Shin Godzilla

Shin Godzilla, released 2016 and directed by Hideaki Anno, is quite a good movie. It has the look and usage of good old animatronics in terms of the Godzilla model that was used for the film. The film being a response to the 2011 earthquakes, paints Godzilla as something more of a force of magnanimous nature. It was as if the footages shown throughout the film of the wake of Godzilla’s wake and subsequent attack felt as if they could have been on the spot in lieu of the real earthquakes that hit Japan back then. This shows just how powerful metaphors could be, whether it be in the form of Godzilla or others, films could really empower the imagination to help reflect the reality of today in the forms of grand fictional stories such as this film. Shin Godzilla stands as a good metaphor for what could be lost and what could be rebuilt in the process of tackling the great monsters that constantly attack and hound us in our day to day lives. There was something powerful with the way with which the devastation was framed upon the screen. A real feeling of dread and loss was shown throughout the evisceration in the path of Godzilla himself. There’s a huge conundrum showed with the way that the world reacts towards threats unimaginable and with the way that it deals plaintively with the threats we cannot hope to fight in accordance towards the capacity with which we could fight. Here we are shown the aftermath and trembling face of calamity. Calamity so unprecedented that we really cannot hope to out muster the need of having to deal with this danger of having to confront the losses of the things that we ought to face in the sheer force of nature of Godzilla. Adding to that the means of being able to look the forces of nature just goes to show how powerless we can feel at the disaster that could emanate from all the terror being faced by the people in distress from the attack and rise of Godzilla. The powerful metaphor here as well would be our ingenuity and the resilience of the people in being able to fend off the terror and the loss that people could face in times of great disaster and terror. There in that sense we are able to face the reality that could be so infinitesimally harsh in being able to degrade the dangers that we are facing. Thus in Godzilla it was the reality of having to deal with the reality of such a creature and the power that comes from Godzilla and the dangers of the outcome of the destruction of the many lives. The lives of which have been affected greatly by the sheer destructive forces. Godzilla here is also seen as a retaliation of nature. Through the sheer tampering of mankind with nature itself, nature tends to mess back against us. Thus there is a sense of a need to survive beyond the many atrocities and problems we have caused against nature.

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Schizopolis

Steven Soderbergh’s experimental comedy film from 1996 proves itself to be quite jarring at first and would really make you think about the satirical approach it has given towards our modern society. Since it doesn’t possess a linear plot and only has a skeletal frame for its narrative, I find that it stands out more so than other satirical films. Fletcher Munson’s character, an office employee of a company likened to Scientology, stands tall as the one that shows one of the film’s overarching themes. That would be the lack of communication. This is highly shown in how he interacts with his wife. I find this quite fascinating and prevalent in modern society today, as with how we are with our technology. As he was with his work and we are with our technology, we begin to see that there is a large lack in communication amongst many people of today. There’s this sense of alienation and the sense of loss that’s transpiring with the characters. A feeling of losing oneself is in that cathartic adulation throughout the film. It was directed in the sense that you question the motif of the characters. There indeed you find the great need for the movie to progress through the plot as it moves through the psyche of all the characters involved. There we could see the feeling of detachment that was rising in the plot of the characters as they all moved and waded through towards the multi-faceted ending of the film. Soderbergh speaks to his audience in the film through the means of showing the lack of communication that could stem into everyday life. There I was able to relate with how this could poignantly be able to affect the way in which we live. This is how the world today is in a way. With our social media usage and the means by how it is able to infiltrate our sense of communication and thus often rendering it to grow into miscommunication. That’s the kind of communication problem that is being shown by Soderbergh in his film. It’s done well as there is a disconnection between Fletcher and his wife and subsequently with the other characters in the film. Here it is seen then how we should be able to better ourselves when it comes to the importance of being able to communicate well and let ourselves prosper in being able to communicate what we hope to convey in a manner that is both beneficial for ourselves and for others. Another part of that is the capacity to be able to listen as well as we could convey. For listening is just as important a segment of communication as being able to give out what we hope to say. That’s the importance of communication that the movie hopes to give towards their viewers even many years later. Thus Soderbergh was able to craft something great out of this and was then able to show the importance of being able to communicate properly with a large number of the important people in our lives in the hopes to not only understand them but to also understand ourselves as well.

