People I’ve Slept With

I thought this movie was going to suck. It honestly didn’t.

It might suck for other people. But I liked it.

It looked like it was going to be shallow, slutty and chick-flicky.

I don’t believe in terms “slut” and “slutty”, but it was the other two.

But I don’t care. I liked it anyways. I enjoyed myself watching it.  That matters.

Anyways, the first thing that struck me was how beautiful the cast was. Every single person is gorgeous. Her. Her lover. Her gay best friend. His mate. It’s a very aesthetically pleasing cast, which is always good.

The second thing that struck me was the racially diverse cast, which I thought was awesome.

The third thing that struck me was how much I liked the main character. She is warm, spontaneous, fun, funny, independent and intelligent (despite the fact that she wasn’t on the pill? It makes her bloat, remember?), free-spirited and unconventional in the sense that she tries her best to be “true to herself”.. And being me, I could definitely roll with the feminist undertones I found. Yeah, it was pretty awesome: pro-women, pro-gay, pro-diversity.

Also, I love the featured gay guys, even though I already mentioned the pro-gay thing. I just love gay guys. They add instant warmth and fun.

OH. I don’t know what number I am, but I sure liked her clothes. Not only is she gorgeous, but girl knows how to dress (or at least, her character does). I seriously enjoyed each new scene if only to see what new outfit she was wearing (there were other reasons too, although that’s not to say I wouldn’t write a review on a film that was otherwise awful just because of its impeccable style…because I probably would). That white dress she wears with the black ribbing on her date? C’est parfait. The red v-neck thing? You probably don’t remember. It was awesome. I would seriously raid her wardrobe. Hats off to the costume people. And the guys dressed well, too. A+.

I also thought the chemistry between her and the main guy was really good, and, if you’re going to watch a shallow chick flick, that’s really important.

I also just thought it was really fun. Fun, light feel-good movie. Shallow? Yes. Stupid? No. There were a few parts where I thought the writing could be a little better, or the actors were a little off, but for the most part, I thought it was really good, considering what it was: a shallow chick-flick.The dialogue kept me entertained. It was cute. It was fun. I’m being redundant now. Like you may have guessed, not too many layers for this one. I reccomend it though. Good date movie. Or not.

I also liked the song that kept playing. Have to look that up.

Only thing I’m disappointed in is the ending, which is a big thing to be disappointed in, I know, but whatever. I wanted to know! That was obviously lazy and come on, the rest of the movie was so satisfying!

My Thoughts on Malena

Malena, Malena…Malena was just another movie I found on Netflix under the “Foreign” category and watched because I liked the idea the little blurb was presenting and am interested in and concerned about the strife and persecution of women and whatnot.

Well, Malena is set in Musselini Italy and is in Italian, with English subtitles. It stars Monica Belluci, but I didn’t realize this until her name rolled across the screen at the end, even though I’ve seen her in a few movies before. I found Malena visually pleasing to watch and I remember most the scenes along the sea and the Italian buildings. It was interesting to observe old-fahioned Italian, though war-stricken, lifestyle, especially the  classic drama of the Italian family of the other main character, a young, thirteen-year-old boy.

What’s interesting about Malena is that the two main characters never intereact. Malena is simply, to the young boy, an object of obsession she is to the rest of the town.

There’s not much to say about this film. It was fairly simple. I didn’t love it, but it’s been hard for me to really love any movie, lately.  It didn’t really pack enough of a punch, I guess you could say. But I think the main reason I am devoting a review to it is because I appreciate its subject matter and the societal questions it raises.

I don’t want to give the movie away, because like I said, there is not much to the film, but Malena is a beautiful, young woman who is persecuted and abused by the society she lives in for her beauty. She is a recent widow; her husband has died in war. As a beautiful woman, she is constantly objectified by every man she encounters and what I really appreciated was the way the director chose to show her always walking alone, despite the constant “affection” that was coming her way. Men swarmed around Malena like a pack of bees, murmering, staring blatantly and tipping their hats, few ever actually getting in her way. In fact, they parted for her, always remaining a certain distance from her, creating a sense of stark isolation that surrounds Malena’s character. The tragedy of Malena is that she is the object of everyone’s attention, but is never cared about and never loved.

