5 Films About the Human Condition

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:22] Speaker B: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the final girl on 6th Avenue podcast. My name is Carolyn Smith Hillmer, and today I'm going to be talking to you about my five favorite. My five favorite films that best display what I would consider human dysfunction and the dark side of the human condition. And the way in which these films that we're going to talk about today are scary or horrific to me, may not be the same way that they speak to you. So just keep that in mind. Not everything you know is scary from one person to another. But I happen to find these films and the themes that they explore very, very disturbing, particularly in the way that a lot of these are shown. Some of these are considered to be like dark comedies, and you might be wondering, as I'm talking to you about them, how the fuck can it be funny? But I promise that these are, in fact, sometimes very hilariously funny. And, you know, it's almost like watching something about human dysfunction and the human condition and then recognizing the same human condition experience within ourselves while we're viewing. And I find that to be a really interesting dynamic when watching a film. And also, these films really kind of like, throw you into human misery. And there's really no, like, illusion, you know, that can come into play to help you kind of dissociate yourself from these stories. And they're as surreal as they may be to watch on the screen. They're very naturalistic. And the despair that some of these leave you with is at times, I think, unforgivable, and at other times, I think really rewarding because, you know, there's always going to be the. The window through which you as an individual view the world. And it may not be the same as, you know, the person next to you or anyone else in the world and how they view the world. So it's kind of one of those things where it's scary to me because it's so real and these things actually happen. You know, that's why true crime is frightening, often is because it's something that actually happened versus, I don't know, watching the conjuring 50 or whatever fucking number they're on and being like, okay, maybe that did or didn't happen the way that it was presented in the film. I'm just gonna turn it off and go to bed. This is something you can't just turn off and go to bed because these films are things that actually happen to real people. And it seems like hyperbole in the film. But I promise that once you kind of get past the Fact that it's on a screen and you recognize that this is real life, then you will be completely unsettled. So the first film that I think really illustrates this is the 1999 Sam Mendez film American Beauty. American Beauty is, you know, it's. It sort of sounds like what it. What it. What it is, right? It's like, this is America. These types of people are real. These types of situations exist, as unfortunate as that may be. Kevin Spacey gives perhaps my favorite performance of his entire career in this film. And it's really about suburban malaise and repression, desires being unfulfilled. The suburban facade, right, of everything is happy because the white people picket fences and the, you know, the trees are blooming and the grass is green and it's neatly cut and two cars, big house, you know, family. Like, it's. It's a facade for a lot of people, right? Like, that seems happy and that looks happy. And that's what we're kind of told is like the American Dream, but that's not everybody's dream. And that's also not necessarily, like, as freeing as that sounds. In fact, in this film, it shows that perhaps the American dream can be very suffocating. So essentially, American Beauty is about Lester and his wife Carolyn. And he is quite literally having a full blown midlife crisis. He hates his job, he doesn't feel connected with his wife, and his daughter can't stand him because she's a teenager. And that's how teenagers are portrayed in movies. And everything in his life feels like it's dead. And the reason why I say that is because watching him sort of feel like everything is dead and that he himself may be dead, juxtaposed with this beautiful suburb that they live in with, you know, all these huge homes. And his wife is gorgeous and she's very successful. And like, their daughter, you know, is a high schooler and she's. She's getting older. And, like, all the signs of, like, success and happiness are there. It's just not true for him. And so he kind of is jolted awake through basically this obsession that he portrays, which is an obsession with one of his daughter's friends. And not only is it uncomfortable, but like, for whatever reason, this. She's a teenager, right? That's why it's uncomfortable. So not only is this obsession scary to the viewer, but it's even more strange because as you watch, Lester's character feels like his discovery of his obsession with this teenage girl is like the key to him reclaiming his sense of freedom. So he, like, quits his job, and then he starts, like, lifting weights and smoking weed, and he buys his dream car. And he's, like, trying