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Futureless Things

At first glance, Futureless Things seems like a light movie, but after watching three movies in this class, I should have expected a twist. At first, it has a little sweet romance in the beginning in the movie, and slowly, we see the pattern that the movie is structured in a way that a store clerk leads a mini-story. These mini-stories then all connect together that affect the main story of the movie.

This movie also tackles a couple of themes or issues that are prevalent in the Korean culture.

Racism

Currently, there exists an unspoken racism in South Korea against North Koreans. Koreans make up 96% of the country, making them one of the least diverse countries. Since they have limited interactions with other ethnicities, this could explain the discrimination that they practice.

This was depicted in the movie when a homeless man was harassing the store clerk (Min-hee). The store clerk is ethnically North Korean but became a South Korean citizen. The homeless man discriminated Min-hee in different ways:

1. He used the North Korean accent on the store clerk.

2. When the man wasn’t able to pay for the remaining 10 cents, he even called her “commies” and told her to “tell that guy Kim Jong Un (who is the current leader of North Korea) to pay it back.”

3. After a while, he came back to the store and frantically started grabbing items from the store. When asked by the North Korean store clerk, the man said that North Korea is firing a nuclear missile. He was worried that when war broke out, South Koreans would be wiped out, innocent people would be killed, and women would get raped. It was quite obvious at this point that it wasn’t true at all.

Despite the store clerk being a South Korean citizen, there still exists a discrimination against those who are of North Korean ethnicity.

This shows that even the beggar from South Korea thinks that North Koreans who are living decently are below him

Language/Literacy

In Korea, not many Koreans can speak English well. Being literate in English is a prestige because it signifies that the person is rich or well-educated.

English is taught in public schools but the best English speakers are those who can afford an education (usually abroad) that can teach them how to speak in English well. It is very common in Korea for parents to send their children to another country to learn English.

As seen in Ki-Sun’s part, he is trying to learn English during store hours. He was caught by the store owner and reprimanded him how store hours shouldn’t be used to learn English.

Ki-Sun was also discriminated by one of the customers from the store. The mother and her daughter came into the store speaking in English, but when he tried to talk to them in English, they ignored him instead of replying. When the mother was going to pay, she talked to him in Korean, knowing well enough that the clerk tried to talk to her in English.

There is a discrimination in Korea against those who are not capable of speaking in English well.

Plastic Surgery Culture

Plastic surgery has become a culture in Korea. It is very common for women to enhance a certain part on their face.

This was shown in the movie in 2 different parts.

First, it was during Sung-joon’s (the DJ) part. We can see how the woman was looking for food that has the least calories or at least food with calories that is below a certain calorie amount. After a few while, she came back and started grabbing anything her eye can see.

The second time this theme was tackled was in Ki-Sun’s (the person trying to learn English during store hours) part. 3 women who were wearing hijab came to the store. One woman removed a part of her hijab, showing how she recently underwent a nose surgery, and asked Ki-Sun whether she looked like a Korean celebrity.

These scenes show how there is an obsession to look like a Korean idol. A Korean idol is typically skinny, fair-skinned, has a small nose, double-eyelids and a prominent jaw.

Diversity of Religion

In Hyun-soo’s (actor) part, we encountered a man who buys a lottery ticket and does all kinds of prayers before scratching it. Everytime he wins, he makes use of his winnings to buy another lottery ticket. He turns to different gods for them to bless him with a win. But when he stopped buying tickets, he neglected the paraphernalia he used to pray to different gods. He only turns to a religion when he needs something in return.

The third man the Hyun-soo met was the typical door-to-door religious person we meet. We feel compelled to listen to them out of respect for their religion.

The last person however, has an interesting outlook at religion. He makes use of philosophy of religion to tell Hyun-soo what cigarette he wants to buy.

There is an equal distribution of the major religions in Korea. They are able to coexist with each other. Any religion is widely accepted. According to korea.net, Korea is a country where all the world’s major religions, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam, peacefully coexist with shamanism.