Malena is an object of scorn and jealousy of women, who perceive her beauty as a threat and brutally spread rumors about her. I hate this. I know it’s what happens with women in Italy, or America, or anywhere else in the world I imagine and has been happenning throughout the ages, but women really need to stop being petty and have each others’ backs. I observed that instead of confronting their husbands for giving Malena attention (which was, I’m sure, unwanted, as all Malena does throughout the film is walk around solemnly trying not to make eye contact), they attack Malena who has done nothing but exist and is ironically and unfortunately cursed with good looks. I think the film struck the chord it did with me because I see this occurring now days, and often. It is especially twisted that we live in a society that is so focused on good looks, but that the attainment of them, or much worse, having them naturally, is oftentimes a hell of a lot more isolating and shameful than it is enjoyable. Unfortunately, beautiful women (and this is a generalization obviously, but I have done some rescearh on the trends I have personally observed) often lead tougher lives than society would like to imagine. When they talk to men, they’re not really “conversating”, obviously, and that is only assuming a man has stopped gawking at her long enough to talk to her. It’s not I guess that the things a beautiful woman says aren’t taken seriously, just that they fall short on the list of things others pay attention to when they see her. In part, obviously, this is just nature and can’t really be blamed on anyone. But part of it is unexusable and needs to be recognized because I honestly believe there is a as great as a bias against truly beautiful women as there is against truly ugly ones, only, no one has trouble feeling bad for an ugly girl. What mostly disturbs me, I’ll go back to, is the brutality women demonstrate towards each other. This is something I think women need to be aware of, because, to be blunt, when women bitch and gossip they are upholding demeaning stereotypes about women as much as the “whore” is they are talking about. Plus, they’re doing nothing other than tearing the female agenda down. I have nothing to attribute this besides ignorance.

The women in Malena’s town hated her for being beautiful and they hated her even more for putting on the makeup she wore that they themselves put on each morning. A beautiful woman shouldn’t feel ashamed of her beauty. If she chooses to wear makeup, she shouldn’t feel she deserves the disrespectful sexual advances she receives from men because “she was asking for it”, and she shouldn’t feel that she won’t be taken seriously, or that she won’t be liked by other women. Do beautiful women have friends? I know a beautiful woman, older now, but back in the day she was apparently as beautiful, I imagine, as Malena was. She says no one stuck by her. It was hard to connect with men, because they saw her as entertainment and a sexual object rather than a person, and it was hard to connect with women, because they saw her as an object of hate. The friends who did stick by her told her to her face that it was very hard to be friends with her. I commend these women for having some balls and having the maturity to look beyond their primal emotional fears in order to stick by their friend. But, the beautiful woman has told me, that she had to be very, very careful, that there were some outfits (not slutty outfits, just ones that made her look beautiful) that she would never wear because she never wanted to test the already fragile strings of her friends’ loyalty. When she was in grade school, she was persecuted and taunted very much like the way Malena is, in fact, many of the stories she has told me bear striking resemblance to the events that occur in Malena. What I appreciate perhaps most about Malena, is the way the film is filmed itelf. Malena is the object of film’s attention, the film is named after her, but throughout the film, we never come to know her; we barely hear make an utterance besides the times we witness her weeping and the scream she makes at the end after beaten and publicly humilated by a group of local women who resemble a pack of wolves. We don’t know her as a person; the film makes its point in mimicking the way it views Malena in the way the townspeople do: it is completely focused on her, but shallowly. She is a story, a source of entertainment, but never allowed to be a character in the round. Even the other main character, the young boy who seems to view himself as “diffenrent from the other men” and entertains the thought to himself of being her protector, disrespects by spying on her and stealing her panties. He’s really, unfortunately, no different from any other male cahracter in the film.

