"I have lost something"

 

Hitler -- Putin -- how do evil people get into positions of power?  I have a theory:  I think in human nature we can sometimes tend to mistake anger for strength, and arrogance for leadership ability.

We can think about this, and overcome the tendency to make these mistakes, and elect better people.

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The movie American Beauty came out in 1999.  I didn't see it then.  Having played it from Netflix a couple of times now, I kind of felt like -- you could write a term paper on that movie.

Watching it, you can sense underlying tensions -- and "over-lying" tensions, for that matter -- and also there's going to be tragedy and you're getting in that mode, but then there are a lot of funny moments.

        Sometimes something can be awful and funny at the same time.

No criticisms of this film come into my mind -- perfect, in what it sets out to express.

There are three movies I always think have no wasted space at all -- everything just clicks:

Annie Hall

When Harry Met Sally...

Body Heat.

We can add to that list:

Sweet Smell of Success

American Beauty.

        Sweet Smell of Success is almost like a song in that -- it has rhythm and urgency, the viewer is inexorably drawn in -- you're just going to dance, or keep time to it (figuratively speaking) -- right up to the final note, or frame.  

        You Tube has so many videos now about Narcissistic Abuse and Gaslighting -- and when you watch Sweet Smell of Success, what the Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster characters are doing exemplifies what the narcissistic abuse and gaslighting videos talk about.  (That's it!  There it is!)

        Do something rotten -- make self appear as the victim.

        Do something rotten -- make self appear as the victim....

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American Beauty is -- people trying to live, trying to find themselves, people trying to find the courage to be themselves, and to live.

        People B.S.-ing, trying to cover up their insecurities by belittling others.

The language the high-school girls use, at times! -- Hearing it, I'm like the Kevin Spacey character when he hears the price of marijuana -- "Things have changed since 1973."

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