Hierarchy of Expressive Culture in Birdman

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Hierarchy of Expressive Culture in Birdman LEXICON Volume 5, Number 2, October 2018, 95-106 Hierarchy of Expressive Culture in Birdman Dhania Putri Sarahtika*, Nur Saktiningrum Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia *Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Despite the accolades that it has received, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) has not been thoroughly studied in the academic sphere. This research attempts to examine the hierarchy of expressive culture portrayed in the screenplay of Birdman using Lawrence W. Levine’s theory (1988) of cultural hierarchy. A sociological approach by Swingewood & Laurenson (1972) is applied to see the work’s relation to the society. Firstly there is highbrow/lowbrow categorization, followed by an analysis of the challenges to the hierarchy; each process includes comparison between the findings and the reality in the present-day American society to see their resemblance. Keywords: Expressive Culture, Film, Hierarchy, Highbrow/Lowbrow Dichotomy, Theatre. that such notion is rooted in the classification set INTRODUCTION in the present American culture. Smith’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of interpretation of the story contributes as a Ignorance) (2014), or Birdman for short, is an supporting argument for this paper. Even though Oscar-winning psychological drama/comedy film his article is not classified as scholarly, his directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. It argument is considered adequate. narrates a comeback story of a fictional washed-up Another article by O’Keeffe (2014) Hollywood actor named Riggan Thompson as he published in The Atlantic discusses the hostility makes his way into the theatre business, while at between two characters in the film, Riggan the same time battling with his common sense Thompson and Tabitha Dickinson. Tabitha since the role that he used to play has been Dickinson is a theatre critic who undermines internalized in himself, represented by the Thompson’s theatre debut even before she sees Birdman’s voice in his head and the constant the preview. O’Keeffe relates this matter to the “appearance” of Birdman around him. real-life condition of the present-day Broadway, Since Birdman was recently released at the which is now more money-oriented. end of 2014, there have not been many thorough Another article is “Birdman and the studies about it. Most researchers and critics wrote Intoxicating Alchemy of Cinema” by Brown about it in the form of articles published in (2015). Unlike the previous two articles, this one newspapers and magazines. highlights the capacity of cinema to shift between Smith (2014), for instance, wrote an article reality and fantasy and to attract the society. on an online magazine called Smash Cut Brody (2015) reviews the film in general. It Magazine. He says that in the story, there is a covers a range of things, from the cast’ acting, the scene where the Birdman character gives a rather long take used in the film, and not to mention the snide comment on the audience for their love of film-versus-theatre dichotomy. Brody criticises explosions and superhero movies. Smith argues that the issue of film-versus-theatre is unoriginal. Dhania P. Sarahtika & Nur Saktiningrum / Hierarchy of Expressive Culture | 95 96 | LEXICON, Volume 5, Number 2, October 2018 Since this article is a review, it is understandable his desire to change it. Thus the novel, that Brody criticises the film’s treatment on this as the major literary genre of issue instead of discussing more about the issue industrial society, can be seen as a itself. faithful attempt to re-create the social world of man’s relation with his Similarly, Thompson & Bordwell (2015) also family, with politics, with the State; it address the film-versus-theatre issue. According to delineates too his riles within the them, “The eternal Hollywood/Broadway family and other institutions, the opposition is sharpened in the light of new conflicts and tensions between groups entertainment trends.” They also assert that the and social classes (p. 12). duality in the film is not only about film versus theatre, but also the young versus the elders, and Therefore, it is believed that this the East Coast versus West Coast values. sociological approach is applicable in this research because the object of the research is the hierarchy The present research seeks to contribute to of expressive culture in the Birdman movie script the academic sphere by analysing the work. The and its relation to the present condition in the analysis of this paper is limited to the textual United States. material of the work and its social context. As a result, the analysis is focused on the script, so the More specifically, this study adopts the technical elements of the film—for example, theory of cultural hierarchy proposed by Levine mise-en-scene, shots, and acting—are disregarded. (1988). Levine tackled the development of various forms of expressive culture—such as theatre, In regards to the topic, the paper focuses on opera, music, photography, movies, and fine the hierarchy of expressive culture in the script of arts—-in the United States beginning from the Birdman and how it resembles the present society. 