thomas

i chose mount rushmore cuz to live in a country where you can take an ugly old mountain and put faces on it, faces of great americans who did so much to make our country super great, well that makes me, rebecca leeman, proud to be an american.

the prosciutto fortress was such a great visual gag

i feel like a broken record at this point but todd solondz has done it again! this might be his strongest script, as well as the most relevant. the last 10 minutes hurt me to my core. “don’t be. your movies a hit,” might be one of the most impactful final lines in a movie that i’ve seen.

“if you can forgive and forget or forgive and not forget… when can you forget and not forgive?” this is like having all the right ingredients for a cake but the outside is burnt and the inside is raw. it stumbles over its on feet over and over again, and doesn’t reach the level of happiness. even on its own, its just disappointing. the themes of guilt and forgiveness could’ve been so much stronger. i mean, you have mark wiener, who was a neglectful dad to dawn yet that’s not explored at all. even acknowledging him not feeling guilty would have been interesting. also, the moral conflict between characters about who is worthy of forgiveness was interesting but again, so half-baked. also, some characters’ arcs had little-to-nothing to do with the concept, unlike happiness. it also didn’t have the grungy, taboo tone that i love about todd solondz’ filmography. overall, pretty disappointing and i probably won’t rewatch it any time soon.