Another thing I have to note is that Malena only steps into her role as “town whore” when she has no other option because the town has literally made itself intent on isolating her to the point of poverty and starvation. In this way, the crude and undeserved things they have said about her become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This kind of mimics my theory that if you tell a kid he’s bad all the time, he’s going to be bad. I think my favorite scene is when she cuts and dyes her hair and walks into the town square, for the first time fully displaying her beauty and calling the attention to herself the town has all along blamed her for calling, with her public displayal of red lip stick. Instead of walking in and out, as we forever see her doing. She pulls up a cafe chair and sits, right in the middle of them, (like the rest of the town women are used to doing but is not the case with her) and sits defiantly as if to say, “Is this what you wanted? Well, here. Blame me.” The camera zooms in and I think I saw a tear in her eye. My favorite part, hands down

Anyways, there are other things to notice in this film. At the end, it would seem Malena has been “saved”, like there is some sort of happy ending, but it is not enough to make up for what has been done to her. She walks away at the end of the move with her head down, looking old, wearing an ugly jacket. She is sad, ashamed and still, lonely. The women of the town try to make up with her (as now that she is wearing ugly clothes and has “wrinkles” and has “gained weight” they don’t see her as a threat and are kind to her. NICE, you cats.), but she looks like an abused animal as she retreats back down the road, haggard, when she once had walked, in the opposite direction (into town), young and beautiful with her head absolutely not held high (for I’m sure she was still not so naive then), but not so pointed at the ground either.

My key board is really sticky

 

The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli wasn’t very good. I wouldn’t see it. It’s about the Bible, but I can’t figure out what the actual point is. The end was corny and anti-climactic for me, but I think Mila Kunis is beautiful and I like looking at her. Only, I also think she’s a really good actress, only this wasn’t the role for her. A lot of it is forced, which I don’t blame on her acting but rather the geneally, “forcedness” of the film. Other than that, some of it is cool, stylish. It looks nice, but it doesn’t garner the impact it would if I thought the movie had a point. Not really original. I like the beginning when he shoots the cat. Also, it’s a Farenheit 41 rip-off. No goosebumps were delivered. At the end I was like are you kidding me. I didn’t order this, my brother did.

By the way, I’m not “finishing” that American Beauty review because I was ranting. Maniac.

American Beauty

I wonder if it’s ok to swear in these things. I really love swearing. I really need it to make my points. I guess that speaks to how crass and uncreative I am. For example, I really wanted to put the f-bomb in there, in adjetive form, after “American” and before “Beauty”, but I didn’t because well, I guess I’m trying to be appropriate. I really don’t want to be, but I feel like I should be. Ugg, I really hate that feeling. Oh well, I guess it’s unavoidable.

Ok, here we go. Before I start, I have to say that I love reviewing movies. There is like, nothing that makes me happier. I am a (insert f-bomb that I’m to afraid to insert myself) a lunatic. I am obsessive compulsive about movies. I stop and rewind them, stop and rewind them; I am tearing my family apart (just kidding, my brother thinks I’m funny) because I keep screaming at everyone to shut up. I am a witch, and the protector of movies. I love movies. I just sat in my cold basement with a blanket and my paper and watched a movie and I was so happy. So, so happy. Not bored, or tired, or thinking about or waiting for the future, just blissful, in the moment. Movies are my anti-drug. I’m just so glad I have something that makes me so happy that I can rely on. It makes me feel really good. It makes me feel “alive” which will be a main and very important point I will be touching upon: the concept of being “alive”.

Alright, here we go. I’m honestly just going to look at my notebook and write through in the order of things that I reacted to. Spoilers, obviously, but hopefully not too many. Alright, here we go. I apologize if this seems too much like a stream of conscience; it is.

