the character, not lena i mean
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:42 (eleven years ago) link
I think there was a degree of self-awareness on display in Tiny Furniture, but probably not the degree of self-awareness that she might've had if she'd waited a couple more years to make it.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:42 (eleven years ago) link
Which is a lot of why I'm open to Girls being more "my thing".
its not a "joke" but it is "self-aware"
― max, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:44 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah but she didn't. She made it when she was like 23/24 and it's pretty much ABOUT being that age.
xxp
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:44 (eleven years ago) link
I mean, she was self-aware enough to not portray her character as a completely sympathetic protagonist (see: the treatment of her friend from Ohio) but I don't know that she was as aware of her character's/her own level of privilege as I would've liked.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:45 (eleven years ago) link
It's certainly no less self-aware than you might hope/expect given the age and status of the filmmaker.
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:45 (eleven years ago) link
Why does she have to apologize to you for being rich
I never really understand the "ugh, why would i want to watch something about rich people" criticism. I like to watch things about all kinds of people. I'm not rich btw
― Number None, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
She made it when she was like 23/24 and it's pretty much ABOUT being that age.
That being the case, I almost wish it had been less self-aware and more just a document of 23/24-ness. She probably had more awareness of how ridiculous people are at that age than most people do when they actually are that age, but it still didn't seem like a terribly high level of awareness.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
am i automatically supposed to give a shit about poor people but not about rich people
― max, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:48 (eleven years ago) link
I've also heard the opposite argument, the why-make-art-out-of-other-people's poverty argument that seems to suggest ALL films should be about people who are at LEAST of the same social status as the filmmaker/potential audience, which is deeply weird.
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:50 (eleven years ago) link
It's interesting that a desire to see a higher level of awareness of the characters' privilege translates to some as a demand for an apology or a lack of desire to see a movie about rich people. Kinda not the same thing at all.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:51 (eleven years ago) link
i think its really 'self-aware' but not entirely self-critical, like these are the worst impulses and decisions and stuff but its not about how terrible its just like, this is how it is
― Lamp, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:52 (eleven years ago) link
i tend to think that the best art is usually made about people from the same social/economic background as the filmmaker, this is not a real Rule at all but i guess im saying id rather lena dunham make this movie and whit stillman make those movies and john updike write about rabbit than have them all try to do like "menace II society" or something
― max, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:53 (eleven years ago) link
OTM. Although the attempt might be horrifyingly absorbing.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:54 (eleven years ago) link
anyways her character is not rich, her parents are better off than average. she leaps head on into being working poor. Having the puffy white cloud of conditional support beneath you is nice, but her story seems to be about what happens when you've always had gentle hands carrying you everywhere and then the palanquin stops and you gotta figure out how to be a grown up.the "I feel like I'm entering a really exiting period in my life right now" / "What are you talking about? Everything you own is in garbage bags on my kitchen floor" joke is very much dead on with my experience during that time and feels pretty real. sure it's privileged, but she's hyperaware of it and seems to be primed to make good stories within that space
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:55 (eleven years ago) link
a desire to see a higher level of awareness of the characters' privilege
i mean i think there are lots of parts of 'tiny furniture'/what ive seen of 'girls' thats really aware of how privileged some of the characters are but they maybe still dont know what that means, how they should deal with their comparative privilege not knowing the right tone to strike or pose to take or w/e like knowing w/o really understanding, being 22
― Lamp, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:56 (eleven years ago) link
^
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:57 (eleven years ago) link
as a guy who DID move back home with his parents after college i suspect i'll find things to sympathize with here
― y'tulip, y'pea-brained earwig (donna rouge), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think that it's about rich vs. poor, it's about the stakes being so small that Tiny Furniture/Lost In Translation/etc. wind up being about "this is how it is" for the overprivileged. Which is just not a very interesting story to tell.
I loved 'Wendy & Lucy,' which is also kind of "this is how it is" (you could criticize Michelle Williams's character's choices and how it all could have been easily avoided, etc.) but there's real shit going on there.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
anyways her character is not rich, her parents are better off than average.
(will totally cop to being a Stalinist about the wealthy, fwiw)
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:00 (eleven years ago) link
I will allow for the possibility that I didn't particularly care for the movie in large part because it's so grueling to watch people in their early 20s wrestle with the inherent douchebaggery of being in one's early 20s.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:00 (eleven years ago) link
Have said elsewhere that my response to Metropolitan after 30 minutes was "nuke them all from orbit," Tiny Furniture was not this bad.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:01 (eleven years ago) link
it's about the stakes being so small
'what is a life worth?'
― Lamp, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:01 (eleven years ago) link
I get your point max but I guess it really depends on how much the filmmaker has a public presence that forms part of the conversation around the film. Obviously with LD that is a factor, but not every artist fits neatly into some social or economic type and it always seems like a much bigger deal than it should be. If you only make work about who you are and where you are from, you can easily turn that into an examination of identity or you can just come across as totally self-absorbed. I think it is to Lena Dunham's credit that folks ITT seem split on that question.
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:02 (eleven years ago) link
"anyways her character is not rich, her parents are better off than average."basing this on the promo language where she asks her parents for 1100 a month for the next two years to get on her feet and they straight up laugh at her; the rich would shrug and put up with that shit methinksanyways, i'm talking about a show I haven't seen yet; I should shut up until I see the pilot.
