Something Romantic? ( A look at 'American Psycho')

In the 2000 film 'American Psycho' female director, Mary Harron, delivers the perfectly constructed yuppie specimen - - Patrick Bateman. Bateman as a character is played with an unconstrained precision by Christian Bale. He employs not only the madness, but the disconnect - the sterility.

A specific scene that sticks out in the film is usually the ax murder (and i don't mean to give anything away here, so if you've never seen it and want to stop reading here). When Patrick Bateman murder rival Paul Allen in his NY upscale apartment it is both arresting and opulent. It becomes difficult to look away. What made the scene even more impressive was the way Patrick prepared for the murder. After bringing Paul into his home, which was coincidentally covered in news paper, he begins to espouse about the genius of Huey Lewis and the News. Now this is an essential part of the "idea that is Patrick bateman." He is a connoisseur of popular culture, specifically music. And whenever he starts to talk about music - you know he is either going to kill or something unpleasant is about to happen. The contrast of such a violent - and incidentally by default of the weapon, more 'country' murder in a swank, polished, sterilized apartment was new & exciting. Director Harron made a specific point to sterilize Patrick so that everything around him becomes difficult to consume as an audience member. While you're initially weary of Patricks eccentric routine you slowly become teamed with him. His only identifiable emotions are "except for greed and disgust," making his admitted raw composure simply irresistible. You're made, very clearly, to feel Patricks disgust with the world.

Another memorable scene is when Patrick kills Al, a homeless man in the back alley. It is here that i believe director Harron is delivering a complex but fluid idea. We have Patrick Bateman, who is a white, upper class, (presumably) 'well bred' male murdering a homeless, black, lower class, and (Presumably due to racial constructions specifically in the 80's) not 'well bred' male. This is bold. A woman director who isn't afraid to conquer predominantly (in the film world) male subjects such as drugs, sex, pornography, prostitution, greed, wealth, insanity, murder, violence, gore, and emptiness in connection to all of thoes things.

I better Kuckle down

I thought it was about time i entered the world of the living. I've been in hiding, not knowing exactly what to say about whats been going on in my life.

Things have been progressing, s-l-o-w-l-y. I've been getting communications - - emails & texts that have been extremely meaningful to me lately. I cant express how much it soothes me, so thank you.

Anyway, onto my rant. I have always wondered why, why people deny the intensity of weight and appearance in this culture. We all know that being fat is horrible - - practically a sin. I know because just the other day i was told i was too fat for something. It hurt, but at this age, given I've been heavy all my life it didn't phase me. It did, however, make me think. I'm constantly running up against people who think that EVERYONE suffers from body image issues. Now, i would NEVER deny that fact but its a little more magnified when your skinny but see you're self as fat and when you're actually over weight. It's like everyone suffers in life from the constrictions of race and gender, but its a little more magnified when you are...oh..lets say a person of color...or a woman...or a queer identified person...or a lesbian...or a gay man...or a bi-sexual...fluid...trans and so on! This yr i have become increasingly more comfortable with my body. I wore shorts for two days in a row. I've been wearing strapless dresses. I've been accessorizing like no one business. I am coming into my own...i think. Feels good.

one more strange, but liberating thing, somehow this summer i've become a lover of cooking and cleaning my house. am ia housewive? the real housewives & queers of NH? sounds like a winner. take it bravo - take it!

they found a bible by each victim - - suggesting the crimes were deliberate

I want to give back every moment I smiled. I want to erase all the times I was happy and laughing. I want to give them away, I want to forget them. I want everyone else to forget them. I don’t want people to think that I think I deserve to live. That I could think I was that special: to have interests, and favorites, and hobbies, and personal likes and dislikes, and skills. I do not want this. I don’t. I feel like I have to say things to make it in society, I don’t actually think im worth anything. It’s all an illusion. I don’t think im worth more than my suicide attempts, or molestation, or deeeeep depression, or disordered eating, or being slapped around, or ruining my relationships/friendships. I do not know what brainwashing I have gone through to make me believe those things. How did I get it in my head that I was allowed to smile and have joys? I lost it for a minute there, but now I understand. Minimum smiling & laughing. No joys. No more likes and dislikes. No more self definition period – definition is something you earn. I have done nothing in life to earn self definition.

what is wrong with me?

classsy portsmouth living

Sugar....it brings me sugar (a look at 'some like it hot')

Primarily comedies derive their effect from sexually suggestive or slapstick scenarios resulting from the central characters 'mistaken identity', that is, from the gap between the characters passing within the diegesis and the spectators privileged position of knowledge(knowing the characters are in drag). Fuelled by heterosexual imperatives, the narrative progresses towards the climactic disclosure of the characters true identity. However, the narration repeatedly reminds the spectator of the true identity by the transparency of their disguise, or the involuntary intrusion of an 'innate' gender. For many spectators films like this allow for a rare and radical space for gender and sexual ambiguity -- that is, for queerness-- in mainstream products. Barsam explains that “Screen acting is a kind of art, in which an actor uses imagination, intelligence, psychology, memory, vocal technique, facial expression, body language and an over knowledge of the filmmaking process to realize, under the director’s guidance, the character created by the screenwriter.” (LM 196) Lemon and Curtis embodied more than the character created by the screen writers, they paralleled comedic acting and gender acting, while exploring themes such as; homoeroticism, sexual and gender ambiguity. The film itself is a capsule for gender ambiguity and is a rare space for social critiques. Lemons character sees sugar for the first time when he himself is dressed as a woman. On one hand he is infatuated with her in this moment, however he also admires her. He wants to be her. It becomes clear at this moment his own gender expression is ambiguous. That he not only enjoys being a 'woman'(in terms of gender expression) but he also is sexually attracted to them, making his character queer. The ultimate moment where the film makes definitive statements about gender expression is the moment Lemon tells Curtis he's going to marry the wealthy old man. When asked why a man would want to marry another man his answer is simple: Security. That not only speaks to a critique about gender expression but of the institution of marriage in this country and how it is more about property and trade then it will ever be about love.