Futureless Things (2014)

A lesbian couple, a gambler, an out-of-school youth, a mysterious woman with magical powers and a North Korean escapee – these were just some of the characters that built the weird and surreal plot of Kim Kyung-mook’s third feature film, Futureless Things (2014). I was extremely excited to watch this particular movie because of my fascination with Korean culture and media, and I was pleasantly surprised with how different it was compared to the mainstream stuff that I usually consume and enjoy. The humor covers a wide range of blunt to dark to just plain dumb, and it does a great job of making fun of the characters and their issues without reducing them down to their Korean cultural stereotypes. The plot itself is made up of a bunch of subplots that feature different characters that don’t seem to be connected in any way. There is no obvious unified narrative, but that doesn’t stop you from trying to figure out what all the characters – who cross paths in one way or another – have in common. The fact that all the events happen in the same small convenience store immediately set me off trying to find clues that might tie it all up together. Why a convenience store? What was so important about it that the whole movie had to be set there? It was the one question that I couldn’t avoid. Looking back, I realize that the setting of such an ordinary, seemingly boring place where anyone from anywhere could come in was a great way to emphasize the futureless-ness of the individuals in the film. Despite coming from different backgrounds, they all seemed to be pining for one thing, and these things were perfectly common, normal things to desire. That could have been the one unifying factor for all them – the fact that they wanted something better.

The title of the movie itself lends a hand in further understanding the situations of all the characters. While they may not really know each other all that well, they do all work in the same place and have a handful of similar experiences, the main being employees at the convenience store. They don’t really have much of a choice in most cases and are forced to stick with their jobs until further notice. They are stripped of their agency and cannot act nearly as freely as they’d like, making them more akin to being used as “things” instead of actual people. This sad reality is something that most of them seem to have been enduring since before the events of the movie started, and it makes you wonder if it’ll ever be any different. They continue to wish for something better, but the hopelessness of the characters about their own lives and the discontinuity of the subplots seem to point to something futureless instead.

Personally, I’m not a fan of leaving loose ends untied. I don’t like not knowing or having at least a suggestion of what might happen in the end. Futureless Things stays true to its title by leaving its audience completely puzzled as to how and why everything was connected somehow. As much as I tried to find some sort of explanation for all the random people fading into the screen and dancing while flashing creepy smiles at the camera, I really couldn’t figure it out. I guess we’ll never really know what happens to any of them in the future. Maybe they themselves don’t know either.

Shin Godzilla

Growing up I never watched any of the famous Godzilla movies even though I know there are a lot of them. Yet, I still know what they are about. Every time someone mentions “Godzilla”, I would automatically interpret it in my mind that they’re talking about a movie wherein a monster who will attack a city. How do I know this? It’s probably because Godzilla is one of those popular and mainstream movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and MCU’s Avengers in our generation. Regardless if you’ve actually watched any of these movies from beginning to end, you would know the gist of the stories or who the main characters are. So, when I read in the syllabus that we’re watching Godzilla, I didn’t research about unlike for the other films.

When the film was shown in class, I was honestly disappointed and shocked. No, the disappointment wasn’t because my guess was wrong about the monster being in the movie. Shin Godzilla is, of course, mainly about a monster who attacked the cities of Japan and was fought off by the Japanese armies. I was disappointed because of how the monster looked like. Considering that it’s a 2016 film and the technological advancements in film are at peak in this decade, it is just right that I’m disappointed about it because it looked like a monster from a Godzilla movies in the early 90s. I mean look at the monster from this film…

and compare it with the looks of this monster from the 2014 film, Godzilla.

Other than the looks of Godzilla, everything else was mediocre or even less. The plot was the typical city-is-under-attack-by-a-monster structure: A monster is accidentally created because of some experiment or chemicals. It attacks the cities and puts everyone in danger, and some important character unfortunately dies from it. In this case, the prime minister was killed and a replacement was needed immediately. The hunk or good looking actor in the film is usually the one who saves everyone in the end and he usually has a pretty girl beside him all throughout the movie that may or may not be his love interest. Although this is obviously mediocre, I wasn’t disappointed because it was what I was expecting from a Godzilla movie. If it was different and had something unique to offer, it would’ve been popular in social media and I would’ve heard about it one or way or another but I haven’t. It wasn’t good. It was okay.

After watching that movie, I don’t think I’ll choose to watch other Godzilla movies in the future just like how I haven’t in the past. I still don’t find it interesting because it’s still the same plot in every movie. The only things they change are the setting or country, actors and actresses for the film, and the look of Godzilla. So, if someone asks me if they should watch Shin Godzilla, I’ll just say they will be wasting their time for me [no offense].

Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You is one of the films that I thoroughly enjoyed watching in class. The film pokes fun at capitalism and the lengths at which people are willing to compromise ethically to maximize efficiency and therefore profit. The film also depicts the dark reality present in modern day America, where, although racism is no longer acceptable, it is still prevalent.