to relive all the parts of youth that he's missed out on. And his daughter, in, like, a parallel sort of story, has her own shit going on. And so she's starting to get close with another kid in the neighborhood who lives next door. And this kid has, like, the most strict military dad in the world. And so at first he seems kind of weird, but, like, he's actually really sweet and thoughtful and, you know, he likes to find the beauty in the world, even if it's in the smallest details possible. That, you know, every day we would never even consider to think about some of these things. And so these two parallel stories are running and they come to a collision at the end, which, you know, leads to Carolyn having an affair and Lester becoming more and more detached from reality. And the neighbor's dad has some pretty repressed feelings of his own, if I might say. And he misreads a situation in a way that ends in tragedy. And so it's dark, but at the same time, it's almost kind of uplifting in a weird way, because you're talking about seeing the world and waking up and, you know, being able to appreciate what you have around you before it's too late. But in. In essence, it's about suburban emptiness and how everything can look perfect, but underneath this facade, you know, things are falling apart. And sometimes things are really and truly picture perfect and not actually perfect. So it also, you know, this film sort of deals with, you know, denial in terms of sexuality and desire versus reality and overall just finding beauty in the ordinary. This leads me to, you know, a natural segue to talk about Blue Velvet. Blue Velvet, of course, is famously a David lynch film. And like most David lynch films, if you've seen Blue Velvet or any of his other films, your immediate reaction to what you've watched is, what the fuck did I just watch? Well, Blue Velvet is not as, like, intense in that matter. It's more straightforward of a lot of his stories that he tells, but also illustrates the same way that American Beauty did, that underneath American suburbia, there are. There are darker things lurking, right? So Blue Velvet kind of starts out with this postcard American suburb. You know, like I said, the. The roses, the picket fences, the friendly neighbors. But then we find under the surface of all of this, everything is rotten. So you have this main character who's played by Kyle McLaughlin, whose name is Jeffrey, and he's a college kid, and he comes back to town and he finds this ear, like a severed ear in a field. And so instead of turning it in, like, you know, you would. He's like, mmm, I'm gonna keep this because I'm just curious as to what's going on. Right. Like, I grew up in this town. This is my hometown, and I didn't know that, like, I could ever stumble upon something like this, like a severed ear. So as he starts playing detective, he, you know, has this investigation of sorts that he's doing on his own. He meets this young woman who's played by Isabella Rossellini. She is a singer at a lounge at night, and she's literally trapped in a nightmarish situation. She's literally being controlled through fear and abuse in many forms by this man who is played by Dennis Hopper. And Dennis Hopper's character in this film is absolutely unhinged, is the nicest way you could probably ever say that. And so Dennis Hopper's character has basically kidnapped Isabella Rossellini's husband and child and has been controlling her, you know, to. With. With her husband and her child in the back. In the back view, right? Like, he's done this, and he's like, yeah, you might get your kid back, you might get your husband back. Not sure. Right? But as long as you do what I say, like, I could make your life worse if you don't. So Jeffrey kind of added the. You know, the apex of the film comes into contact with Dennis Hopper's character. And it's just a mix of sadism and unpredictability because, you know, this guy's world is drugs and violence and sexual domination. And these are all things where, you know, this is their hometown. This is where Jeffrey grew up. So, like, this is even more interesting and terrifying to him. And so at the end, there is, you know, a confrontation of sorts in which Jeffrey ends up killing Dennis Hopper's character. And it feels like there's been a sort of restoration of order, but the film just leaves you unsettled anyway because it's like, maybe the bad, right, was defeated with the death of this man, but the darkness will always exist in the soil of this, you know, picture perfect hometown. And Laura Dern gives an absolutely incredible performance in this as well. So if you haven't seen Blue Velvet, I would. I would definitely check it out. I would say it's perhaps the most accessible in the. In terms of David Lynch's films. Like, I don't find that you would be discouraged by this film. In any way. Like, I was discouraged after seeing Inland Empire. I've seen it, I think four times now, and I'm still discouraged, like, every time I watch it because I just. There's so many things, like it's so hard to figure out. This is not like that film, right? So if you're interested in David Lynch, I would definitely give this