on those pathetic sitcoms. There is much that sickens me about the state of this society, but it is movies like American Beauty that offer a glimmer of hope. Sure, it might be shamesploitation, but perhaps that's what's necessary for people to take their heads out of their asses. One thing I'm not clear about: Did you like the movie? Thomas Kapler <thomask@semiconductor.com> Tom, Despite your daffynition, you bring up an interesting question: Are new American movies capable of offering hope? I guess I don't think American Beauty offers any. I certainly don't think it's the strong medicine you seem to think it is. But I will grant you this: Even though it has a lot in common with them, it is better than the sitcoms you deride. Shamesplotation may someday produce a masterpiece. If genres like the service comedy and the soft-core horror movie can, why not? On the other hand, the talking-mule movie has never really delivered on its promise. Anyway, thanks for writing. Slotcar Hatebath |
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