Can anyone with expertise or understanding please explain? In Im Thinking of Ending Things (134 minutes), Jake (Jesse Plemons) drives Louisa (Jesse Buckley) through snow-covered country roads to meet his parents at their remote farm. Its kind of about how you grow up and curiosityespecially curiosity about systems and societal functionsis not welcomed. Interesting view into the life of a boy who just never caught a break. State Wire: Affordability Limits MAs Higher-Ed Attainment Goals, So Much For Contracts: State Report Blasts MBTA Contractor. They are as uneasy with the past as they are nervous about the future. We didnt want anything to seem like it was supposed to speak to some general moral or lesson, [but to] just let the mood and the vibe point in those directions instead we couldve very easily ruined the film with just a few lines of dialogue, I think, and Eric was very commandeering about us not doing that.. Bukowski's Ham on Rye and the Los Angeles Novel. Ham on Rye can be taken as an allegory for middle-class suburban life in America, but its got added value as a potent mood piece, accomplished with a bare minimum of means. But what once had to burn or perish can now simply vanish between clicks, and without even the slightest hint of ceremony. Cinematic didacticism has given way to filmmakers content to raise questions they wont or cant answer. This was a book I would rather not have read. has successfully conjured up a cinematic space where all those aforementioned experiences have been quite purposefully blended together, forming a sunlit anxiety dream of a generic suburban upbringing. But things like that were very important [to me]. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Written in Bukowski's characteristically straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. A stylish twist on the end-of-high-school dramedy, Tyler Taormina 's " Ham on Rye " offers the ethereal echoes of "The Virgin Suicides" with the gossamer veil of a humid summer's day . Whether his thoughts are good/bad, right or wrong, he said them! [3] It begins with Chinaski's early memories. works to give young adulthood some of its ceremony back. Costume designer: Niki Firanek No. Carson Lund's superb cinematography, apparently influenced by photographers like William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, picks out boys riding skateboards, borrowing Dad's Volvo, and talking about the crucial [] 1985. I was exploring that context.. Afterwards, you get a sense of the sadness and defeat of the people who are left behind. Carson Lunds superb cinematography, apparently influenced by photographers like William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, picks out boys riding skateboards, borrowing Dads Volvo, and talking about the crucial importance of boning, like its a philosophy, like theyre the first ones ever to have had so original a thought. Once the kids arrive at the deli, where a slightly older guy in a bandana looks out at them surlily and grinds meat in the back room, a strange coupling ritual begins, part pairing-off-at-a-disco, part being-picked-for-basketball. But what once had to burn or perish can now simply vanish between clicks, and without even the slightest hint of ceremony. Its roots go that far down, and spread that far wide under the strange earth of the American suburb. Football is difficult for him, but he enjoys the violence that comes with it. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Not at all. She was 12, and now shes 18 going on 19 The fun little tidbit I like to say about working with her on these projects is that I only realized during the rehearsals, which was a months-long process, that the character of Haley in Ham on Rye is actually the same character as Poll Flowerpot from Suburban Legends but grown up in Suburban Legends, her curiosity always brings her closer to other peoplethats what her youth afforded to her. Ham on Rye is not obviously political, but it is also deeply political, pointing out, in lazy, absurdist, carelessly clever frames a deep-set American wrongness that was quietly murmuring away long before the current blowhard moment, and that will continue long after. His writing skills make it empowering. [1] Scenes outside of Los Angeles show Chinaski as an intruder, as with an early scene where he and his family are chased out of an orange grove. Nothing but alienation. this is going to be fun to shootits like shooting a bunch of still lifes, , he continued. JavaScript is disabled. Always an outsider. This type of description does not venerate or idealize the city, a contrast to other so-called "Los Angeles Novels". First time director Tyler Taorminas landscape in Ham on Rye (85 minutes) is both smaller and larger than Kaufmans Im Thinking of Ending Things. But now, you see her curiosity throughout the first act of. But what kind of dance is this? Like a hoagie sandwich filled with meat and lettuce, thats a quintessential American suburban item., Over 100 Cast Members and No Permits: How I Shot, in Los Angeles, the films faceless neighborhood