a shot. So they, you know, this film does kind of what a lot of David lynch films do, which is that he wants to explore innocence and corruption and how those two worlds can exist at the same time and how scary, intoxicating, and tempting that, you know, corruption can be. It also talks about the loss of innocence, which is something that David lynch touches on a good amount in his films, in my opinion. There are always, you know, pieces of childlike play or banter or behavior. And in a way, this is like a coming of age story because Jeffrey's character loses his innocence by doing this investigation to dive into a world of sex and violence and moral ambiguity. This next film is not necessarily like the previous two because not all of the characters appear outwardly right to the rest of the world as being perfectly fine like some of them do, but. [00:16:17] Speaker A: A lot of them don't. So let's talk about the 1998 Todd Salons film, Happiness. [00:16:25] Speaker B: And I really debated whether or not I even wanted to talk about this film on an episode at all, because it is a. I would say, a polarizing film. I would also say at times it is offensive as well. And I mean that. Not to say that there is, like, inherently offensive content, but I mean it more to say that there is sensitive. [00:17:00] Speaker A: Content within the film. And this is considered to be a dark comedy. I would consider it a black comedy. I would consider it to be like a vantablack comedy. It's the darkest of all of the black comedies. And you almost feel when you're watching it like you should be guilty of something because there's like, the content is not something to laugh about, but you can't. [00:17:39] Speaker B: You can't help it. So. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Let'S talk about happiness. [00:17:45] Speaker B: So Happiness is one of those movies. [00:17:48] Speaker A: That just basically starts off hot by just throwing you into this messy, uncomfortable life of interconnected characters. And they're all kind of searching for. [00:18:05] Speaker B: Fulfillment, but in a really dysfunctional way. [00:18:09] Speaker A: So there's actually nothing really happy about this movie at all. And that's why I think it's so brilliant. But it really talks a lot about, you know, a satirical look at loneliness and desire and the things that people choose to Hide from the outside world. [00:18:29] Speaker B: So the three main characters, I would say, that are sort of, you know, involved through the film and sort of like the. The anchors, right, of the film and the three storylines are these three sisters. And so, you know, there's Joy, and Joy is the youngest of her sisters. And she's, like, really insecure. She's always looking for validation. She's always looking for love. And, you know, she's going on dates. But, like, her dates either never end well or, like, she gets broken up. [00:19:07] Speaker A: With, or, like, you know, her sister is always trying to set her up with new people. And, like, nothing ever really pans out, but she tries to stay positive. And, you know, then she has another sister, Trish. And Trish is a, you know, suburban. [00:19:26] Speaker B: Housewife who pretends to have a perfect life, except what she doesn't know and won't find out until the end of the film is that her husband, who is a psychiatrist or perhaps a PhD in psychology, he's a therapist and he is. He's a pedophile. And she doesn't find this out until the end of the film. And it's. [00:20:06] Speaker A: He seems like the regular family guy, but he is a pedophile who is actively acting out on these urges. He. [00:20:21] Speaker B: Has a young son. [00:20:25] Speaker A: And his. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Son, actually, they have multiple kids. I think they have three or maybe two. And they have, you know, their eldest son is on, like, a baseball team, and he, you know, one of the dads comes to him one day to this. To this man, Bill, and says that he is certain that his son is gay. And Bill is kind of like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, how can you know that There's. Even if you did know that there's really nothing you can do about that. But, you know, they're so young. Like, how would you really know? [00:21:09] Speaker A: And so that same, you know, younger boy, whose father is accusing him of being gay, is invited over to Bill's. [00:21:20] Speaker B: House for a sleepover, you know, with his son. And he ends up taking this as, you know, for him, the perfect opportunity to act on his desires. [00:21:36] Speaker A: And he drugs his entire family, including. [00:21:40] Speaker B: The visiting, you know, younger boy, and he. [00:21:46] Speaker A: He rapes this. [00:21:49] Speaker B: This boy. And it doesn't happen just once. It continues with another child as well. And so that's, you know, another. [00:22:05] Speaker A: I would argue that the Trish, the. The sister who is the suburban housewife. [00:22:10] Speaker B: That'S her storyline with Bill. Right? And Bill. So that's like. I would say the worst one. Like, that's like the absolute darkest one. And it's also the one of, like, everything's