First thing: American Beauty, on DVD, starts off with the menu, obviously, and it features a plastic bag blowing in the background. Which I just thought was really interesting and “allurring”, and I’ll get into that. I mean, it could have seemed very, “art-school flop”, but it didn’t, to me at least and hey suckaa, this blog is written by me.

(^ I typed “alluring” into Google and this is what came up. Yes, what this girl does to men, movies do to me: make me all hot and bothered, obviously.)

Next thing I realized: I really love the Dreamworks logo/thing. Y’know the ripple in the pool of water and the boy fishing from the moon. It’s really nice. And “Dreamworks”: that’s really a good name, isn’t it? Exactly what I was getting at; movies are works of dreams. It’s funny though, you don’t notice, or pay attention to these things until you become a fanatic.

It starts off with the girl. A beautiful teenage girl, with beautiful pale skin, lying down in a way that is seductive but not purposely so, just effortlessly so, speaking into the camera. I think it is the fact that she is so comfortably speaking into the camera that makes it seductive: her honestly and comfort. That’s another thing: this entire movie is seductive. So anyway, there’s something about watching beautiful, young girls speak into cameras that I find attention-grabbing. Am I lesbian? I’m not sure; I haven’t taken that Keirsey scale test/self-assessment thing, but maybe I will later. Anyway, what I think struck me most, right off the bat, is that this is a movies I could relate to. It’s very themes ran true for me. Except for some things, which I’ll get into, I feel like I could have made it myself. I think, for me, watching the girl peaked my interest because I am a girl and I don’t know I’ve been a crazy feminist lately and for some reason, womanhood, or rather “girlhood” because I think that’s more interesting, really appeals to me. I just feel something very powerful towards female adolescent identity and I think I want to work with it further, so yeah, that’s why I think this sort of beginning struck me, personally.

Then, there’s an above the bed shot.And I just love this because he’s sleeping and he’s so small and we can look down on him like we’re God and I thought it was very striking because you get this powerful, “all-knowing” sort of feeling which is interesting and you also get the feeling, since you’re watching from above, that you’re not watching a fellow human, or contemporary, but a specimen. So this is a very objective shot I think, and I like it.

THEN, there’s a naked man in the shower, which is (insert f-y’know), love because there are ALWAYS NAKED WOMEN in showers which I have no problem with. I’m not one of those,  “women shouldn’t be naked so much and portrayed as sex objects” kind of feminists because women are awesome and sexy and should be shown naked in showers as much as possible…it’s just I think men should be too. So kudos, director, which is sam Mendes, by the way. Go naked man in the shower, is the moral of the story.

Ok, so now I’m getting tired of writing, which is a shame, because I have so much to go. That’s the thing, I always have so mucgh to say and then just burn out, whenever it comes to anything. I wish I could record my thoughts just as soon as I though them…it would be so much easier. And better 🙂

Ok so: FIRST THING YOU NOTICE. Stupid, boring, unhappy, conventional, stifled, desperate, “silently screaming” y’know, Suburbia. That’s a big thing and you notice it right off the bat: the pressure to conform and how everyone’s so focused on fitting into this image that they sacrafice their own personal sources of happpiness and there own passions, they sacrafice what makes them feel ahem, “alive” to fit into…”a commercial”. And this really appeals to me, and this movie in general I really relate to mainly for this one, big reason right here. The monotony of suburban life is draining and depressing, but also fascinating. I could speak from first-hand experience, but I’d rather speak through the movie, which I pretty much felt mirrorred my own thoughts in a lot of ways. If I could throw out some keywords, some themes of this movie, just, on a whim, they would be: desperation, loneliness, isolation, identitiy-loss, fear, numbness, social pressure, angst, conformity, all that emo shi- that hey, I may be jaded, but to me, sums up the suburban way of  life. Think, SUBurban decay. I mean, I may just be cynical because I came from a boo-hoo, “broken home”, but I feel this movie was extremely accurate, intimate, insightful and personal in a lot of ways. You might not feel this way. It may just be “my type of movie” because of my own personal circumstances but, y’know, whatever. BUT, continuing that previous note, there are also CONTRASTING themes to those I already mentioned, think, “love and hate”, “saddness and happiness”; this movie is full of contrasts and I think the use of contrast is a very powerful thing in art, especially in filmmaking. For example, for the all the desperation and isolation and loneliness there was, there was also the relief of easing those feelings, or the relief for the viewer as he or she watched the characters ease those feelings. Insecurity vs. GROWING SOME BALLS, sadness vs. happiness, emptiness vs. fulfillment, confusion vs. confidence, isolation vs. connection and love, identity crisis vs. self-actualization. Very interesting. I eat tstuff up, if you can’t tell.