19th century. Levine claims that the “process of The paper adopts the theory of cultural hierarchy divorcing popular entertainment from the proposed by Levine (1998). In his book, Levine legitimate stage, which had been gradually at analyzes the emergence and changes in the work throughout the second half of the hierarchy of expressive culture based on how nineteenth century, came to fruition in the Americans have perceived them from time to twentieth” (1988, p. 936). In his book, Levine time. analyzes the emergence and changes in the THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK hierarchy of expressive culture based on how Americans have perceived them from time to This study adopts a sociological approach to time. analyze the movie script. Theorists of sociological approach agree that “literature is a social product, Although there is no clear definition of and thoughts and feelings found in literature are “expressive culture” provided by Levine, in the conditioned and shaped by the cultural life present article, it is defined as “processes, created by the society” (Jadhav, 2014: 658). emotions, and ideas bound within the social Among the many theorists of sociology in production of aesthetic forms and performances in literature is Swingewood (Jadhav, 2014). Accord- everyday life. It is a way to embody culture and ing to Jadhav (2014) Swingwood’s “sociological express culture through sensory experiences such approach to the study of literature is developed in as dance, music, literature, visual media, and the social and cultural context” (p. 4). Swinge- theater” (Burstein, 2014, p. 132). The forms of wood & Laurenson (1972) argue that sociology expressive culture are distinguished in a vertical and literature complement each other in manner by the society, which results in a understanding the society (p. 13). They further hierarchy. argue: Levine (1988) divides expressive culture into As with sociology, literature too is a dichotomy: “highbrow” and “lowbrow”. He also pre-eminently concerned with man’s uses other terms, such as “Elite” and social world, his adaptation to it, and “mass/popular” culture, also “high” and “low” Dhania P. Sarahtika & Nur Saktiningrum / Hierarchy of Expressive Culture | 97 culture. The emergence of the terms can be traced were used in cultural criticism only until mid- back to late 19th century: 1960s (Tyson, 2006, p. 296). Such distinctions have not been maintained since the rise of post- "Highbrow," first used in the 1880s to modernism (Cuddon, 2013, p. 386), which oblite- describe intellectual or aesthetic rates the “high/low art distinctions” (McEntee, superiority and "lowbrow", first used 2014, p. 2). Levine himself states that culture is a shortly after 1900 to mean someone or dynamic process (1988, p. 2885). There is always a something neither "highly difficulty to define a precise hierarchy (1988, p. intellectual" or "aesthetically refined", 2574) since high and popular culture have were derived from the phrenological influenced each other and renewed themselves terms "highbrowed" and "lowbrowed" (1988, p. 2702). However, Levine adds that even if which were prominently featured in the hierarchy of expressive culture is no longer the nineteenth-century practice of dominant, it continues to be present in every determining racial types and discussion of culture (1998, p. 2889). As a result, it intelligence by measuring cranial is still relevant to apply the theories of cultural shapes and capacities (Levine, 1988, hierarchy to analyze Birdman, not because pp. 2550-2552). whether or not it is still true that expressive forms Building from that explanation, along with are stratified, but in order to analyze the other descriptions in Levine’s book, a number of distinctions that are made evident in Birdman. criteria have been compiled for of each category. Thus, Levine’s theory is applied here to Highbrows consist of forms which are identify how the hierarchy of expressive culture is aesthetically and intellectually refined (Levine, portrayed in Birdman and to the challenges to the 198, pp. 2550-2552, 2616, 2622), and enjoyed by determined hierarchy afterwards and relates them the elites or people who are highly educated to the reflection of the situation in the United (Levine, 1988, p. 398). Among the expressive States. forms classified as highbrows are the theatre, opera, symphonic music, and fine arts (Levine METHODS 1988, p. 972). In contrast, lowbrows refer to the popular culture. Lowbrows are the forms having The method of research in this paper is a questionable artistic merit (Levine, 1988, p. 390). library research. The primary data is the script of The forms considered as lowbrows are “the blues, Birdman. Furthermore, the secondary data, such jazz or jazz-derived music, musical comedy, as journal articles, books, newspaper articles, and photography, comic strips, movies, radio, popular magazine articles, are taken from the library to comedians” (Levine, 1988, p.
