thats eventually revealed to be a literal ceremony at the center of Taorminas debut feature. Movie Info. 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. Afterwards, you get a sense of the sadness and defeat of the people who are left behind. But what other shorthand would you use for this strange, atmospheric work, which is 100 percentnot a comedy but does share a spiritual connection refracted through art-film aesthetics and anomie with the aforementioned landmarks? He becomes alienated from the children at school simply for somehow being different in a way that none of them could ever coherently articulate. On the side note, I relate liked the book as I could easily emphasize with Henty moat of the time, but I still cannot understand the last part! People who were on heroin. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter. 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. This is a confusing taboo that weighs very heavily on mein fact, I feel it may have in a way forced me away from home. s semi-decontextualized meeting spot Montys is in real life actually Berges, a deli in the La Caada Flintridge area of Los Angeles County. And then, also being from the suburbs myself, youre dealing with these signifiers that are very familiar to me. 1985. To make matters worse, Chinaski develops horrible acne so severe that he has to undergo painful, and mostly ineffective, treatments, essentially becoming a human guinea pig for various experiments thought up by his uninterested doctors. One passage that always reminds me of Nietzsche was from factotum ". Ham on Rye (1982) is not only a loosely constructed autobiographical novel of Bukowski's distressingly poor childhood during the Depression, but it also qualifies as the novelist's version of. As recently as four years ago the films now-29-year-old director, Tyler Taormina, maintained a website for his then-new webseries Suburban Legends, which starred Haley Bodell as Poll Flowerpot, a 12-year-old cynic [who] discovers the absurdities of the world; the site is down now, but if you search around you can still find all three episodes on certain video-uploading hubs. Henry is not athletic but wants to be and therefore tries hard to improve. For a complete list of virtual cinemas exhibiting the film, see factorytwentyfive.com/hamonrye. The second half is darker and lonelier, following those left behind, especially Haley (Haley Bodell), who ran from the diner when her humiliation became too great and is now, like all her fellow rejects, apparently condemned never to escape this world of duck ponds, wisteria-draped driveways, and doorbells that are never answered. But now, you see her curiosity throughout the first act of. Like his previous works, Ham on Rye is set in Los Angeles where the author grew up. He achieves a number of other startling effects in this impressive movie, which sheds its naturalism slowly as it embraces a surrealism thats both disquieting and poignant. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Then the ba-boom of a Phil Spector-ish anthem kicks in (by a 60s girl group called The Teardrops), and things get serious. 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. And itll cause you a lotta grief. The mood is now fairly forlorn, best embodied by Sloan (Cole Devine), a 20-something cook at Montys whos mourning some kind of loss. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. All Rights Reserved. Researching the creative figures behind, (2020), what stuck out to me was the inevitability of certain voids. Like his previous autobiographical novels, Ham on Rye centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, this time during his childhood and teenage years. The specifics are never explained, but we suspect that some years ago, he was in Haleys shoes. 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. [Bodell and I] worked on Suburban Legends, then a short film Wild Flies, and finally Ham on Rye, Taormina said. 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 the teenage years. Boston Celtics well represented at 2023 NBA All-Star game. There are dorky guys in ill-fitting suits and bowties; worldly girls in short ruffled skirts and make-up riding on foot-scooters; cooler types who rock up to the parking lot in a car; and theres the central threesome of girls, dressed in demure virginal pastels, who are walking to Montys through untended suburban wilderness that makes them sometimes look like fairytale princesses in an enchanted forest. with miners, and was an officer of SEIU. In the beginning, and just for a little while, Tyler Taorminas Ham on Rye seems like every other no-budget suburban coming-of-ager youve ever seen, if maybe better shot. This study guide consists of approx. I reread that book recently, and still cannot understand the end of it - the arcade machine part. Taorminas youth are on their way to adulthood through ritual. Quiet and carefully made but cryptic, it relies on the viewer to complete its metaphors. Charles Bukowski. A bizarre rite of passage at the local deli determines the fate of a generation of teenagers. Ham on Rye has been one of my two favourite novels for almost thirty years. Does Massachusetts Underestimate Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Ham On Rye was an absolutely enthralling experience and taking this journey with Henry "Hank" Chinaski was nothing short of a delight. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [3] It begins with Chinaski's early memories. The few friends he made he drove away with his hatefulness. The film premieres at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this week, and the official site is here. Increasingly fearful Louisa insists on returning to her own apartment. Director Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) ratchets up American gothic to psychological horror as he distorts time, place and relationships, scattering uneasy references to the musical Oklahoma, the film Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and poetryIntimations of Immortality. Louisa may be thinking of ending itbut Jake may actually be the one to end it after all! 