(How do I move that dumb picture where I want it? Can anybody help me?)

OHMYGOD, I just realized I have pages and pages left of notes There’s no way I’m getting through all of this.

Alright, I’ll just go quick. I (F’n) love the color red. And red is a prime symobol in this movie, very important and I love that. Aesthetically, I love a lot of the artistic decisions made in this movie. Except, some of the stuff is corny and I wouldn’t have done, like when the boy and the girl walk down that aisle of trees togehter and the camera follows them from behind like come onnnnn. But a lot of the originality I found in other parts of the movie makes up for these moments of uncreativity and lackluster dejavu. Another thing…that lady? Is my mother. Or at least, realllly reminds me of her, in so many ways. She wouldn’t be happy if she knew I was saying that.

Briefly, I think Jane, the daughter, is beautiful; I thought that the first time I saw her and I think it’s sad that she thinks she pales in comparioson o her friend, who is beautiful no doubt, but I was Jane who struck me first. Anyway, I know they’re just characters but I think a lot of people, male and female, underestimate their worth, phsically and…un-physically…you know what I’m saying. Oh yeah…off point but, the cubicle scene. That was cliche. I got the point by then. How many cubicle scenes have ever been done? Note to self: don’t do cubicle scenes…or tree-aisle scenes…

I thought the family dinner scenes were particulary great. I just thought the empty tension was dead on, effective and whatnot and I really liked how in the numerous families whose stories were told, the members were often times portrayed in scenes together, but seeming starkly isolated by way of y’know, body language and stuff. Kudos again, Sam. Well done, I think.

I do have to say that this is a great screenplay…just…pretty solid. (Sorry, I’m really getting tired now :p)

I also have to say that I love the mother character. I loved a lot of the characters but I particualrly love her and the inner battles that she fights with herself and her uneasiness with her emotions. It’s particulary endearing. And I love a strong woman, as you should know by now.

I thought it was great to see the family unravel. Well, actually, the movie starts with the family, and numerous others, already “unraveled”, and it isn’t, “great”, but, you know what I mean (I hope?). I liked the way their own unhappiness with themselves caused them to lash at each other and FURTHER THE DESTRUCTION, SWEEEEET.

One thing I have to say about Miss Sexxipants is that she represents so much more than sex to our main character, and hopefully, this is obvious.

She represents excitement, renewed joy in living, a break from monotony, a new sense of wonder, that “alive” feeling I was talking about, the joys of hedonism sure, but so much more than that. SHE’S. HIS. RESUCE. And I can’t emphasize it enough. It’s funny that the way the movie begins, you think it’s going to be all about her and their relationship, but it’s really not, but she sets it all off and I think she’s just as important for that.

The Roses-I love them. They are sexy and aesthetically pleasing. That is all, really. Red is my favorite color, for a reason. I cannot thing of a color more beautiful than red.