Recommended publications
  • Martin Scorsese and American Film Genre by Marc Raymond, B.A
    Martin Scorsese and American Film Genre by Marc Raymond, B.A. English, Dalhousie University A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fultillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Film Studies Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario March 20,2000 O 2000, Marc Raymond National Ubrary BibIiot~uenationak du Cana a uisitiis and Acquisitions et "IBib iogmphk Senrices services bibliographiques The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sel1 reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thése sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copy~@t in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts kom it Ni la thèse N des extraits substantiels may be printed or ohenvise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract This study examines the films of American director Martin Scorsese in their generic context. Although most of Scorsese's feature-length films are referred to, three are focused on individually in each of the three main chapters following the Introduction: Mean Streets (1 973), nie King of Cornedy (1983), and GoodFellas (1990). This structure allows for the discussion of three different periods in the Amencan cinema.
    [Show full text]
  • Ebook Download Tonys New Friend
    TONYS NEW FRIEND PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Karen Anne de Santis | 28 pages | 09 Nov 2020 | Friesenpress | 9781525591358 | English | none Tonys New Friend PDF Book Regular Cheese Pizza with Tomato Sauce. Chicken Alfredo Grille. Support our self-published authors and buy directly from FriesenPress. Cinnamon Sticks. Sammy : Excellent restaurant great food and great service. Best Chicken Parm ever! That part of the evening was disappointing. If you are playing on Local Lan on console then just attach a second controller. On 90 Day Fiance: Self-Quarantined , she explained that she had been there for months but was ready to go back to Canada. Moreover, Jalalli accused her now-ex-husband of using her to get to North America, while he said she took money from him and never paid him back. Tony and Kate are wonderful people. Please let us know how we can be of special service to you. Sammy : Yes, they do. Hardcover Edition Standard Color 28 pages 8. It also supports matchmaking, you can compete with other players around the globe. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our Website. It was duly noted, early in the 73rd Tony Awards , that the festivities followed a record year on Broadway — more tickets sold and more dollars grossed than ever. The food portions are more than generous. Marinara Sauce. Eggplant Rollantini Ricotta. Tony's Arugula Salad. Join now for YourTango's trending articles , top expert advice and personal horoscopes delivered straight to your inbox each morning. I have an old friend. Due to a mixup, the two meet when they are both scheduled to have appointments at the same time.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Steven Spielberg
    Understanding Steven Spielberg Understanding Steven Spielberg By Beatriz Peña-Acuña Understanding Steven Spielberg Series: New Horizon By Beatriz Peña-Acuña This book first published 2018 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2018 by Beatriz Peña-Acuña Cover image: Nerea Hernandez Martinez All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-0818-8 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-0818-7 This text is dedicated to Steven Spielberg, who has given me so much enjoyment and made me experience so many emotions, and because he makes me believe in human beings. I also dedicate this book to my ancestors from my mother’s side, who for centuries were able to move from Spain to Mexico and loved both countries in their hearts. This lesson remains for future generations. My father, of Spanish Sephardic origin, helped me so much, encouraging me in every intellectual pursuit. I hope that contemporary researchers share their knowledge and open their minds and hearts, valuing what other researchers do whatever their language or nation, as some academics have done for me. Love and wisdom have no language, nationality, or gender. CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One ................................................................................................. 3 Spielberg’s Personal Context and Executive Production Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 19 Spielberg’s Behaviour in the Process of Film Production 2.1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hamilcast's Transcribing Army
    The Hamilcast: An American Podcast #21: What are the odds the gods would put us all in one spot? Hosts: Gillian Pennsavalle and Bianca Soto Description: This is a milestone episode! Seth Stewart (@IAMSethStewart) is the first Hamilton cast member to come on the podcast! Seth talks backstage at the Tonys, his responsibilities as the Green Captain of “Hamilton”, the moment he realized he’d be best friends with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and why we should all #StayWeird. He also speaks directly to the Hamilfans. Jam!!! Transcribed by: Autumn Clarke, Proofed by: Joan Crofton The Hamilcast’s Transcribing Army Ok, so we are doing this . ___________________________________________________ GILLIAN PENSAVALLE: Hey, everybody! BIANCA SOTO: Hey! G.PEN: Hi! B.SO: How are you? G.PEN: I’m awesome! B.SO: Yeah me too! G.PEN: How are you? B.SO: I’m great! G.PEN: I’m Gillian B.SO: I’m Bianca G.PEN: This is a big ep B.SO: Big ep! G.PEN: Milestone ep B.SO: For sure! We’re at Shetler Studios here in NYC. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a rehearsal studio space G.PEN: It’s not just a milestone because we’re not in my living room in my apartment, but we have an actual cast member of Hamilton in the flesh, Seth Stewart. SETH STEWART: Jam! G.PEN AND B.SO: [Excited noises] G.PEN: How are you? S.STEW: Good! G.PEN: Thank you so much for being here S.STEW: Of course G.PEN: It’s a really big deal S.STEW: Of course G.PEN: So, again, I’m apologizing for audio.
