Normal(ish) versus Weird

This match-up brings the director who created some of the most loved movies from my childhood (Ferris Bueler's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, etc.) up against the director of one of the most intriquing, strange television shows ever to appear on network tv, Twin Peaks (as far as I know...plus it depends on your definition of strange--most reality shows are weird as f**k). It's my old favorite, weirdness, versus the powerful force of nostalgia. Bring it.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I had seen a lot of John Hughes movies, but never Planes, Trains, and Automobiles starring John Candy and Steve Martin. My main impression of this film is that it is the progenitor of the now classic disaster comedy with heart that has brought us many of Ben Stiller's films, including the terrible Focker series. While some of this movie was funny, and I'm glad that the message about kindness and friendship came through at the end, Hughes had a surprisingly difficult time convincing me that these were real people with a real connection that I should care about. Candy was delightful and complicated, and he was the closest to creating a full person in his annoying, lovable schmuck character. I'm not sure why Hughes made this movie. It's like he thought to himself, Hey, why keep making hit comedies with teenagers that touch people and connect with them? Instead I'll make a shallow, glad-that-isn't-me everday adventure movie with adults that are stagnant and disconnected. Maybe he got dared to do a movie with adult characters or just got bored. But why not stick with what works, especially when it works so well?

I guess a lot of other people enjoyed this movie more than me because otherwise we wouldn't watch it for this showdown, but for me, it just falls flat. I'm not sure if it's the antics from Martin that feel stale or how much it reminds me of Meet the Fockers, but for some reason I'm not buying this movie from a director who usually delivers real emotional connections with characters that feel genuine.

Blue Velvet

Lynch goes beyond weird. He requires a new label, a new definition for this film. The reason this film is worth watching, though, is that the weirdness all pays off. It is there for a reason and Lynch thought it through, he didn't just throw random shit together, he thought about a consistent, interesting message and the most shocking, effective way to convey it.

There is a theme that begins with the first scene: an examination of the underground and the role it sometimes plays as a distraction from troubles and dangers that are closer to home. When the main character (played artfully by Kyle Maclachlan of Twin Peaks) comes home from college because of his father's potentially fatal and  mysterious accident, he embroils himself in the underground drama of a near-insane woman (Isabella Rossellini), seeking out danger and crisis that can distract from the possibility of his own life becoming too difficult to handle. The distance allows him to deal with the insanity of the world he has snuck into, but once it overwhelms him, the narrative moves back to his own family and life. Not only is the story Lynch creates iconic and visually shocking, but meaningful and deep. I really enjoyed this crazy movie and I'm interested to see more of what Lynch does with a full film.

The Breakfast Club

I have loved this movie from the first viewing, which was so long ago that I can't pinpoint the timing. I have identified during different periods of my life with most of the characters in the film (and interestingly enough, in this most recent time watching it, I thought about how pissed off I would be if students trashed my library that way). Is this movie realistic? Not really, but part of making and watching movies is suspending disbelief. There is enough truth in this film to make it important and worthwhile, and when the students begin to search deeper, beyond how they look, talk, or behave, they begin to connect on a purely human level, sharing secret, valuable parts of themselves, becoming vulnerable and real to each other. This is the type of movie that can help people recognize humanity in others. We love the characters which means we start to love the people they are meant to represent: the prom queens, jocks, criminals, brains, and freaks that we see every day, especially in high school.

This reminds me of a comic from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal that I absolutely love and that highlights a lot of what I think is wrong with our society:

We are so afraid as we get older about what other people think that we stifle our individuality and stifle ourselves. And then one day, it's too late and we've lost connection with that passionate child that will draw the way they want to draw because they have to be themselves, have to find themselves. I hope I never lose connection with that part of myself. I hope I'm always weird simply because it's who I am. Hughes reminds me of that wish through this movie and I recognize that there's a very good reason it holds a special place in my nostalgia-driven heart: it's really freaking' good.

The Elephant Man

This movie absolutely blew me away. I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I got was an emotionally wrenching, intelligent, suspenseful and impressive drama about how we treat those who are different and highly abnormal. What happens to the titular "elephant man" says a lot about society and about him as an individual. What he craves is to be normal, and normalcy is defined by the way others treat us. He never attains that dream, even when he spends time in "normal" activities like having tea with guests, those guests are not there for the pleasantness in his demeanor, his polite, gentle nature, or to engage him in discussion. They are there to become more notable, because it's fashionable, or because they want to see the infamous "elephant man." This brings up a very important question: when what is in vogue is something positive and good, does the efficacy and value of doing that good thing for the sake of popularity and others' regard still as impactful? It reminds me of the "Green" movement. Most of the time I say to myself, "The commodification of green living is a positive force because money is what moves in our society and if people are doing it because it's hip, they're still doing it." But the issue is more complicated than that, because if anyone can slap "Green" on a t-shirt just to sell it without actually taking into consideration how to produce it equitably, we run into the crux of the problem.