I have to get onto the females and sexuality thing, of course. “It all started when I was twelve”, Little Miss Sexxipants says. It’s the sad truth, well not really the sad truth, but the natural and kind of interesting, when further analyzed truth. Oh, and she’s referring to men, “giving her looks”, by the way. Another thing is, I was at first struck by how comfotable this girl is with older men checking her out, I mean, I don’t like it whan older guys creep on me, is all I can say. But she actually goes onto flirt with this guy, which I think is interesting, and I had to analyze her motivations for doing so, Upon doing so, I realized that when a  man checks you out, it’s flatterring to the “ego” and appeals to our innate drive and survival instinct to feel “wanted”, however, in most cases that I know of, it’s not enought to combat the feelings of fear and shame that also, and foremost come with being checked out by and older dude. I wonder why it’s worth it to her, this flattery, and it makes me want to know more about her background more (Daddy issues?). I have no answers for this one, but I’ll continue to think about it. On a further whim, I have to comment on a societal whim and I’m sure it’s been said before, but the heck is it that generally, it’s women who feel shameful when they’re skeezed on, even when they’re not doing anything, even when they’re aware that they’re not doing anyhing? Ok, moving on.

I’m tired now. I’m going to have to cut this baby off.

A Brief (or maybe not) Analysis of Why I Love Movies

So, I’ve been watching my movies, and taking notes with my little pen and my little paper, and I just watched this one particular movie that was so good and while I was moving upstairs to write my little review (after it ended) I thought about why I like movies so much and I had a little answer thought and it went like this:

I like movies because they capture and expose what people really think is important. It seems like so much of our lives, at least to me, lately, are spent being bored, or unfullfilled, or waiting, or just trying to support ourselves, like, we spend so much time just being confused, if you know what I mean. And it’s a hard world we live in, and people need to support themselves, and the thing about making a movie is, the whole thing is a risk-one huge, potential, entrepreneurial whail (I think I made that word up). SO (!), you know that if someone takes that much risk to just make one movie, you know that that movie, or rather, what that movie says, is really important to them: every scene, every line (not to be corny, but it’s true), every bit of a film has signifigance that has been scrutinized over, as I’m sure you know. So when people watch movies, it’s like, an education. It’s like, people have these great bursts of inspiration and movies are how they share whatever inspired them. So you can learn so much that way. Like, I was thinking today how much better educated I would probably be if I spent everyday of my past fifteen years of contemporary, formal education watching two movies a day instead. Movies are incredible. And sometimes, when you think about how many people there are, and how many different potential lives you could be living, and how many different sorts of adventures there are that you’ll never get to experience because there’s just too many, it makes you think that movies are the most efficient  and timely way to learn about all of them. Because a move is, like I said, filtered importance; everything means something. So, as a result, they’re really powerful, or at least, meant to be. But I think what is even more interesting is thinking about the spark that started that movies, what the director or screenwriter witnessed or felt or imagined that made it so important and so worth the risk to attempt to share that “vision” (or whatever, I hate sounding corny). But that’s why I love movies. Because they’re passion! They couldn’t exist without it, you know, people would never go through with them! And sometimes, the world just seems passionless and I think that’s the scariest and saddest thing, you know everyone just seems kind of spineless and unsure of themselves, all the time, but movies are sure of themselves; they have to be because so much rests on them. So in that way, they’re passion and strength and the capability to be inspired and all of the good things about humans. I had more things to say but I forgot them. That’s good because this already isn’t short and my run-on sentences are going to eat you, if you’ve made it this far.

City of God

Someone suggested that I review movies.  A friend of mine does this and I like movies, so I’ll give it a go. However, I don’t want to call them reviews because that makes it seem like I have some standard to write up to and quite frankly, I need to read more books. So I’d rather just call them General Impressions. So here is my first:

City of God was violent. I’ll be honest; most violence loses me. Not the origin of violence itself, but rather, the way it is used. So many modern movies are disrespectful in the way they use violence. The use of violence, especially repeated violence in a movie, is a statement. Or, should be, and that’s what I’m getting at. A lot of times, violence serves no other point than to provide a thrill. To me, this is a failure, unless a movie is just plain stylish as hell and uses violence in this light. I’ll make an exception for this just because there’s nothing I love more than “style”, whatever it may be, and I think it’s an end in itself. But if a movie’s not set out to be stylish, edgy and artsy or however you want to phrase it, it’s use of violence better be respectful since actual violence, the thing that so many directors set up to shoot, is you know, a thing that so many people have lost to. I applaud City of God for maintaining a certain sensitivity despite its brutality.