    [Show full text]
  • And the Ship Sails On
    And The Ship Sails On by Serge Toubiana at the occasion of the end of his term as Director-General of the Cinémathèque française. Within just a few days, I shall come to the end of my term as Director-General of the Cinémathèque française. As of February 1st, 2016, Frédéric Bonnaud will take up the reins and assume full responsibility for this great institution. We shall have spent a great deal of time in each other's company over the past month, with a view to inducting Frédéric into the way the place works. He has been able to learn the range of our activities, meet the teams and discover all our on-going projects. This friendly transition from one director-general to the next is designed to allow Frédéric to function at full-steam from day one. The handover will have been, both in reality and in the perception, a peaceful moment in the life of the Cinémathèque, perhaps the first easy handover in its long and sometimes turbulent history. That's the way we want it - we being Costa-Gavras, chairman of our board, and the regulatory authority, represented by Fleur Pellerin, Minister of Culture and Communication, and Frédérique Bredin, Chairperson of the CNC, France's National Centre for Cinema and Animation. The peaceful nature of this handover offers further proof that the Cinémathèque has entered into a period of maturity and is now sufficiently grounded and self-confident to start out on the next chapter without trepidation. But let me step back in time. Since moving into the Frank Gehry building at 51 rue de Bercy, at the behest of the Ministry of Culture, the Cinémathèque française has undergone a profound transformation.
    [Show full text]
  • Collaborations of Martin Scorsese with De Niro And
    From Realism to Reinvention: Collaborations of Martin Scorsese with De Niro and DiCaprio By Travis C. Yates Martin Scorsese is considered by many to be the greatest film director of the past quarter- century. He has left an indelible mark on Hollywood with a filmography that spans more than four decades and is as influential as it is groundbreaking. The proverb goes, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The same could be said of cinema, though one popular filmmaking theory refutes this. French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard said of the filmmaking process, “The cinema is not a craft. It is an art. It does not mean teamwork. One is always alone on the set as before the blank page” (Naremore 9). Film theorist Robert Stam discusses this concept of auteur theory in Film Theory: An Introduction , an idea that originated in postwar France in the 1950s. It is the view that the director is solely responsible for the overall look and style of a film. As Colin Tait submits in his article “When Marty Met Bobby: Collaborative Authorship in Mean Streets and Taxi Driver ,” the theory is a useful tool at best, incorrect at worst. Tait criticizes the theory in that it denies the influence of other artists involved in the production as well as the notion of collaboration. It is this spirit of collaboration in Scorsese films featuring two specific actors, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, which this this paper will examine. Scorsese has collaborated with De Niro on eight films, the first being Mean Streets in 1973 and the most recent being Casino in 1995.