If a movie set in late 19th century England about a deformed man can take me on this kind of inquisitive journey, it has successfully communicated across time. It has also stirred things deeply connected to my passions, that are important for me to stew over and connect and everyone should take the time to wonder: "How would I treat John Merrick if I were to meet him?"

If it isn't apparent that David Lynch just won this contest, I haven't done my job. Planes, trains, and automobiles has sunk John Hughes battleship. And I am so pumped for Eraserhead.

Will Chaos Reign or Highschool Rule?

David Lynch vs. John Hughes may be one of those rare moments in life for me where the expected outcome is nearly 180 degrees opposite the direction that it seemed to be heading when this contest started. You probably can’t get more heartwarming that the director of Pretty in Pink and if you had to pick one director who could somehow complete a romantic comedy staring the character of Charles Manson you’d probably turn to David Lynch. And I would have said before we started this round that trying to compare these two should be near impossible because they have nothing in common...

But surprisingly enough that turned out not to be the case. A first I was grasping at any sort of common ground I could find “Well I guess The Elephant Man is kinda like Judd Nelson or Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club, rough on the outside but deep down want to be liked.” Then the comparisons started to grow “Wait! The Elephant is exactly like the burnouts in the break fast club! Same backgrounds, same motivations!” And pretty soon I had it “Holy crap!!! The Breakfast Club is just the Elephant Man goes to high school!” Both directors despite their widely differing techniques and genres delve into the effects of societal pressures on their characters. Both directors believe that love can push aside all obstacles. And both Directors build whole films in the difference between expectations and the deeper undercurrents of truth that connect us all.

In the end there is more common thematic ground that that pushes these guys together than the plot points, dialogue, and genre differences that pull them apart.

Planes Trains and Automobiles (1987)- I’ve never seen this before and since seeing this thing like a month ago I’ve discovered that I may be the only person in the world who doesn’t find this one of the most heartwarming and funniest films of their childhood. Firstly I will apologize in advance for this because he seems like he’d be hilarious but Steve Martin just isn’t funny. I don’t care how many times he scrunches up his face and throws his arms in the air and runs down the street.

He didn’t come across to me like an angry everyman but more like a jerk who sees himself like an everyman, which was the change that you weren’t supposed to see coming until the very end of the film. Candy on the other hand was far better and just like Uncle Buck and Cool Runnings is pretty much the only reason to watch it. But too much of his performance was lost when you saw exactly where he was going long before he got there. For example there was the scene when they are on their plane at the beginning when Candy starts talking to Martin about plane food and its pretty obvious early on that Martin is getting annoyed and Candy is going to end up eating all of his food. Then Hughes gives us a ten minute scene where each joke is only funny if you don’t get that Candy is going to ask to eat each and every thing on Martin’s plate. In fact the whole film is kinda like that. The humor only works when you can’t totally predict where its going even though its completely obvious.

It goes a bit like this:

Candy: Hey Martin we need to get back to Chicago.

Martin: Damn sure we do its almost Thanksgiving! I’m soooo mad.

Candy: Well how do you think we’ll get there?

Martin: Well we’ve tried a plane and that didn’t work and we tried a train and that didn’t work so I guess based on the title next up is automobiles?

Candy: Well good thing I know some guy with a car who lives around here and I already called him and he agreed to bring us part of the way (but not all the way cause the movie isn’t over) to Chicago.

Martin: Well since nothing so far has worked out and everyone we have met has been totally nuts I bet based on the odds nothing with this guy will go wrong and he will be completely normal.

(Guy show up and is a stereotype of a Okie Redneck and things go awry)

Martin: I’m sooo Mad!

By about a quarter of the way through felt like I could have finished everything but the ending myself.

Blue Velvet (1986) - So like Taurog, Rossen, and Fosse before him I had not seen a David Lynch film before Blue Velvet (other than Fire Walk With Me which shouldn’t count). All I knew going in was that Lynch is weird and on top of that he’s really weird. And man was I not disappointed.

So basically the plot is like this:

(Kyle Mclaughlin) returns to hometown after near death of his father falls in love with local head cheerleader (Laura Dern). On their first date (Dern) tells him about a mysterious woman in town who acts kinda weird (Isabella Rossellini) and McLaughlin decides he’s gonna sneak into her apartment. Of course things don’t really go according to plan and he ends up figuring out that Rossellini is being tormented by a small town gangster (Dennis Hopper). He decides he’s gonna help and ends up following the mystery down the rabbit hole to uncover the seedy underbelly of the small town.

