Mean Streets

This movie is a lot: boys who pretend they are men becoming men, self hate becoming a weird fixation, the more you try to keep yourself in it comes out in weird ways, and having a friend who actually can’t fucking quit it.  I might rewatch this, as an initial watch I don’t think I caught everything I could. When I watch a movie I’m incredibly story based, for better or for worse I’m always focusing on; What is the movie saying? How is it saying it? What’s the characters? Etc. It’s a limited view on movies I know but it’s what I like so much of the medium, of any storytelling medium. The only time I have ever been able to juggle both has been Scorsese movies because his style demands my attention. I don’t know maybe it’s a mix of growing up watching his movies but watching his movies are the time I been able to lock in on actual camera, direction, editing and story. So seeing this one is like walking straight into a house where someone memories of being young are coming to life and burning. It burns up, runs around and expels in an explosion at the end leaving you confused, alarmed, burned, covered in ash but not enveloped by the remains.  This movie has a main character who is all about his image, his reputation so important it makes him repressed. But it spills out in irrational decisions, the sexual desire of wanting “inappropriate” relationships, the people he loves. Paired with the boyish nature of all his activities and friends this feels like a coming of age movie into being a Man. Yet they are men, men old enough, but they feel like boys. Charlie fascinates me, his catholic repression clear as day. It’s blinding, it’s a compass almost, he aims to be a saint in a way with his insistence on helping out because I think his want/attraction to the “unconventional” comes from the fact he relates and is repenting for them. He himself is not okay. (Actually everyone in this movie isn’t but the only person not pretending is Johnny and Teresa.) He takes this role as if he’s also “normal” when he is just as weird. A middle man for the misunderstood when he himself won’t let himself get caught being just like Johnny and Teresa because it’s shameful yet he loves them, he gets them. I love it. It’s catholic repressed good kid nightmare of a movie. I relate to Charlie, in a way, repression can make you go nuts. And if you can’t really be yourself, you’ll hear people out who aren’t usually liked for being themselves because someone gotta. You can’t be you but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a better person to someone else. Also who hasn’t had a bad friend they keep making excuses for?  The camera/direction on this is like watching a chicken hatch like wow this is where it happened. It’s seeing someone first groundwork, their origins even though it’s not his first movie you can see so much of how after it was done differently or just stylistic him. Scorsese is never dull, and when there is a quieter moment it’s the actors or the editing that pushes the rest through. It’s pure energy, idk how that’s done. It’s really interesting to me how that works. We have some fun shots where the camera is very much alive when you watch this movie, idk how else to describe it. It’s not an eye, it’s another being in the movie not for your sake but for the story itself. Idk if that’s on purpose or if it’s from the outcome of a smaller crew but the camera wasn’t just an eye it got knocked in the bar, tugged into fights, sat in the car. The camera on Charlie for that army guy homecoming was something so modern I snapped out of the movie in a weird way. Which leads me to my last bit: modernity. This movie editing, camera is modern. Idk how else to describe it, i don’t know film deeply. I couldn’t tell you anything other than how I feel when it comes to movies. It has moments that feel so modern I feel a weird jump in my brain or split there’s moments that take me out not because it’s bad but it just feels so recent. The editing shocks you effectively. It doesn’t crawl, just slows or picks up, jogging until it sprints at the very end making you wonder where the hell just happened. Jesus slow tf down.  Fascinating movie, I will watch it again.