    [Show full text]
  • Martin Scorsese Set to Receive Cinematic Imagery Award from the Art Directors Guild’S Excellence in Production Design Awards, Feb
    Martin Scorsese MARTIN SCORSESE SET TO RECEIVE CINEMATIC IMAGERY AWARD FROM THE ART DIRECTORS GUILD’S EXCELLENCE IN PRODUCTION DESIGN AWARDS, FEB. 8, 2014 LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5, 2013 - Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese, whose films have consistently reflected the highest quality of production design, will receive the prestigious Cinematic Imagery Award from the Art Directors Guild (ADG) at its 18th Annual Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Awards, it was announced today by ADG Council Chairman John Shaffner and Awards Producers Raf Lydon and Dave Blass. Set for February 8, 2014, the black-tie ceremony at The Beverly Hilton Hotel will be hosted by Owen Benjamin and will honor more than 40 years of Scorsese’s extraordinary award-winning work. The ADG’s Cinematic Imagery Award is given to those whose body of work in the film industry has richly enhanced the visual aspects of the movie-going experience. Previous recipients have been the Production Designers behind the James Bond franchise, the principal team behind the Harry Potter films, Bill Taylor, Syd Dutton, Warren Beatty, Allen Daviau, Clint Eastwood, Blake Edwards, Terry Gilliam, Ray Harryhausen, Norman Jewison, John Lasseter, George Lucas, Frank Oz, Steven Spielberg, Robert S. Wise and Zhang Yimou. Said Shaffner, "The ADG has wanted Scorsese to accept this deserving honor since the earliest days of its inception. We are beyond delighted that his schedule finally now allows him time to receive it! The ADG has always considered his hands-on pursuit of excellence of production design to equal all of the fine craftsmanship that goes into every aspect of all Martin Scorsese films." Martin Scorsese is one of the most prominent and influential filmmakers working today.
    [Show full text]
  • 2010 Tony Award Nominee Reactions! Printer-Friendly (Broadwayworld.Com) Page 1 of 8
    Print 2010 Tony Award Nominee Reactions! Printer-Friendly (BroadwayWorld.com) Page 1 of 8 2010 Tony Award Nominee Reactions! Back to the Article by BWW News Desk The Tony Awards Nominations were announced this morning on Tuesday, May 4th. The Tony Awards will be broadcast in a live three-hour ceremony from Radio City Music Hall on the CBS television network on Sunday, June 13, 2010. Click here for the full list of nominations! BroadwayWorld.com will be talking to nominees throughout the day so keep checking back! "Well I woke up to phone ringing and a friend leaving me a message singing into my machine. And then I went to breakfast with my daughter and told her about the nomination and she started screaming. This is a special show. It is not like any other show that has been on Broadway from what I know and different from any show I have been a part of in the past. I was hopeful people would "get it" and I think they did. We're a hard working cast and it's amazing to me that we can do as many shows as we do each week. Everyone pulls their weight and I expected us be noticed for the excellence. The highlight of this show for me is being in a cast people who are so dedicated. The music is great to listen to every night and we have a crew that is great to us. It's nice to be back on Broadway." Lillias White, nominee for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Fela! "My wife called me this morning with the news.
    [Show full text]
  • Hooray for Hollywood the Sequel
    Hooray for Hollywood! The Sequel Music & Color; The Glamour Years Created for free use in the public domain American Philatelic Society ©2011 • www.stamps.org Financial support for the development of these album pages provided by Mystic Stamp Company America’s Leading Stamp Dealer and proud of its support of the American Philatelic Society www.MysticStamp.com, 800-433-7811 HoorayMusic & Color; for The GlamourHollywood! Years Movie Makers Walt Disney (1901–1966) Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) Scott 1355 Legends of Hollywood series • Scott 3226 The creator of Mickey Mouse and a host of other magical The master of the suspense film genre — which he is said cartoon characters began his professional career as an virtually to have invented — Hitchcock’s thrillers usually animator in the early 1920s with a friend, Ub Iwerks, and involved an ordinary person getting swept up in threatening with the financial backing of Walt’s brother Roy. With the events beyond his or her control and understanding. His first help of Walt and Roy’s wives, Lily and Edna, they produced U.S. film, Rebecca (1940) for David Selznick, won that year’s three cartoons featuring a mouse (who was almost named Oscar for Best Picture. He was voted Greatest Director of all Mortimer) in 1928, but it wasn’t until Disney added Time by Entertainment Weekly, whose list of 100 Greatest synchronized music to Steamboat Willie that their fortune was Films included four of his, more than any other director: made. Numerous popular short animated features followed, Psycho (1960, #11), Vertigo (1958, #19), North by Northwest including Flowers and Trees (1932), the first color cartoon (1959, #44), and Notorious (1946, #66).