One of the things I loved about the movie was that it was able to convey its message while not sacrificing any of the entertainment value. Sorry to Bother You is a film that, in my opinion, is great on its own even without the message that it tries to convey. As with Repo Man, I feel that Sorry to Bother You is a very entertaining film that is all kinds of weird and funny.

The story of Cash becoming successful and rising up from poverty is some sort of a feel-good with a twist type of thing. Seeing him finally become successful and financially capable to the point that he can afford to pay off the mortgage of his Uncle’s house felt amazing and almost heartwarming. However, the things he had to sacrifice in order to reach this level of success was something that ruined or prevented me from being able to fully be happy for what Cash has achieved; he sacrificed his relationship with his girlfriend, co-workers and his friends and betrayed their trust for, in essence, money.

This portrayal of Cash’s life is very realistic in the sense that you might find yourself in that situation one day. There may come a point in time that you might have to choose between your relationship with your friends and something that will benefit your self-interest.

I also feel like the movie is able to represent the way capitalism works through RegalView. In the movie, only a few people or the elite become the Power Callers and reap the financial benefits while the rest are stuck as regular telemarketers who struggled to even survive. Similarly, in our capitalistic society, I feel like only a few people earn truly large salaries while the majority of the workers at the lower end of the corporation receive wages that are very disproportionate to their superiors.

One of the things the movie used to poke fun at capitalism was the human-horse hybrids or the “equisapiens”. In the movie, Steve Lift illegally conducts experiments that violate the human rights of his workers which turned them into human-horse hybrids in order to create a workforce that never tired and more efficient. After discovering these grotesque experiments, Cash exposes what Steve Lift is doing in order to try and get people to stop him. However, society does the opposite and even praises Steve Lift’s experiments, which result in him becoming even richer. These events poke fun at how capitalistic societies sometimes are willing to almost compromise if not compromise human rights if there is a chance for them to become wealthier.

Another issue that the film addresses is the racism in America. The film depicts, through the different usage of “white speaking voice”, that white people are more trusted by society than black people. This can be seen in the different scenes where it is explained to Cash that using his “white speaking voice” was necessary in order to succeed and gain sales from his telemarketing job. His co-worker explains that the “white speaking voice” is necessary because his normal voice sounds desperate for money. Another scene that addresses the racism in America is where Cash was expected by Steve Lift to know how to rap just because he’s black.

All-in-all, I really enjoyed the film Sorry to Bother You. There were some scenes that were simply funny and the absurdity of the human-horse hybrids definitely spiced things up.

Selling a Dream

There are movies that have a very smooth flow and understandable transition from one scene to another, and Sorry To Bother You is not one of them! It takes you from the mundane in one scene and to the extraordinary in another, and before you know it, you’re already questioning what you’re watching. The film gives an interesting point on capitalism and its allure to the hopeful.

The movie opens in a scene with an image where the office is illuminated with yellow light in a sea of blue, giving the idea that this job is the hope that Cassius needs for his dreams. It establishes the theme of capitalism selling a dream; a dream where people are happy, rich, and worry-free. From the beginning of the movie, a commercial pops out for worry-free and this comes right in time for the desperation of Cassius. Similar ad placements of Worry Free are seen in areas where people who are in the poverty line reside in. The company knows who to target and it’s the people who want to have the life that is being sold to them through the advertisements and commercials and sadly, people fall for it. Looking at the job of Cassius, a telemarketer, we see him being told that if he does good, he will become a Power Caller, the best of the best. In order to reach that, he has to sell people encyclopedias as, as stated in number 5 of the script, a solution to their problems. As he sells a dream to his sellers, he is also being sold to the idea of being rich. In Wolf Of Wall street fashion, Cassius mimics the iconic montage and celebrations showing that the way up the ladder is fun and exciting. The cherry on top is the black person who has no name because simply put, he becomes the dream of the black people, like Cassius, that anyone can be that person. Once Cassius gets to the top and meets the CEO, he sees himself in a room filled with orgies lit in red and there he is, in a room lit in yellow – same scene as the beginning but now highlights his despair.