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, the feature film debut of Long Island-native, Los Angeles-beached Tyler Taormina, is one of the strangest and most discomfiting "coming-of-age" films of recent memory.I put "coming-of-age" in quotes because, yes, ostensibly it follows children between the ages of 15 and 18 becoming Something Else, Something Bigger. Cinematic didacticism has given way to filmmakers content to raise questions they wont or cant answer. Brewer, Gay. As the story progresses the reader follows his life through the school years and into young adulthood. Has. She is, in fact, a victim of her husband's brutality as well. The novel focuses on the protagonist, Henry Chinaski, between the years of 1920 and 1941. Charles Bukowski. Football is difficult for him, but he enjoys the violence that comes with it. Though Haleys one of the prettier girls here and has no apparent social shortcomings, shes still unchosen as the room empties out. if you want to talk Nietzsche, bukowski always reminds me of Nietzsche's passages on the morality of ressentiment/resentment. 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. I dont get it. And then, also being from the suburbs myself, youre dealing with these signifiers that are very familiar to me. It's not PC, perhaps that's part of its appeal. Dilbert is gone from Americas comics pages: Creator Scott Adams is The Lifespan of a Fact explores the world of true-ish journalism, The Rosenberg Case: A play reading, one night only, Congress punts decision on draft registration into 2022 or 2023. Even the oddest moves seem welcome. Editor: Kevin Anton 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. One also notices that while before the dialogue was ambiguously foreshadowing, now its ambiguously looking backwards (the way Lund put it is, in the second half the dialogue becomes more textural than expository.) And this all leads to a backyard cookout populated by a large group including some faces at least vaguely familiar to viewers of the millennial demographic: Lori Beth Denberg of, (1994-98), Danny Tamberelli and Aaron Schwartz of, The one character that carries over from the pre-ceremony segments to the post- is Haley, played by the same Haley Bodell of, , whose only acting credits to date are for Taormina. Interesting view into the life of a boy who just never caught a break. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Its kind of about how you grow up and curiosityespecially curiosity about systems and societal functionsis not welcomed. It focuses instead on the vaguely insidious side of life that we not only tolerate, but embrace. 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. 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. 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. Beginning as an examination of rites of passage, neighborhood malaise, the loss of adolescence, it soon develops into a textured portrait of the suburbs as a transitory space, where teenage posturing and the act of 'finding yourself' takes on a quality of reckoning with the disappointment of the world as a . As recently as four years ago the films now-29-year-old director, Tyler Taormina, maintained a website for his then-new webseries. this is going to be fun to shootits like shooting a bunch of still lifes, , he continued. Following a nocturnal tour of the now much-less-populated location (in a scene that for me betrays Lunds appreciation of movies by landscape-minded film artists like James Benning and Peter Hutton), were on the wrong side of the tracks, where the films atmosphere, mood, and suggested cultural signifiers all land in a much darker and frankly lower-class place than before (this change perhaps betraying some of Taorminas own stated influences for, and the films of David Lynchboth of which seem to undergo serious temporal shifts as nightfall commences). I couldn't put it down. Henry agrees to teach little kid how to play a game and by the end of it he just walks out. 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. Thats suggested from the starta scene at a public park that under another director mightve been rendered chaotic but that under Taorminas eye is cut down into digestible insert shots which seem to archive each action or gesture: a hand trying to spark a cheap lighter, another working to retune a guitar, yet another grasping an ad-perfect glass of lemonade. 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Though calling them characters is a bit of a stretch. We had done a music video right before going into production on this that was very psychedelic, with a lot of superimpositions and really garish lighting schemes, so maybe that was feeding into it as well.. Jake tries to persuade Louisa to spend the night at the house. But with all these signifiers, as well as the title, which sends us back to Charles Bukowskis coming-of-age memoir of the same name, which itself refers to The Catcher in the Rye, pretty soon the references multiply to the point you have to give in and call Ham on Rye its own, pretty unique thing. A lot of that was captured in Sylmar.. Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner. [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. But things like that were very important [to me]. Ham on Rye makes no such assurances which of course makes it more honest, even if its oblique lessons will be heard by a tiny, tiny fraction of the number who navigated adolescence by the. 