Last halloween my best friend and I got really obsessed with the idea of the Purge, as in that horrible Ethan Hawke horror movie. We ended up making purge lists which are exactly what they sound like, lists of people to purge from our lives. Mine started out with three people but has been growing pretty quickly since the election as the people in my life slowly reveal their slimy lizard faces (someone tried to tell me that there was some nuance to supporting Trump but hatred and bigotry is always just hatred and bigotry). Anyways this is a roundabout way of getting to my resolution in 2017: purge your friends!
The Godfather II
Everyone knows a Fredo, a dude with a weird hairline that would trade you in for a pack of chiclets. The Godfather trilogy is a little cliche and populous but it’s also one of those movies everyone pretends they’ve watched even when they haven’t. The Godfather’s plot is driven by rival mob families while the Godfather II’s threat comes from a betrayal from inside the family.
Kings of Summer
First of all, everything from the design to the trailer makes it really hard to take this movie seriously — it looks like serious prepubescent indie bullshit but it’s not. The impetus of the movie comes from the main character’s relationship with his father that pushes him and his friends to runaway and live in a glorified makeshift treehouse in the woods. Their euphoria is fleeting as the novelty wears off and is replaced with teenage hormones and frustration.
Capote
In Cold Blood is a seminal work for me because it scared the shit out of me and is mostly to blame for my fear of towns and rural settings. Something that the book examines (and which is less clear in movie adaptations) is how two people would be unable to commit a heinous murderous rampage alone but together could feed off and encourage the worst in each other.
Ghost World
Is Enid the worst movie friend ever? Possibly. Most of what I remember about this movie is how mad it made me and how shitty of a friend Enid was. Part of my anger probably came from the too tough to watch Buscemi romance/sex scene but a big part of it was just that she’s a huge dick. Enid is a typical embittered teenager who takes it out on her best friend and the only person that can tolerate her, Rebecca. The movie is a blur to me (probably a coping mechanism) but when Enid gets on the bus at the end of the movie I was mostly just glad that she would stop ruining the lives of everyone around her.
Film column by Tamim Alnuweiri. Follow her at @tamimalnuweiri.