locations were stolen from various spots across that cityso for example. She flees. . The post-facto rationalizations they concoct for their hostility, however, involve his inability to play sports and his being viscerally revolted by cruelty to animals, the latter being one of the favorite past-times of neighborhood men and boys alike. among other publications, he began writing reviews for our paper earlier this summerthough I first met him long before that, in 2014, when we had a conversation at the Harvard Film Archive regarding the films of director Wojciech J. What's immediately delightful about Ham on Rye is the ghostly sense of escalation. Mailboxes were very hard to find. Like his previous autobiographical novels, Ham on Rye centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, this time during his childhood and teenage years. In my opinion it was like a "time to grow the fuck up" wake up call for Charles. The story showed the evolution of the child into a man. Jake tries to persuade Louisa to spend the night at the house. This study guide consists of approx. I doubt if it would be published in modern times (first published in 1982). Screenwriters: Tyler Taormina, Eric Berger fandango. Original Language: English. So to both make and spruce up the required disclosure, let me say that I not only consider Carson Lund a close friend, but that I also consider myself a dedicated fanof his film criticism (which also includes notes for the programs of the Harvard Film Archive), his music, and now of course his filmmaking practice, which in addition to his cinematography for Taorminas feature also includes a short film that he produced and directed in 2016, Starr Farm, and a screenplay that he co-wrote and hopes to direct sometime in the near future. She was 12, and now shes 18 going on 19 The fun little tidbit I like to say about working with her on these projects is that I only realized during the rehearsals, which was a months-long process, that the character of Haley in, is actually the same character as Poll Flowerpot from, , her curiosity always brings her closer to other peoplethats what her youth afforded to her. As a prequel to Bukowski's previous novels, Ham on Rye depicts the origin and development of many of the reoccurring themes of his work as well as the persona of Henry Chinaski. The grotesque-looking boils of his acne vulgaris will eventually turn their excuses for hating him into an ostracizing trifecta. Sad. With his first feature, the director and co-writer Tyler Taormina delivers something at first familiar and then increasingly but never ostentatiously strange. I mean, pig, pork, hamthats all a thing isnt it? This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. 65. [4] He often resorts to violence when confronted with those who alienate him, giving him a tough guy image to his peers. Production designer: Emily Scott Simpson Ham on Rye is a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. Following a nocturnal tour of the now much-less-populated location (in a scene that for me betrays Lund's appreciation . The novel focuses on the protagonist, Henry Chinaski, between the years of 1920 and 1941. 0:00 / 1:45 Ham on Rye Theatrical Trailer Factory 25 618 subscribers Subscribe 247 Share 33K views 2 years ago "Ham on Rye has the uncanny echo of a disturbing real-life dream. Promotional materials bill Tyler Taorminas Ham on Rye as a coming-of-age comedy, comparing it to Dazed and Confused and John Hughes films. Chinaski has been compared to both Frankenstein's monster and Kafka's Gregor Samsa, because of his alienation and outcast resulting from his "monstrous" appearance. All Rights Reserved. The first part of the picture bounces around in an unnamed town (it was shot in the San Fernando Valley) that is dubiously situated in time: We see cellphones only a few times, and nothing about costumes, hair or background music roots us firmly in the present. Now, as a memory growing more distant every day, all thats left is the dreamlike impressions of these places Ive loved so much and then abandoned. This type of description does not venerate or idealize the city, a contrast to other so-called "Los Angeles Novels". So not only do we shoot La Caada as the stand-in for our kind of upper middle-class neighborhood, but we also shoot in the deeper parts of the Valley more north, like Sylmar, where it [suggests a different class]., Yeah, Sylmar was more the latter half of the film, feeling all the dread and the emptiness, continued Broyles. He doesn't repeat a lot of stories in his novels since they all take place at different parts in his life. Ham on Rye is a 1982 semi- autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. More curious about the origin of the prop than about its meaning, I asked Taormina where the small plaything came from. Henry agrees to teach little kid how to play a game and by the end of it he just walks out. Inside the shop, the boys form one line, the girls another, music begins and, with hand gestures for language, the kids pair off into couples. Throughout the course of the novel, Bukowski develops his misanthropic anti-hero character that is seen in his other works like Post Office and Hollywood. Take your time and savor the experience. thats eventually revealed to be a literal ceremony at the center of Taorminas debut feature. "That boy," said my grandmother, "when I tried to pick him up out of READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021. Cookie policy. 