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. Where are the writers and directors who are thinking of beginning things?! Ham on Rye is the kind of he movie that oozes off the screen as if fresh-squeezed from a brain addled with too much television and '90s junk, too many blended memories of lazy cookouts and . Depressing and dark. His life never became better. 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Ham on Rye 's second half is informed with a kind of survivor's guilt that's also reminiscent of Carrie. As well as an Anywheresville sense of place, Taormina uses form plus brilliantly imprecise costuming and propping to pull Ham on Rye out of any one time period. 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. This was surprisingly tender in places amongst his usual cynical and brutal musings on life. I trust that I am in honest company when I confide this, but still I am tentative to say it. , which starred Haley Bodell as Poll Flowerpot, a 12-year-old cynic [who] discovers the absurdities of the world; the site is down now, but if you search around you can still find all three episodes on certain video-uploading hubs. Ham on Rye isn't a film about buried secrets. 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. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. 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. The destination of the walking kids is, well, a delicatessen, and this is where the films similarities to coming-of-age movies like Dazed and Confused ends. Twayne Publishers, New York, 1997. p. 36, 39, 40. Get help and learn more about the design. And itll cause you a lotta grief. For example, Henry's parents, like Bukowski's, had met in Germany after World War I. To most patient eyes, it will look like a gentle ode to those who seemed part of the crowd in high school, then simply didnt transform into the kind of adults their peers chose to be. Twayne Publishers, New York, 1997. p. 36, 42, 43. but that said, it doesn't really matter. I was exploring that context.. Like Henry, the rest of the Chinaskis are modeled after Bukowski's own family. [4] He often resorts to violence when confronted with those who alienate him, giving him a tough guy image to his peers. 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. The grotesque-looking boils of his acne vulgaris will eventually turn their excuses for hating him into an ostracizing trifecta. 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However, this thread would be disingenuous if I did not say that I identified so strongly with Hank. He never experienced love. Ham on Rye is a satirical parable on conformism and aspiration, and it speaks to anyone who, in settled adulthood, looks back to when their life and romantic chances were arbitrarily decided by. , . ". As Chinaski progresses through grammar school, the focus of Henry's attention is on sports, violence, and girls. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Whats established instead are countless signifiers of a semi-contemporary American upbringing: from overarching universal 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 Tom Sawyer, ur-text of the American coming-of-age storya narrative lineage that Ham on Rye is of course very much bound up in). This interview with the Ham on Rye crew was facilitated by Lund, whose byline you might recognize from DigBoston itself. Nothing but alienation. Chinaski relates that he has an abusive father, and his mother does nothing to stop his father's abuse. The reader eventually follows Chinaski to college and reads of Henry's attempt to find a worthwhile occupation. and I read PO, HOR, Women in that order, personally, just because I found PO first. 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. This was a book I would rather not have read. 'Ham on Rye.' | Factory 25 Director Charlie Kaufman ( Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) ratchets up American gothic to psychological horror as he distorts time, place and relationships,. 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. It is brutal, sad, cynical, profound, funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. They need to prove something to themselves. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Of course the same is true of books, films, and everything gathered under the sunit all goes eventually. We learn more from the young peoples dress, groupings and actions than from the sparse and often inaudible dialogue. This stems in large part from his home life, in which he is beaten frequently (often for no reason) by his father. He locks himself away inside himself to protect himself from the expected loathing from others never allowing himself hope that someone would love and under him. The parents dramatically age and regress throughout the evening. Promotional materials bill Tyler Taorminas Ham on Rye as a coming-of-age comedy, comparing it to Dazed and Confused and John Hughes films. ), being told to make the most of the big night by parents while occasionally expressing some ambivalence about attending. Ham on Rye is roughly age 0-20, Women is in his fifties, and Post Office is somewhere in between those. More curious about the origin of the prop than about its meaning, I asked Taormina where the small plaything came from. 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. His only love was drink. Press J to jump to the feed. As Henry grinds his way through Junior High School, he discovers the manifold pleasures of alcohol and masturbation. Reaktion Books, London, 2012. p. 146. The farmhouse seems to change shape, furnishings and configuration. 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. 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