jimmymas

The premise is distinctly American with a hearty dose of perverted Christian ethics and a hint of social Darwinism. Granted, the initial story arcs are a bit contrived and tend towards the pedantic... "Oh my gosh, what are we getting into??" becomes "I always thought poor people were people who couldn't get their acts together but now I know it is us rich people who are living lives of fantasy!!" and eventually into the aspect of "I've learned so much from these noble plebes!!" But we ought not forget the aspect of the master coming home in the night--the good will be rewarded with cold hard cash. Not uninterestingly, there appear to be no people of ill will in these impoverished neighborhoods. It is not immediately clear if this is because the bad people are out hustling for cold hard cash money BLING! or if the state of being destitute naturally imbues humans with the goodness that only poverty provides, but really, the point to be gleaned here is that Aaron is a huge douche and this show is going to take off big time.

This movie is largely misunderstood. Indeed, if you want to watch a compelling story, this movie is not for you. Rather, this film is a masterful clinic on shifting point of view narrative. As much as anything, the message of the film comes not from the plot but from an understanding of how vision of reality stems so often from a mythic element in how we understand the narrative truth of what is going on. Thus, the point of the movie comes from how it is filmed more than from the storyline, which is why the film is 1) so visually elaborate, to allow great range an flexibility in presentation of any given scene or of scenes in juxtaposition, and; 2) the plot is so commonplace, as it employs the most standard of mythic stories to allow for range in its elaboration at different points in the movie, from the commonplace to the grand and back again.

As a friend described this movie, it is basically a fractal. If you're into crazy pomo philosophical mumbo jumbo such as the journey of understanding being as important as the storyline, then this movie is one of the finest examples out there. But if you want to watch a movie where the story IS the movie, then this will just be an exercise in intellectual masturbation. Can I say that in here?