Synecdoche, New York and Happy-Go-Lucky are currently in theaters and make an interesting pairing. As you would expect, Charlie Kaufman's movie is a mind-bender and Mike Leigh's is a slice of life character study.
On the surface they seem like very different films and in many ways they are -- but I was surprised how they needled me in similar ways. Both grapple with fleeting happiness and the futility of our lives. Both put the main character's life under an uncomfortable microscope.
And though Caden and Poppy are polar opposites, our protagonists seem to press on through the squeeze of everyday life with their own brand of reckless abandon.
In the end, Happy-Go-Lucky has more silver lining.
We would do well to duplicate Poppy's ability to smile in the face of hardship and shake off Caden's grim, existential plight -- however unrealistic that might be.
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1 comment:
I think your taste in films is a bit more artsy than mine. I hope that the use of the word "baseball" in Calvin Marshall is the literal use of the word, and not a metaphor. I'm expecting to see a cameo from a former all-GSAC baseball player.
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