so perfect for them. Trish stays at home. She's a stay at home mom. They have all these kids, they have a beautiful house. She doesn't have to work. Her husband's a doctor. And underneath that all, like, he's committing these heinous crimes. And then there's this third sister named Helen. And Helen is an author and a writer. [00:22:48] Speaker A: And she's so beautiful and, like, lusted for by men. And despite all of her success as. [00:23:00] Speaker B: A writer, she's so bored with her life that she starts a fling essentially with one of her neighbors who is actually Philip Seymour Hoffman. And he's insecure, he's overweight, he's lonely, he has a drinking problem. And he gets off on, you know, thumbing through the phone book and calling. [00:23:31] Speaker A: Random women and, you know, masturbating while he's on the phone with them. Essentially. He also happens to be Dr. Bill, the pedophile's patient. So there's one scene in which, you know, Helen is, you know, thinking about. [00:23:51] Speaker B: A story that she's written. And in the story there is a discussion of a young woman who is raped. And she essentially, like, collapses on her bed and is like, what the fuck. [00:24:06] Speaker A: Do I know about rape? I've never been raped. I'm such a fraud. Like, how can I write about something like this? And so she then starts to, like. [00:24:14] Speaker B: Yearn for this to happen to her so that she can write about it in a realistic way. And at first she doesn't know that Philip Seymour Hoffman is the one who's, you know, calling her. And. And, you know, he's the one placing these dirty phone calls. And these, they're actually really gross. And so when she finally figures that out and figures out that that's who it is, she's incredibly disappointed. And so it's really the lives of these three sisters. And there's really not, like a nice and neat resolution at the end. You just kind of see all these people's private lives and the dysfunction and contradictions within them. And, like, they're all just so desperate for connection. But the ways that they try to reach for it are. They're fucking sad is what they are. And disturbing. And they're very unhealthy. And it's uncomfortable because, again, it feels exaggerated, but it's also way too real. On top of that, the way it's written is so funny that you have. [00:25:29] Speaker A: To laugh, but the content is such that you feel that you can't laugh. So it's a really interesting film. [00:25:38] Speaker B: If you've, like. If you've never seen it or even heard of it, I would definitely give it a watch. But, like, just know that the content in it is heavy. You know, just like Blue Velvet and American Beauty, that we're talking about the hidden darkness of ordinary people and desire and shame and taboo and, you know, the. The human contradiction where you can be an awful and sympathetic person at the very same time. And it is disturbing to me because it refuses to let you see people as only monsters or only victims, and forces you to recognize that they can be both. So with that uplifting film that I've just spoken with you about, I'm sure you're ready for another one. So let's go with my fourth recommendation here, which would be the 2005 film, the Death of Mr. Lazarescu. This is a Romanian film, actually, and this is. I have a whole other episode planned in mind for you to, you know. [00:27:01] Speaker A: Discuss. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Medicine and hospitals and healthcare systems and how much disdain I have for many of them, including our own. [00:27:20] Speaker A: And what's different about this is that it doesn't take place in America, right? [00:27:26] Speaker B: So. [00:27:29] Speaker A: It'S somehow, for me, like, more. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Frustrating to watch, because. [00:27:37] Speaker A: It'S my understanding that at the time that this film takes place, the healthcare system was sort. [00:27:46] Speaker B: Of evolving in Bucharest, and that makes it, like, all the more infuriating. So, essentially, this film follows an older man named Mr. Lazarescu, and he lives alone in Bucharest in an apartment with his cats. And one night he starts feeling, like, really sick. Headaches, stomach pain, nausea. Like, he calls for an ambulance because he's like, there's something seriously wrong. Now, he previously had had a stomach ulcer, and so he's unsure if this is related to his stomach ulcer, if. [00:28:25] Speaker A: This is, like, a different issue. And so, you know, he calls for an ambulance. And so it seems like a simple medical issue. [00:28:35] Speaker B: But it's basically just an. [00:28:39] Speaker A: Exhausting odyssey through their healthcare system and the healthcare system of the time, right, that they had. [00:28:51] Speaker B: So, like, the TV is on in his apartment, right? And so he's called for an ambulance, but then on the tv, you know, there's a news report that there was, like, a giant motorway accident, calamity, and that there's, like, tons of people that are injured and people that are dead. And so, like, the ambulances and all the hospitals are really busy. And so this whole film is