    [Show full text]
  • Executive Summary for the Feature Film, Anthony This Is a Unique Opportunity to Invest in an Impactful Movie with an Outstanding Potential ROI 3X-15X
    Executive Summary for the Feature Film, Anthony This is a unique opportunity to invest in an impactful movie with an outstanding potential ROI 3X-15X. The Anthony screenplay has been endorsed by Hollywood’s #1 and #5 rated script consultants as one of the best scripts they’ve ever read. A film like this hasn’t been made before. The Anthony script displays superior craft and genre dominance over top selling box office feature films that have made over $100M worldwide. Anthony is set-up to perform better at the box office than the movie Juno which won an Oscar for best origi- nal screenplay and made $231M worldwide. An impoverished, brilliant kid wants to live and prove his life is valuable by standing up to the status quo and by changing the world in a major way, but will he be able to stand up to the one he loves the most? LOGLINE In the vein of It’s A Wonderful Life, Sixth Sense and Beautiful Mind; Anthony is a smart, thrilling, patriotic drama that is inspiring and compelling. Since childhood, Anthony demonstrates his convictions and boldness to stand up for himself and others. Growing up in a single-parent home, Anthony struggles with the question throughout his life of whether his personal worth is equal to his accomplishments. As an adult, Anthony battles a mysterious illness and it seems someone wants him out of the way. He uses his brilliant mind to try and prove that he is of value by defining himself as a person to his mother, Maria, to his father who SYNOPSIS abandoned him, and to the rest of the world, by striving to save millions of lives including his own.
    [Show full text]
  • P. T. Anderson‟S Dilemma: the Limits of Surrogate Paternity
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by The University of Sydney: Sydney eScholarship Journals online Sydney Studies P.T. Anderson's Dilemma P. T. Anderson‟s Dilemma: the Limits of Surrogate Paternity JULIAN MURPHET A while ago now, Fredric Jameson located the Utopian dimension of Coppola‟s first Godfather film (1972) in „the fantasy message projected by the title of this film, that is, in the family itself, seen as a figure of collectivity and as the object of a Utopian longing‟.1 In a late-capitalist America beset by an irreversible „deterioration of the family, the growth of permissiveness, and the loss of authority of the father‟, Coppola‟s Sicilians „project an image of social reintegration by way of the patriarchal and authoritarian family of the past‟. (33) To be sure, the ethnic group may preserve within its anachronistic familial webs a relatively untarnished „Name of the Father‟, that can be trotted out for nostalgic wish-fulfilment on celluloid; but it goes without saying that commercial American cinema has always turned on the institution of the family, to the extent that „in a typical Hollywood product, everything, from the fate of the Knights of the Round Table through the October Revolution up to asteroids hitting the earth, is transposed into an Oedipal narrative‟. 2 Jameson‟s Utopian account of the „ineradicable drive towards collectivity‟ (34) betokened by the family drama in American mass culture surely overlooks that most stubborn obstacle to its realization, both within any given plot, and more practically in everyday life: namely, the father himself.
    [Show full text]
  • Fifty-Nothing
    fifty-nothing a coming of age story about the coming of age PUBLICITY AND PRESS CONTACT: Michele Robertson Brooke Blumberg MRC Michele Robertson Company 8530 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 420 Beverly Hills, CA 90211 tel: 310.652.6123 PRODUCER’S REP: Melanie Backer [email protected] tel: 310.779.0402 press kit synopsis fifty-nothing is a modern comedy that explores the simple truth that it’s never too late to start over again. Even at age 50. We meet two long-time golf-buddies, Adam, going through a trial separation from his wife of 15 years and Jon, who is not only losing work to the ‘young guy’, but also dealing with a ‘generous’ prostate. They decide to take off on a weekend journey to let loose and re-live the Palm Springs get-a-way of their younger days but meet with unexpected results. Struggling to fit in with the younger crowd, they find surprising comfort through encounters with women nearer their log line own age. During a holiday get-a-way to Palm As the weekend progresses, both are forced to Springs, two fifty year-old men find come to a truce with middle life’s predicaments. unexpected results while trying to A film that asks the question, “If fifty is the new re-live their younger days in this comic thirty then why do my knees ache?” in what coming of age story about the coming may be the world’s first coming of age story… of age. about the coming of age. fifty-nothing began as conversations production between two friends who were experienc- notes ing life after 50.
    [Show full text]