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Natural Born Killers (1994)
Better than Brilliant?
I wouldn't fault Posthuman's review except he unfortunately did not have the space to go into even more detail to demonstrate the artistic complexity of the NBK film. I want to add just one item to illustrate that multi-layered satirical commentary: Mallory's early family life as portrayed with Rodney Dangerfield as her dad. It's virtually impossible to miss the TV serialization of her mythic youth in the "Married With Family" format artfully twisted to parody that TV series which is a parody of U.S. family life on its own. Who or what is presenting this dysfunctional U.S. family with its canned audience laughter in the background? Who or what created this "family history" of sexual, physical and psychological abuse that is supposed to explain the "why" of Mallory's self-centered life? Why is the audience laughing at this horror show? As Posthuman said, because the U.S. mainstream can't see its own degenerative condition. Daddy fondling and pimping his own 14 or 15 year old daughter is funny to the now documented obese and overweight generation of TV addicts who respond to audience prompts, not to reality. INMHO, this family vignette in NBK is a microcosm of the film's total satiric and bitter evaluation of the great U.S. film and TV addicted audience. After a highly successful 10 year run of "Everbody Loves Raymond" portraying the most obscene brutishness of U.S. middle class family life as humor, who can possibly misunderstand Tarantino's intent in "Natural Born Killers"?
Pink Narcissus (1971)
A Homoerotic Spectacle
PN is one of those films that even Roger Ebert runs across now and again that really defies categorization. It is a fantasy, a spectacle, a tour de force, an indulgences, a homoerotic cornucopia, idealized male sex. It's possible to see different emphases every time its viewed.
Is it a precursor to Fellini's "Satricon"? To "Midnight Cowboy"? A youth, Bobby Kendall, in a romantic idyll who sees his grubby hustling trade on NYC's as a Roman bacchanal, a prancing matador. Does Bobby really see the world in which he lives or does he choose not to see it? The unanswered mysteries and questions this film raises, despite its last minute snatching from the hands of its creator, make it a Mona Lisa of filmdom. Even if you don't like it, you'll be intrigued by it and want to talk about it. That's why it's worth viewing.