basically him being shuffled from hospital to hospital all night because no one wants to take him. And Each doctor has a different excuse. You know, they're too busy, or this type of thing doesn't fall within their department, or they just don't care enough to do anything about it. And so throughout this whole night, his condition keeps getting worse. And literally, the only person who's showing him any real compassion throughout this film is this paramedic, and she stays with him the entire time. It doesn't help that, you know, he was a pretty heavy drinker. And so, you know, throughout the film, like, people are telling him. Like, his neighbors are telling him, like, you got to stop drinking. Like, none of this will happen if you just stop drinking. Like, just stop doing it. And he's like, okay, the problem that I have is completely unrelated to my drinking habits. And so if I could just be seen by a medical professional, I'm sure that, you know, we could get some clarification on this. And it's really. Other than the fact that it's horrible to watch this man be passed around from place to place to place, it just shows, like, the bureaucracy and the amount of indifference, you know, there is within this system, because instead of giving this man treatment, doctors, like, argue or they fill out paperwork, or they just pass him along as another problem. And, you know, he's cranky, and he doesn't really make it easy on the people around him. But at the end of the day, like, he's a sick and frightened older man, and he's falling through the cracks of this healthcare system. And so by the time at the end of the film when he gets admitted for surgery, he's unconscious and has been so dehumanized by this point. Right? He's just another person on a gurney. And the. The film doesn't really end with a final resolution, but you know that he's not gonna make it. And there were so many opportunities along the way to prevent this from happening. [00:31:56] Speaker A: So there's really not like a plot twist or really, like, a climax in this film. It's more of, like, a. [00:32:05] Speaker B: Almost like a documentary about an ordinary person who gets swallowed by a system that's broken. And so it's hard to watch. It genuinely is. But it also touches on mortality, fragility, of life, indifference, and bureaucracy. The film itself is mainly just a critique of healthcare bureaucracy. And, like, the doctors are kind of shown almost, like, in an empathetic way or a way that makes you want to be empathetic to them, because they're not portrayed as villains. They're more portrayed as, like, being overworked and tired and Burnt out and, like, hardened by the system that they're a part of. And also like the dignity of Mr. Lazarescu, right? Like, he's not. People think he's an old drunk man who has health problems, but he's not. He's a human and he deserves care, respect and compassion, which he doesn't get. And because he's partially a victim of this bureaucratic system and is also a victim of his life choices that have led him there, it's like how much, you know, of his fate is just his own doing and how much of it is because of a society that just chooses not to care. So, you know, doctors are always presented as, like, they're the people that save lives. Like, they, you know, you do. You do right. They do right by the world. They, you know, this is who you want to be in the care of, but then they sort of get to pick who they want to take care of anyway, and it eliminates your choice to, you know, receive the care that. [00:34:22] Speaker A: You need or want, just by that very line of logic. Not to mention Mr. Lazarescu is isolated and he has no family around. He's lonely. He drinks in his apartment, you know, all day and all night. And he's just. He's just another. [00:34:49] Speaker B: Oh, he's a human. So it's like, yes, he has these issues. And much like I talked about in Happiness with Bill, Bill is a pedophile. Bill deserves to rotate. And at the same time, he loves his own children so much that you. [00:35:12] Speaker A: Can see the empathy. [00:35:15] Speaker B: Like, you can see it. You have it because, you know, people who have done wrong and are still human and you still feel that for them. And so it's like you feel that way for Mr. Lazarescue as well. Like, yeah, he drinks a lot, but, like, so you still empathize with him because he's a human who's desperate for care. And because of all these things along the way that didn't happen for him, he ends up dead. So let's talk about our final film, which also involves a lot of failure. Let's talk about the 2000 Darren Aronofsky film, Requiem for a Dream. So, Darren Aronofsky, you may hate him, you may love him. I happen to really, really enjoy his films. They're incredibly stylized. So if that's not something that you are interested in, I totally understand. However, I do think that if you're going to watch any of his films, this would be the one that I would recommend. So this movie hits you like a truck. It is one of the most emotional films that I can think of. And the whole thing is basically about addiction and how it destroys everybody's lives in a different way. So there's