From the get-go, it is far from a serious movie and it intends to be that way. Much like the news in Sorry To Bother You, there are always depressing headlines in newspapers and in the television, yet no one is listening. Life is depressing enough so why will I watch the even more depressing reality being showed on the television? This is why I enjoyed the stylistic comedy that the movie uses, because Boots Riley knows nobody wants to listen to that. Violence, humor, or anything that is not normal is the way to go–as portrayed in this movie. What they find interesting in the TV they are watching, applies to what we enjoy too. The only time the people listen to the TV is either through the violent program or the soda can being thrown and Cassius and draws blood on him. Who cares about the poor being used by Worry-Free or the unpaid workers of the telemarketer company? No one, and Cassius knows this. The only time the people listened is when Cassius himself joins the game show “I Got the Shit Kicked Out of Me” and get himself beat up. Just when he was literally covered in poop, a symbolism of him being full of shit due to his use of the “white voice,” he was then able to show his video and only then did people listen to him. This hits hard to me because as I graduate and enter into the working world, I would always see enticing offers and people telling me to climb up the ladder and create a name for myself. They would always show people from my alma mater who are now esteemed bosses in the company as an inspiration for me. In a sense, even they are selling me a dream. A dream that I can be rich and be a part of the higher percentage of society. But once I get there, maybe the view isn’t so good. Furthermore, a lot of people would always tell me that “I’m an Atenean” and I should be this or that. Much like Cassius, he is being told to be a certain criteria in order to go up the ranks. He had to be someone that he isn’t in order to get up the ranks and even as far as almost losing his original voice. Even in the scene with the CEO where he is told that he knows to rap just because of his color. A lot of expectations are being thrown at us and we have no choice but to follow these standards. What they are selling could be enticing but maybe we all have to take a step back and check if we are being sold a dream or being forced to buy one.

Repo Man (1984)

I’m going to preface this entry by saying that I found it extremely hard to follow Repo Man (1984). Sometimes it was entertaining, but most of the time it was just plain confusing. There was just a hell of a lot going on. As a first-time watcher, I struggled to make sense of the truly peculiar scenes and bizarre plot devices. Perhaps if I see the film a second time, I’ll be able to grasp how everything was connected. When I got home from class, I spent half an hour reading articles about the film. Was there something I had missed? Why did everyone seem to like it so much? I definitely was not aware of its cult classic status before watching it, but even after I found out that many people hold this film near and dear to their hearts, I couldn’t force myself to feel the same way.

First of all, the film’s protagonists were not my favorite. They weren’t too bad, but they weren’t that great, either. I never felt like there was any real attempt to get the audience to appreciate any of the character’s motives, or sympathize with them at all – it was a very “what you see is what you get” kind of thing. At the very least, I would have appreciated having at least one person to root for. Sadly, Otto’s (Emilio Estevez) character really reminded me of a lot of annoying people I’ve encountered in my life. He just kind of went along with everything that was happening, never taking time to stop and think about the potential rewards or consequences of his actions. He was funny at times, but only because he was really dumb. The people in Otto’s life weren’t any better – his parents gave away all their money to a televangelist, his now ex-girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend, and his best friend wants to get sushi and not pay for it.

The film is ambitious in the sense that it tries to incorporate the punk rock scene with automobile repossession men and aliens. It’s definitely not your run-of-the-mill production – Repo Man is unconventional in the truest sense of the word. It even refuses to show us branded food and drink – Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) asks Otto if he wants to get a drink, and emblazoned on the six-packs they purchase is exactly that. A “drink.” I guess there is something to be said about the film blatantly ignoring any commercially-successful formulas. It’s hilariously low-budget, and it takes a lot of risks.

In the film, the government is searching for a Chevy Malibu, because it contains evidence about alien life. There is a $10,000 reward to find the car – and all the repo men go wild. Otto and Bud’s main competition are the Rodriguez brothers. Ultimately, there’s this wild final standoff, which somehow ends with Otto abandoning his haphazard relationships and earthly life in the famed Chevy Malibu, to presumably see some aliens. I really identified with everyone else looking up at him in complete and utter bewilderment.

Velvet Goldmine (1998)

The more I think about Velvet Goldmine (1998), the more I love it.

The film’s narrative is non-chronological, driven by Arthur Stuart’s (Christian Bale) investigation on the whereabouts of Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a glam rock superstar from the 1970s. Brian Slade’s life is slowly revealed to us by people who were part of it, namely his manager, his ex-wife Mandy (Toni Collette), and his close collaborator and romantic interest Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor). This structure allowed the film to avoid having to explain absolutely everything. Some mysteries remain unsolved, and we’re left with many unanswered questions, but there’s a certain elegance in which the film pulls off its slightly open-ended conclusion.

