BEFORE: Today is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, but I wasn't able to get anything related to land here - but I've got a bunch of World War II films, right around the corner. Two are coming next week, and then a bunch more in August, after the documentary chain and "Spider-Man: Far From Home".
Instead it's the end of the Ben Kingsley programming, as he carries over from "House of Sand and Fog".
THE PLOT: In the summer of 1994, a lonely teenager spends his last summer before college selling marijuana throughout New York City, trading it with his unorthodox psychotherapist for treatment, while having a crush on his stepdaughter.
AFTER: This film managed to arrive into my life at just the right time, I think, because it's all about New York City in the summer. It starts in the last few days of May, we get to see the lead character, Luke Shapiro, graduate from high-school and start working his summer job, which involves selling pot from one of those carts they sell frozen ices from in the Latino community. They're just like an ice-cream truck, minus the truck part. Then the film details his adventures with his therapist/friend and the after-hours ones he has with the therapist's daughter, as May turns into June, and July and August follow.
The film's set back in 1994, which was a very different time - the World Trade Center Towers were still standing, pot was considered VERY illegal due to the crackdowns from Mayor "No Fun" Giuliani, and you could still walk around the streets in July without feeling like the heat was melting your sneakers into the asphalt. Global warming was largely theoretical back then, like we knew we were probably killing the planet, but we didn't care very much, because scientists still hadn't calculated that we'd all be dead by 2050. Now that's all we can think about when we have a hot day, if we can even think at all through the heat, but hey, just 30 or so more summers and we'll all get some relief from this heat, because I think all of NYC will be cooling off under water.
It turns out there are two types of men when it comes to relationships with women - the ones who have no idea how to have a relationship with women because they're inexperienced, and the ones who have no idea how to have a relationship with women because they've got TOO MUCH experience. Luke and Dr. Squires therefore represent the two sides of this issue - they both are desperate to get laid, Luke's starting to figure out how to talk to girls, and Dr. Squires has been married for so long that he'll sleep with any woman who is NOT his wife. They've both been placed in the "friend zone", though, coincidentally by this mother-daughter pair, and that's a very difficult thing to get out of.
Dr. Squires tries to offer Luke advice on girls, but only when he thinks the girl in question is NOT his step-daughter. In other words, here's how you talk yourself into their pants, but you'd better stay away from MY little girl... The doctor tries to be encouraging, but you have to wonder if he's just living out his fantasies through Luke, attempting to remember and re-live his glory days and youth, even if they weren't really the way he wants to remember them being. The old people always feel that youth is wasted on the young, and though they SAY they want to get back out there and screw around - do they really? Or is that only what they do when they have no other choice?
Frankly, some of the doctor's advice is terrible - go out there, take a chance, get your heart broken a few times. Umm, no thanks? What's wrong with waiting a little longer and finding someone you can really connect with? Getting your heart broken is not any better than getting rejected, it can even make you feel worse, and that's counter-productive. Wouldn't it be better to learn to be satisfied with who you are as a person first, getting used to being alone can make you feel like a stronger person, and more mentally stable if you're not relying on someone else to make you feel satisfied. Just saying.
Luke is eventually able to connect with Stephanie, and while the doctor's off re-connecting with his wife in Barbaros, Luke and Stephanie are shacked up at the doctor's cabin on Fire Island. All the expected awkwardness of a young man's "first time" is present here, which seems a bit too stereotypical perhaps. Surely somebody must have a story of their first sexual encounter that goes exactly as planned, right? I seem to recall that mine was pretty hilarious, not in a slapstick way but just sort of - joyous, I guess? I must have been grinning a lot that night in the NYU dorm, May 1989.
Anyway, back to the film. I've got issues with the whole pushcart pot-selling idea, because wouldn't the cops eventually notice that the people walking away from the pushcart aren't eating ice cream? Or that the pushcart isn't even cold? It's an interesting idea that just wouldn't work at all in the real world. Luke ends up making a bunch of money from dealing, but his parents are apparently too proud to take money from their son, even if that means getting evicted from their apartment on the Upper East Side. The plot point of forced eviction carries over from "House of Sand and Fog", as do a couple others, like prescription drugs and a failed suicide attempt.
But it all just feels so aimless in the end, like every character is going around in circles but not accomplishing anything, they're all just killing time. But maybe that's what summer is really for, not really accomplishing much, just trying to kick back and enjoy the weather with your drug of choice. But if you spend too much time kicking back and not doing anything, your life could be falling apart around you, and you'll be too drunk or stoned to care.
Also starring Josh Peck (last seen in "Danny Collins"), Famke Janssen (last seen in "The Faculty"), Olivia Thirlby (last seen in "Chappaquiddick"), Mary-Kate Olsen (last seen in "Factory Girl"), Method Man (last seen in "Keanu"), Jane Adams (last seen in "You've Got Mail"), David Wohl, Talia Balsam (last seen in "No Strings Attached"), Aaron Yoo (last seen in "Money Monster"), Bob Dishy (last seen in "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn"), Joanna Merlin (last seen in "Mystic Pizza"), Robert Armstrong.
RATING: 4 out of 10 yearbook photos
No comments:
Post a Comment