four main characters also. I forgot to say this, but Jared Leto is in this movie. So, like, I understand that I said that. If you're gonna watch any of Darren Aronofsky's films, I would pick this one. If you hate Jared Leto, like, that much, then you should just scrap that idea altogether, because he's not just in it, like, a little bit, you know, he's, like, really in it. He's an American Psycho, but he's in it for, like, 10 minutes. So, like, this is not that. So if you really hate Jared Leto, I happen to. I happen to like him, actually. So for me, this was not a problem. But for some, this is a problem. So just keep that in mind. So there's basically, like, these four main characters, and they all have, like, really big dreams, and then everything starts to spiral, and it's really quick. And so there's Jared Leto's character, and he wants to make it. He wants to make it big with his girlfriend and his best friend, and they're all trying to get rich by dealing heroin, but of course, they're using heroin, too. So this really starts to fuck up all their plans. Then on top of that, their sanity is fucked as well. So, yeah, they want to make it big as heroin dealers, but they're using the heroin, so you already know how that's gonna end. And then there's Jared Leto. You know, his mom, like, his mom in the film is played by Ellen Burstein, who is. This is a phenomenal performance from anyone like her and anyone else. Like, if you can show me a performance better than this one in a film about addiction, I will personally pay you $1,000. She is absolutely incredible. And her story at first is actually separate, but then becomes a parallel story because she is basically this lonely. She's a widow, and she loves this TV show, and Jared Leto, as a heroin addict, is coming in and stealing stuff from her apartment to sell, and he has a habit for coming in to steal her tv, and she loves this one show on tv, and so she. It's obviously hurtful to her to have her son be a heroin addict and for her own son to do these types of things, especially do his own mother. And so eventually, she has, you know, her TV that he's not stolen, and she one day gets a call that she might be on this TV show, and so she becomes obsessed with losing weight so that she can fit into this one dress that she wore when she was younger, and ends up getting hooked on amphetamines, which are marketed to her as diet pills. And thank goodness Jared Leto's character did not know that they were amphetamines at the beginning of the film because, you know, he would have stolen them so he could sell them. [00:40:32] Speaker A: And she ends up. [00:40:38] Speaker B: Going so far into this addiction that the dress ends up not really being a point of contention for her anymore or really anything that she's all that focused on. But her mental state just completely deteriorates, and she ends up in a state of just absolute delusion. [00:41:04] Speaker A: She has. There's this one pivotal scene where, like, the. The items of furniture in her home are moving and talking to her, and. [00:41:16] Speaker B: Like, you know, she's abusing these. These amphetamines to lose weight. So for all the people in this film, you're watching all of them want to be happy or want to chase a purpose or chasing a high of sorts. And then you watch how all their lives completely unravel. And, you know, it's like I said, it's highly stylized, and there's a lot of, like, rapid montages of drug use, and, like, it's disorienting and it's jarring, and the music of this film is absolutely amazing, and it adds to the dread that, you know, that you're building to through throughout the entirety of the film. And at the end, every single one of them have hit rock bottom. Like, Alan Burstein's character ends up in a mental hospital. She's getting shock therapy. Jared Leto loses his arm because his arm gets infected from shooting up heroin. And his friend is in jail, and his girlfriend ends up doing some things that she never thought she would do. [00:42:38] Speaker A: To find her next fix. [00:42:41] Speaker B: So it's less about the plot and more about the emotional descent and the psychological descent of these characters. But it leaves you feeling absolutely fucking gutted. And it makes an incredibly strong statement about the nature of. Of addiction and how it strips away everything, even down to your sense of self. So, obviously, addiction is a really big. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Theme in this, and it's not really about the drugs. Like, everybody in this film is addicted to something. So it's not just heroin. It's also, like, addicted to love or being seen or, like, dreams. [00:43:28] Speaker B: And. [00:43:32] Speaker A: Like, they're all chasing these things that they think are really possible. [00:43:37] Speaker B: So it's not really about the drugs. It's about the need to escape the reality that they're living in and, you know, again, loneliness, isolation. [00:43:48] Speaker A: Like, every single character is lonely. And, like, even when they're with other people, Like, Ellen Burstein's character talks to the TV like it's her friend and Jared Leto's character and his girlfriend's character. [00:44:07] Speaker B: Like, at first, they're incredibly in love and full of romantic connection. And as their addiction grows, it becomes very cold, transactional. And, you know, his friend that he's doing this drug operation with is having flashbacks of his mom and, like, this haunting feeling that he's letting her down. And at the end, each of them end up, like, totally alone anyway. Physically, emotionally, every way, they all end up alone. And the problem here, too, is that. