Current Events
- Episode aired Nov 6, 2012
- 5m
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1.48: Current Events by Neil LaBute: Nice to have some bitter, cynicism in the series – particularly when it is on the money
Neil LaBute is not the shyest of men I'd guess, and certainly he does not seem to hold back much in his writing. So it is here in a monologue that it dripping with disdain for its own central character. She speaks of not really having an American experience yet, although connecting to the oft-spouted ideals that we hear about America, the American Dream, and so on. However her distance from that is shown by her constant mobile phone touching, her complaints about bills ("cable" most notably in her list of utilities), and other such things that show her to be very much the product of struggle and work, rather than a part of that culture.
I don't mean to join LaBute in talking this character down, because I think a lot of my generation and younger feel the same way – that although really we know that we have to work hard and pull ourselves up in a culture of self-improvement through effort, it really is much easier to complain about the world, see ourselves as special or victims, and go back to browsing the internet while a HBO box set plays on the television – and then feel hard done by for anything that interferes with that. So although I am at the other end of the generation from her, I can relate to this and as such LaBute's writing seems bang on the money because it is cutting and cruel but yet also seems mostly accurate as dialogue coming from this person at this time.
The My America series has some pieces that have been hopeful, or preachy, or personal – not to say any of these are not good things, but I did enjoy a slice of good old fashioned bitter cynicism here. This is LaBute's second film in the series, but both places are well justified.
I don't mean to join LaBute in talking this character down, because I think a lot of my generation and younger feel the same way – that although really we know that we have to work hard and pull ourselves up in a culture of self-improvement through effort, it really is much easier to complain about the world, see ourselves as special or victims, and go back to browsing the internet while a HBO box set plays on the television – and then feel hard done by for anything that interferes with that. So although I am at the other end of the generation from her, I can relate to this and as such LaBute's writing seems bang on the money because it is cutting and cruel but yet also seems mostly accurate as dialogue coming from this person at this time.
The My America series has some pieces that have been hopeful, or preachy, or personal – not to say any of these are not good things, but I did enjoy a slice of good old fashioned bitter cynicism here. This is LaBute's second film in the series, but both places are well justified.
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- bob the moo
- Feb 17, 2015
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