5 (3): 48, Fontana, Ernest. He becomes alienated from the children at school simply for somehow being different in a way that none of them could ever coherently articulate. Calonne, David Stephen. The kids have phones, but they seem to be flip-tops, seldom used, and when later some of the older boys glide off into the night on more modish electronic hoverboards, somehow the contradiction doesnt disrupt the films own little enclosed continuum. Bukowski keeps his descriptions of his hometown grounded in reality, paying more attention to the people that make up Los Angeles than to the city itself. Same goes for something that Taormina said to, in early 2019, which seems way too key not to reproduce here: The script was born through that feeling of nervous confrontation to [rituals] and then it bloomed into What happens to those who dont get selected?,, Yet by placing its emphasis on the shared cultural detritus of American teenagerdom, like all those tokens of first cars and first kisses seen in the loving insert shots that dominate the first halfrather than underlining its more specific themes or subtexts (which Broyles, Lund, and Taormina say were pared back even further than expected during editing), reaches a very interior place: an evocation of an experience, or maybe even just a feeling, rather than a, Transgression becomes even more unfathomable when an entire global generation seems to share the same path in gentrifying the cities, Taormina, (also suggesting one of his films many productive contradictionsthat its a lament for the loss of a suburban experience produced almost exclusively in urban spaces). The main character was a boy, born in Germany, then moved to the US, where he grew up. And with the exception of a couple of surprising mood changes on the dance floor and off, thats about all in the film you could describe as a plot. The one character that carries over from the pre-ceremony segments to the post- is Haley, played by the same Haley Bodell of Suburban Legends, whose only acting credits to date are for Taormina. Filed Under: A+E, Film. His young people reveal themselves in their dress and facial expressions. But it is also Inauguration Day 2021 and Ham on Rye is heartening evidence that even throughout the last few years of permanent, screeching crisis, there have been filmmakers paying attention to the smaller things, to the more mundane cruelties of our world, that will require much more than a change of administration to address. As the story progresses the reader follows his life through the school years and into young adulthood. And then, also being from the suburbs myself, youre dealing with these signifiers that are very familiar to me. This deliberately coy prologue begets the opening credits sequence (introducing characters with more close-ups of little details, like a tie being fastened or a nail being painted), which then feeds directly into the films real first section, where for about 20 minutes small cliques of seemingly high school-aged kids walk through various neighborhoods on their way to an unspoken happening thats eventually revealed to be a literal ceremony at the center of Taorminas debut feature. A lot of that was captured in Sylmar.. Whats established instead are countless signifiers of a semi-contemporary American upbringing: from overarching, stuff like scenes of characters preparing for something like a prom (three girls in frilly dresses being photographed by their overexcited parents, see above), and then carpooling there (the parents now waving at the door like the first day of school, another ceremony) to smaller details seen in briefer shots like the decor of a longhair musicians car (beads on the rear view, bandana on the passenger seat), or a particularly rebellious-looking kid scraping a stick against a fence (which in this context cant help but recall, , ur-text of the American coming-of-age storya narrative lineage that, Its a day were going to remember for the rest of our lives, says the opening dialogue, and the generic phrasing blurs certain lines to build upon the very particular biorhythmic point where Taorminas movie takes place: A kid who says that might be talking about their prom, or about having sex, or about moving out, or maybe even about school graduation, among other possibilitiesbut no matter what, theyre probably talking about something meant to happen in the period that weve come to calling. Has. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Same goes for something that Taormina said to AwardsDaily in early 2019, which seems way too key not to reproduce here: The script was born through that feeling of nervous confrontation to [rituals] and then it bloomed into What happens to those who dont get selected?, he said back then. As Henry begins High School, his father, who is experiencing downward inter-generational socioeconomic mobility, makes him go to a private school where he fits in even less amongst all the well-heeled, spoiled rich kids with their flashy, colorful, convertible sports cars and beautiful girlfriends. Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner. I was able to participate in a group reading of that last work quite recently and found it, somewhat predictably, to be exceptionally pictorial in natureeven on the page. In the beginning, and just for a little while, Tyler Taormina's "Ham on Rye" seems like every other no-budget suburban coming-of-ager you've ever seen, if maybe better shot. Though of course Taormina can pull the episodes whenever he wants, or Youtube or Vimeo could take them down for any reason including none whatsoever, and then theyd be left to a small handful of hard drives, at most, where a random crash might erase them on any given sunday. Gleaning a sense from all these excessive details, these things you dont strictly need to see for the sake of narrative momentum, but that maybe overwhelm the characters, who are young, angsty, and kind of overwhelmed by life. So sometimes the film is Dazed and Confused via Picnic at Hanging Rock, sometimes it is Carrie via Superbad and sometimes, as in a shot of a flowering hedgerow seething with chirruping crickets, it is absolutely Blue Velvet overtly acknowledging that you cant really do suburban surreal without begging the Lynch comparison. Charles Bukowski (16 August 1920 - 9 March 1994) was a German born American poet, novelist and short story writer. a simple language is used, and bombs go off without much fanfare. Turns out, Taormina mistrusts the high school dramedy as much as you do, and hes here to skewer its inanity with odd insight and deep, perhaps angry melancholy: a cocktail stick of profundity pins this hoagie through the heart. s semi-decontextualized meeting spot Montys is in real life actually Berges, a deli in the La Caada Flintridge area of Los Angeles County. There's a girl called Haley who features more than most of the other characters, but mostly it just shows all the different kids. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. In a mainstream teen film, that sense of social abandonment is a unifier, redeemed in one way or another with the promise that life has something better in store. Yet by placing its emphasis on the shared cultural detritus of American teenagerdom, like all those tokens of first cars and first kisses seen in the loving insert shots that dominate the first halfrather than underlining its more specific themes or subtexts (which Broyles, Lund, and Taormina say were pared back even further than expected during editing)Ham on Rye reaches a very interior place: an evocation of an experience, or maybe even just a feeling, rather than a meaning. 49 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Ham on Rye. One passage that always reminds me of Nietzsche was from factotum ". Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is Copyright 2009-2022, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. The vista of the road was super important, or houses that were pushed far back from the curb, said Taormina. Sad, gloomy and angry. 6 reviews. Genre: Comedy. For a complete list of virtual cinemas exhibiting the film, see factorytwentyfive.com/hamonrye. This is emphasized by Bukowski's grave being engraved with the words: "Don't try." 16 poolside__convo 2 yr. ago Really enjoyed this take. Ham on Rye 's second half is informed with a kind of survivor's guilt that's also reminiscent of Carrie. In a varied ensemble of more than a hundred (many of them nonactors), just a few of them get names, and only a few more get to say or do enough things to project any kind of identity beyond their appearance. Of course the same is true of books, films, and everything gathered under the sunit all goes eventually. He has only slightly better results in baseball. Discomfort rises to terror as Louisa meets Jakes parents, played intensely by Toni Collette and David Thewlis. Composer: Deuter, Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. The hoagie sandwiches arrive right before the ceremony itself, which blends the standard beats of school dances with suggestions of awkward youthful sex and celebratory school graduations, not to mention just about every other young-adult maturation ritual you can think of, at a spot named Montys Deli. Right or wrong, he said them call for Charles I doubt if it would published... `` time to grow the fuck up '' wake up call for Charles goes eventually cant answer reveal... Whether his thoughts are good/bad, right or wrong, he said them get a sense of the was. ( first published in 1982 ) designer: Emily Scott Simpson Ham on Rye a! Rather not have read since they all take place at different parts in his life through the years. 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