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Everybody seems to think they're in control. That was what was missing from, you. [00:44:54] Speaker B: Know, the death of Mr. Lazarescu. He's not in control of anything. Like, these people are and are not in control. If Ellen Bernstein's characters had simply taken these amphetamines to lose weight, like normal, no big deal. But she doesn't do that. She starts abusing these pills because she gets addicted to it. And Jared Leto's character and his friends think that they can just, like, somehow recreationally do heroin. But, like, that illusion's gonna fall apart pretty fucking fast. So it really illustrates how addiction, like, can sneak up on somebody and it's. [00:45:45] Speaker A: It's almost like it's relatable, right, because they all have something that they want. Everyone has something that they want. And, you know, they may want to. [00:45:59] Speaker B: Like Jared Leto and his girlfriend, they want to build a future, and his friend wants to prove something himself. And Alan Bernstein's character just wants to feel important. And those dreams all get twisted when they try to take shortcuts or like, this system fails them in such a way. And so it's really more of a funeral for all their fantasies. And, you know, we're all chasing that sort of American dream and that and a fantasy of sorts of to make it and to feel like we've made it or be whatever, you know, and it varies from country to country, obviously, but in the United States, there's a very specific, you know, picture of what it looks like to be successful. And that's kind of what they're all after. And it's just kind of an illusion because they're never going to. To get there. So. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that. [00:47:07] Speaker B: Is basically the end of the episode. You know, one thing that ties all of these films together, other than simply the human condition and human dysfunction like we've talked about, is that. [00:47:23] Speaker A: All of these people These, you know, characters in these films have a pressure to be someone that they're not. [00:47:34] Speaker B: So that type of pressure or desire leads them to terrible ways of dealing with this, with these situations, first of all, and sort of illustrates that even though it looks like you may have it all on the outside, on the exterior, the interior of yourself and of your mind may not match that. And that is, I would say, normal. [00:48:14] Speaker A: To a certain degree. [00:48:16] Speaker B: Right. [00:48:18] Speaker A: A lot of us care deeply about. [00:48:20] Speaker B: How we are perceived by others in the world. And we all choose every day to wake up and put on a version. [00:48:32] Speaker A: Of ourselves that we think is the one that we'd like to display for the rest of the world. And, you know, it's sometimes it's just a lie. [00:48:45] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's, I guess, something that I've been thinking about as I've kind of put together. This list of films is just the. The facade of everything. Everything is a facade. Suburbia is a facade. Healthcare is a facade. Dreams can be a facade. Everything can be. And we never know what's really going on inside somebody's life or inside somebody's home or inside someone's head. Unless they choose to let you in to experience that. So thank you for listening to today's episode. I hope that you will take the time to watch some of these films. I love them all for different reasons, think that they're all very important for different reasons. And you may take away something from each of these that maybe I didn't. So please let me know if you do decide to watch any of these and let me know your thoughts. This podcast is part of the Morbidly Beautiful Network. Morbidly Beautiful is your home for horror. And if you love horror in any way, shape or form, then you are welcome with us at Morbidly Beautiful. You can find my content and content from many, many talented others, insightful film reviews and so much more. So please head on over to morbidlybeautiful.com to check us out and show us some love. You can find this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music. If you enjoyed the show, it would mean the world to me if you left me a five star review and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. For any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions or requests, you can email me at finalgirlon6mail.com or send me a message on Instagram finalgirl on 6. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I'll be back to talk to you very soon. Never Forget that I'm 6th Avenue's very own final girl, Sam.