Fight the power (a look at 'Do the right thing')

This image of the two “circulates throughout the film, ending up as the single picture on the burned and “blackened” “Wall of Fame,” and it returns to close the film, following on the citations from the two leaders that Lee juxtaposes there without comment.” (Willis 790) 'Do the Right Thing', produced in 1989, is director Spike Lee's attempt to explore the human particularity of this system of binarisms (a principle of analysis requiring that a linguistic system, as a phonological, case, or semantic system, be represented as a set of binary oppositions)and the culturally entrepreneurial situation of the African-American subject within it. The film's use of the metonymic (A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated) figures "King" and "X" as well as the ethically divergent meta-narratives, an abstract idea that is supposed to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge, of which they are the cultural signifiers suffuses its dramatic structure with the ideological tension generated by the trope of "double-consciousness."( in its contemporary sense, is a term coined by W. E. B. Du Bois to explain an identity that has been divided into several facets).The vehicle by which 'Do the Right Thing' represents the black community reminding itself, so to speak, of the presence of these figures is the ubiquitous Smiley, a young man with cerebral palsy who earns money selling photographs of African-American heroes to his Bed-Stuy neighbors. The film calls attention to one image in particular: the famous photograph of King and Malcolm shaking hands and smiling during their first and only meeting.

'Do the right thing' uses "gender dynamics, struggles around property rights and consumerism, and competing masculine postures.(FA 784)" as a point of origin for social commentary. The moral cosmology Radio Raheem narrates here is very compelling. In it, "good" is not only identifiable and absolute, but ultimately more powerful than "evil," which, correspondingly, is equally pure and clear. The faith and lucidity of this formulation are potent. Yet the film complicates Radio Raheem's vision with its depictions of his role in the confrontation at Sal's Famous Pizzeria and his murder at the hands of the police. It is not clear that Radio Raheem is purely "good"; according to the film, Radio Raheem, like the large majority of Black youth, is the victim of materialism and a misplaced sense of values. This critique, ironized as it is by Lee's highly visible and controversial promotion of various product lines (including his own) which vigorously target the young-African-American-male demographic, nonetheless identifies a salient feature of Raheem's characterization. And it is tragically obvious during the murder scene that "evil," at least in this particular match, is far stronger than Radio Raheem's "story of Life" implies.

heart attacks are crazy - he couldnt have a heart attack

There are civilizations that are considered to be the oldest form. 8,000 years old. So then we can conclude that political and judicial hierarchies have been in establishment for that long.

The 2001 feature film Donnie Darko showcases a scene where Donnie and Miss Pomeroy have an exchange where the discuss the rubric for declaring humanity and therefore being “cared” about.

Karen Pommeroy: This could be the death of an entire way of life, the end of an era...
Donnie: Why should we care?
Karen Pommeroy: Because the rabbits are us, Donnie.
Donnie: Why should I mourn for a rabbit like he was human?
Karen Pommeroy: Are you saying that the death of one species is less tragic than another?
Donnie: Of course. The rabbit's not like us. It has no... keen look at something in the mirror, it has no history books, no photographs, no knowledge of sorrow or regret... I mean, I'm sorry, Miss Pommeroy, don't get me wrong; y'know, I like rabbits and all. They're cute and they're horny. And if you're cute and you're horny, then you're probably happy, in that you don't know who you are and why you're even alive. And you just wanna' have sex, as many times as possible, before you die... I mean, I just don't see the point in crying over a dead rabbit! Y'know, who... who never even feared death to begin with.

Donnie questions why he should mourn for the rabbits since they’re not human. This illuminates the emotional gap between two “species” of people that have a history of one claiming humanity over the other. Since humans understand that they are special. They are human. Humans see themselves as being emotionally, intellectually, physically, psychological, and socially advanced over rabbits ( any species that has not contributed of the evolvement of the culture), and this according to Donnie makes your death less tragic. In order to see tragedy in someone’s life or death you must care, you must pity them, and therefore can only truly care about someone else you see as human.

Conclusion: Therefore Donnie is illustrating a contemporary American report on the racial climate. It is reiterating the main point : (Note: Check on origin of the slave trade in America) American slave trade begins in late 1600’s Meaning that since our, meaning American civilization, was started until 1492 White Skinned Americans have over 5992 years of “history books, photographs, and the knowledge of sorrow and regret,” making them authentically human. Therefore white skinned people have, in this country, an estimated 5992 years of well documented history over the African American. This is contextualized in an era when we still are seeing our first black leader - - the face of america. Black Americans are such a new development of species that we are still in an era where were are still at the beginning of our civilization. Because we as a representation of people have NOT been involved in creating the judicial, social, and historically background of the very country we know as home. Political leaders are an extension of royal families. The head, president, being a lingering descendant of an emperor. How? Because an emperor is the face if a country, of a civilization. White people have been the “emperors” since the beginning of civilization to now. Therefore white people have an established history and accurate representation of their evolution. Therefore if the only way to care for someone is to find them human, and to be human you must have histories/representation, black American people will never be human to American whites.


do you follow me? I dont know...sometimes i don't even follow me.