The chaos is on display from about the 31^st minute on and things just keep getting weirder and weirder. Normally a movie that hardly gives away any information easily and constantly has you asking yourself what the hell is going on would piss me off. But maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been exposed to more and more films where they play with an unconventional narrative (No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, anything by Darren Aranofsky) or the fact that I’m maturing as a movie goer but I could really follow the method of Lynch’s madness. Sure there were parts where I think that Lynch could have tightened up some of the themes and there were times where the acting was a little too melodramatic but I found the idea of exploring these two halves of this small town through characters that were slowly learning they themselves as well as life was a lot more messy than they originally thought really worked. Also Dennis Hopper’s crazy gas huffing megalomaniac Frank Booth may be one of the craziest and freshest characters to ever be on screen. I don’t know what it is about great actors going psycho crazy late in their career that really works…Silence of the Lambs.

The Breakfast Club (1985) - If John Hughes has a masterpiece this is it. Hold it! Everyone calm down Ferris Buhler is pretty damn good too. But here Hughes is at his best. He takes 10 minutes to set up 6 easy to understand characters then over the course of an hour complicates, contrasts, and compares their lives until they are nearly indistinguishable except for the expectations that the world has on them. I know that probably sounds boring but really unless your watching for it your not even going to realize that he is doing it. The writing is cross generationally superb and each of his iconic characters gets a full and complete story arc. And of course since its John Hughes he throws in just enough jokes and sentimental moments to keep it from being bogged down in drama but not so much that it gets sappy or slapstick like he tends to get later in his career.

If there is a down side to this film (and I’m really sure that there is) it might be that the darkest of these characters here are too relatable. As batgirl pointed out while we were watching it the worst thing Judd Nelson might do is punch a table and if he’s supposed to be the meanest guy at that school he could be way worse than that. But like I said I’m not really sure this is a down side if Hughes went any darker the whole thing might not have felt as internally real as it did.

But like I said I personally feel if you wanna try one John Hughes film to see if you enjoy him this is the one to try. You’ll get everything he’s great at (teen romance, heartwarming humor, societal insight) and nothing he’s not (realistic minority characters).

The Elephant Man (1980)- I think honestly if you watched this film and didn’t already know it was a David Lynch film there is no way in the world you could have played guess the director and gotten it right. Nothing about the standard Lynchian story narrative is here. There’s no guessing at whether or not this is really happening. None of the off the wall characters or plot points. It’s just hard hitting societal drama that is poignant and insightful. If I hadn’t already seen the film I would have been waiting the whole time for the trap door to drop out and a real Lynch film to start.

Basically (John Hurt the bad guy from V for Vendetta) is a deformed carnival attraction when he is come upon by (Hopkins yeah Hannibal Lecture from earlier) a medical doctor during turn of the century London. Initially drawn to him because of his deformities Hopkins vows to help him live a normal life and the two eventually become close friends as they attempt to acclimate him to modern society.

As you can see by the description it sounds kind of like an after school special or perhaps a dramatic Disney film. But its way way darker than that. Firstly Lynch made the great call of keeping the whole thing in black and white to accentuate the darkness of turn of the century London which makes it way more Schindler’s List than Oliver! Secondly John Hurt’s performance is every bit deserving of the Oscar he didn’t win (up against De Niro in Ranging Bull) as a massively deformed man who can barely walk or talk normally and the constant focus on The Elephant Man’s broken breathing is a constant reminder that even the most basic functions of life like eating or speaking for him is a marathon. And if your heart isn’t roused by the first speech given by Hurt when he’s auditioning in order to stay in the hospital then you might as well move to Dickensian London yourself and start going by the name scrooge.

But what makes this film the best of this round and one of the best of the entire showdown so far is the work Lynch does with Hopkin’s character. At first glance in the film you might blow off Hopkins’ performance as a simple good-natured character when compared to the grotesquesness of the carnival owner Bytes (Freddie Jones) with whom Hurt was staying with before he met Hopkins. But over the course of the film very subtly Lynch forces Hopkins and the audience to really question whether there is any differences between their characters. Hopkins assumes he is helping the Elephant man by giving him better living situation than he had before and introducing him to polite society. By in what may be the most critical scene in the film Jones comes to check on The Elephant Man and what transpires completely turns the film on its head. I don’t want to ruin it for you so I’ll leave it up to you to decide if there is really any difference between Hopkins and Jones.

In the end Hughes has a better than expected showing but David Lynch’s crazy chaos is moving on to face Clint Eastwood in round two.