What I loved about City of God was it’s objective approach. So many people died and yet, the movie was directed in a way that made me refrain from any sort of lecturing. I couldn’t place blame on anyone, nor did I want to. There were no pointed good guys and bad guys. There were people, forgotten people in an enviroment with limited rescouces. In many senses, it is a survival film. The film used a lot of respectful cause and effect. One of my favorite scenes is when the “peace and love” Knockout Ned moves to violence, that transition. “The third time, the exception becomes the norm”, or something like that and then he shoots the guy in the bank. And he kills that kid’s dad, who kills him. It’s sad but there aren’t any bad guys here. Just flawed humans. But you can’t even call them flawed because there’s nothing better to compare ourselves to, besides the idea of God.

City of God told a story without preaching. It “raised awareness” without pointing fingers. I thought it was an accurate depiction of humans. Despite the brutal violence, the oh? You were my friend, but now, I have shot you, like “that”, it was interesting and inspiring to see the characters stick together in the times that they did. Their loyalties were changing and complicated, but there was loyalty, groups that banded together, friends that had each others’ backs. It attested to human strength I thought, especially in the midst of such “hard” circumstances. I like a movies that doesn’t place blame, that tells a good story, and that highlights the brothership in humans, is what I have to say. Even if the brothership has negative consequences, for example, the group of kids at the end of the movie walking around as the new up and coming gangsters, formulating their list of people to kill…on one hand, it’s obviously tragic…youth, with guns, a repeating cycle…foreshadowing  more and more destruction, you know, I don’t think I have to explain it, but on the other hand? Kids sticking together, defending and avenging  each other in a world where alone, they wouldn’t survive. It’s interesting. It’s bittersweet to see.

Another thing…the movie walked a thin line. Sorry, I’ve lost my sense of articulation. What thin line? Well, throughout a lot of the movie, our Rocket was the nice guy who finished last. The guys who were getting ahead, who were riding through the streets laughing on their motorcylces while he looked on, were drug dealers and oftentimes, murderers. They were out for themselves; they got people hooked so that they could make money. Reading it like this it’s like, “wow, assholes”, but it’s not like that if you watch the movie. It’s like, “this is a hard world they live in and they’re matching it, to survive and also, maybe even to suck some enjoyment out of it, despite the short stick they’ve pulled”. In a lot of aspects, you can’t blame them. It’s like, “aw, did you really just shoot him too?”, but y’know, they’re making paper, and I’m not even being sarcatic. Paper is important. Obviously, no murder is justified but, this isn’t an ideal universe we live in. That’s all I have to say. So the thin line refers to the fact that a lot of times Rocket seems to be being left behind; he doesn’t seem to fit in with his circumstances. As for the ruffians, the question is, how much responsibility do you have to to take at the end of the day? That’s the line. They go around killing each other and it’s expected, part of the game, almost not to be taken personally, that’s just “how it is”. But as the end, when Ze dies, at the hands of the “monsters he’s created”, well, that’s responsibility he had to take, whether he agreed to it or not. And Rocket is there, unscathed, documenting it with photos. He managed to avoid violence all together and managed to escape being its victim. It’s admirable to see him at the end, in one piece, getting his life together, the only character who refused to give in to revenge. But it’s sad because he looks around and…it’s his home, not just a job for him. And you know he feels alone when he watches that gang of kids walk off and the movie ends.