It is revealed later on in the film that Arthur himself was heavily involved in the glam rock era. We are able to explore Arthur’s sexual awakening and witness how he is able to accept himself when he sees Brian Slade being so unapologetically himself. Glam rock was everything to Arthur, making him feel less alone in the world, like he might actually belong somewhere. There’s a stark contrast between Arthur as a glam rock groupie and Arthur as an investigative writer – present-day Arthur definitely isn’t sneaking out of the house in skin tight t-shirts anymore. But the universe that glam rock created will stay with him forever, reminding him of a time that changed him forever, but is long gone.

I think it’s the same for a lot of us. We cling to music, films, TV shows, and books from our formative years, because no matter how cringe-worthy we may find them now, they helped make us who we are. Being a weird theatre kid in elementary school, I always felt like I wasn’t as cool as everyone else. High School Musical becoming popular was a huge deal for me. Whenever I hear a song from the High School Musical trilogy I immediately feel like I’m being transported. Looking back, though, everything that I thought was a big deal back then seems so trivial now. There are things I figured out that I never thought I could figure out. Nevertheless, I enjoy re-experiencing that world, if only for a few minutes. And when you find people who also grew up watching, listening to, and pretty much worshipping the same content that you did, there’s just this instant connection. These things define generations. But how exactly do we choose our heroes?

Velvet Goldmine explores this through the rise and fall of a pop culture icon. Brian Slade’s persona was almost entirely built upon other people’s ideas of him. He was the glam rock star of our wildest dreams. He was everything we wanted him to be, until he wasn’t, and people started to move on. When we meet Tommy Stone, who is allegedly Brian Slade’s brand-new stage persona, he’s unfamiliar, as he isn’t played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers. This suggests that Brian Slade has truly dissipated, now only accessible through our memories and our record players. Velvet Goldmine did not intend to invalidate our experiences of pop culture. If anything, the film celebrates pop culture’s powerful impact on who we become, but it does not neglect to highlight its transient nature.

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Perhaps My Own Private Idaho (1991) is not the type of film that can be fully understood after the first watch. After all, it’s largely told from the perspective of a narcoleptic.

I enjoyed the film, especially in its quietest, rawest moments. What I will discuss in this post leaves out a ton of other elements I may have neglected to piece together. There were, of course, the bizarre clients that Mike and Scott encountered – the guy who really enjoyed having a clean apartment, the rich lady who needed to get warmed up, that man who did a dance with a lamp. There are the references to Shakespeare that I didn’t pick up on, but read about online. There is the film’s legacy as a radical hallmark of queer cinema, given its historical context. What I took away from my first encounter with My Own Private Idaho, though, was a stunningly genuine depiction of loneliness that never really goes away, of an endless, fruitless search for belonging that is all too familiar. Through this entry, I hope to look into these musings.

For me, the film did not have an identifiable climax – we were all just sort of drifting along with protagonists Mike Waters (River Phoenix) and Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves) as they went through their lives, looking for love or escape or acceptance – but never truly being able to grasp it. My Own Private Idaho is densely layered, jumping back and forth between harsh reality and abstract dream sequences. Mike’s narcoleptic episodes constantly disrupt the plot, often neglecting to clearly show us how we moved from Point A to Point B. Sometimes it feels as though everything and nothing is happening all at once, mirroring Mike’s narcolepsy and framing the narrative through his consciousness (or unconsciousness).

What does become increasingly clear is Mike’s longing for love in the purest sense of the word. Abandoned by his mother when he was a child, Mike is constantly seeking comfort, a place to call home. In his dreams, he is haunted by old home movies that we’re not even sure exist. I’m pretty sure I heard a collective “aww” from the class while we watched the campfire scene, in which Mike professes his love for Scott. “I just want to kiss you, man,” he says, and it’s heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. It’s tender, filled with longing, and it doesn’t ask for anything in return.

Sadly, Mike and Scott come from two different worlds. Scott is the rebellious heir to an elite family. He’s a hustler for the heck of it, while Mike is poor, and just trying to get by. While on the hunt to find Mike’s mother, the two protagonists somehow find themselves in Rome. Much to Mike’s despair, Scott falls in love with an Italian woman, marries her, and ultimately abandons Mike and the other hustlers once he is able to claim his inheritance. Was a love story between Mike and Scott doomed from the start? Possibly. But this does not subtract from the pain Mike feels as he comes to terms with the fact that no amount of unrequited love can bridge the gap between their two worlds