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:02 (eleven years ago) link
Didn't love W&L, but otherwise this is OTM.
in any case, she is hella primed to be A BIG THING and a VOICE OF THE MILLENNIAL GENERATION and i am curious to see how she/this holds up to broad scrutinyanything's better than miranda fucking july
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:03 (eleven years ago) link
OTM
― Number None, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:03 (eleven years ago) link
TRUTH. BOMB.
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:03 (eleven years ago) link
Don't know enough about Kelly Reichardt to know if she has experience of being young and broke in nu-recession America, but I'm going to assume not.
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:04 (eleven years ago) link
― og (admrl), Thursday, April 5, 2012 2:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
oh yeah i agree with this
― max, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
Is Louis cK "richer" than Lena Dunham? Is he really more "self-aware" or is he just much harder on himself? He's also much older of course and balder and fatter
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
louis ck is now hella richalso balder fatter and more penis endowed
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
why the pootie tang royalties alone
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:09 (eleven years ago) link
He certainly doesn't portray himself as being rich though
― Number None, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:09 (eleven years ago) link
xpost
Endowed him with more penis?
― 1 of paper = 4 of coin (Deric W. Haircare), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
more penis than lena presumably
doubling back on that promo joke, i love that it looks like her parents have taken her out to dinner to tell her the support teat has been tapped; that's such a privilege moment.some of my redneck friends just came home and found their shit in bags by the trailer park door and the folks said happy birthday and good luck out there
― wrapped sausage stylus (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
In the first season when the school bus breaks down he gets each kid their own limo.
― polyphonic, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:12 (eleven years ago) link
ha, forgot about that
― Number None, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:13 (eleven years ago) link
Lena Dunham's life of privilege is no less interesting to me than Larry David's or James Bond's or etc.
― polyphonic, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
Novel James Bond was a rough, poor kid who found it difficult to interact with polite society IIRC
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:18 (eleven years ago) link
nevermind privelege, "the lives of young people in NYC" is a pretty tapped vein, were you guys this pumped about How To Make It In America?
― ferrante's inferranteno (some dude), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:18 (eleven years ago) link
"pumped" is a bit strong, but I haven't seen How To Make It In America. Was it funny? Tiny Furniture was pretty funny.
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:19 (eleven years ago) link
i dont think people are psyched about girls because theyre psyched to see another depiction of the lives of young people in nyc
― max, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link
How To Make It was about as funny as the early Entourage seasons, with a different kind of name-dropping.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:21 (eleven years ago) link
I don't much about How to Make It in America. For a long time I thought it was a crime story but apparently it's about fashion?
― polyphonic, Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:22 (eleven years ago) link
two young guys from Brooklyn want to be designer/entrepeneurs, so they fail miserably at selling skateboards and then at making jeans and then one of them bangs Gina Gershon and there's a chance for success and then the series gets cancelled
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 5 April 2012 18:25 (eleven years ago) link
Enjoyed this more in retrospect than while watching it. If the strengths of Girls made that show worth watching for you (great casting, honest moments, good dialogue, complicated sex), this one has those as well – as well as (as with Solondz et al) the feeling of an individual rather than a studio deciding how to provoke in ways that match her personal truths.
What’s different is that this protagonist feels much, much younger than the Girls women. Not just sheltered. And only a throwaway line of dialogue establishing her as 26 keeps this from feeling like it’s about someone mid-teens.
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Sunday, 23 January 2022 04:42 (two years ago) link
I love Girls. An amazing show all the way through.
― Cow_Art, Sunday, 23 January 2022 07:10 (two years ago) link
Great post:
Emma is set in Surrey, EnglandWuthering Heights is set in Yorkshire, EnglandWernham Hogg is situated in Slough, England24 Hour Party People is set in and very specifically about Manchester, EnglandBrighton Rock is set, and there may have been some clue to this, in Brighton, EnglandNotting Hill also drops some subtle titular hints as to its setting in Notting Hill, a district in London, EnglandThe Woman In White is set in Cumberland, England and Hampshire, England, and London, Englandalso Wales has neither counts nor countesses. you can become a countess by marriage in England, but not by marrying a count, because England also does not have counts.― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Wednesday, July 31, 2019
also Wales has neither counts nor countesses. you can become a countess by marriage in England, but not by marrying a count, because England also does not have counts.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Wednesday, July 31, 2019
― the pinefox, Sunday, 23 January 2022 09:37 (two years ago) link
finally watching season 5 and finding it frequently funny tbh
― nashwan, Thursday, 10 February 2022 13:55 (two years ago) link
rewatching this series for the first time since it originally ran and shocked at how good it is, but also how it seems to be from another century entirely, despite only being 12 years old.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, 17 March 2024 02:03 (one week ago) link
funny to look back at the reactions people had toward these characters, who are simply human.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, 17 March 2024 02:08 (one week ago) link
I loved this show from start to finish.
― Cow_Art, Sunday, 17 March 2024 02:20 (one week ago) link
Even with the passage of time and eating ass becoming a meme, the kitchen butt motorboat still seems pretty out there for a non-Cinemax show.
Empire had the blowjob bib but American TV is regressing when it comes to lol wtf sex scenes.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 17 March 2024 07:37 (one week ago) link