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. , 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. This was a book I would rather not have read. Both Ham on Rye and Im Thinking of Ending Things deal with the tensions of young Americas uncertain future. The few friends he made he drove away with his hatefulness. Taormina splits Ham on Rye into two tonally and thematically distinct segments: a sunny teenaged slice of life, followed by a grimmer, quieter look at what happens after the sun goes down. Reaktion Books, London, 2012. p. 146. Charles Bukowski. His writing skills make it empowering. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ham on Rye". By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. I dont get it. Then the ba-boom of a Phil Spector-ish anthem kicks in (by a 60s girl group called The Teardrops), and things get serious. Charles Bukowski. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Jake seems intent on displaying his shaky self-worth. For example, Henry's parents, like Bukowski's, had met in Germany after World War I. Like for instance, one boy carries around this strange pig toywhich of course aligns with the films title as well as with another scene where someone refers to porking [as] the ultimate purposethat eventually lands in the hands of an older character, who discards it with some disgust. Sad. 65. Werent most of us? Ham on Rye is roughly age 0-20, Women is in his fifties, and Post Office is somewhere in between those. Like Henry, the rest of the Chinaskis are modeled after Bukowski's own family. Without giving away too much, lets say the rest of the plot recalls the great Shirley Jackson story The Lottery. But theres no overt horror element, or violence, here. The grotesque-looking boils of his acne vulgaris will eventually turn their excuses for hating him into an ostracizing trifecta. And then, also being from the suburbs myself, youre dealing with these signifiers that are very familiar to me. While its eventually seen that some of the kids have mobile phones, Taormina purposefully dresses his cast and designs their environment in a way that throws them into a sort of temporal never-never land. The farmhouse seems to change shape, furnishings and configuration. 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). Can anyone with expertise or understanding please explain? Interesting view into the life of a boy who just never caught a break. Boys and girls start pairing up as if they were choosing teammates for a kickball game, and not everybody is picked. He never experienced love. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. The air is often dead, even when people are ostensibly being social: Asking a question or making an observation is no guarantee anyone will say anything in reply. 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. The next negative influence that Henry faces is from his mother since she is never really there for him and has no real connection with Henry other than being her offspring. And its here that the film matures into a weirdly sorrowful look at what our world does to teenagers, at the exceptionalism peddled to them without any sense of what they are exceptional from, and how much more likely it is, when you deal in the currency of exclusivity, that you will end up among the excluded. Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness, The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship, Portions from a Wine-stained Notebook: Short Stories and Essays, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ham_on_Rye&oldid=1056996657, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 November 2021, at 20:05. [3] It begins with Chinaski's early memories. Not sure why, but I really liked this. 6 reviews. 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. And thats the beauty of LA: theres so many different landscapes to choose from you go two hours outside LA in any direction, and [you can find] anything., Which also helped because we were looking for a sense of the economic differences in the town, added Lund. These films are unlike earlier genres of self-satisfied materialism or later rebellious promise. 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. 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. The novel focuses on the protagonist, Henry Chinaski, between the years of 1920 and 1941. 5 (3): 6. 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 type of description does not venerate or idealize the city, a contrast to other so-called "Los Angeles Novels". Ham on Rye is a captivating story that makes you attached to the book all the way to the end. The following guest essay on the making of Ham on Rye is from cinematographer Carson Lund. The girls talk about fashion and popularity. We're pleased to share the exclusive trailer premiere for Tyler Taormina's Ham on Rye, which will be released virtually on October 23rd in 20+ theaters nationwide.An unorthodox teen coming-of-age movie with an increasingly sinister twist whose details are best left unspoiled, Taormina's debut feature premiered at last year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival before making its . Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner. In my opinion it was like a "time to grow the fuck up" wake up call for Charles. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. As the story progresses the reader follows his life through the school years and into young adulthood. Watch through virtual cinemas. His young people reveal themselves in their dress and facial expressions. but that said, it doesn't really matter. 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. Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is Copyright 2009-2022, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. [4] He often resorts to violence when confronted with those who alienate him, giving him a tough guy image to his peers. 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. His lack of publishing success at this time caused him to give up writing in 1946 and spurred a ten-year stint of heavy drinking. Can anyone explain the end of 'Ham on Rye'? No. You might even feel the anticipatory dread of the familiar: oh no, not another prom movie tenderly observed, with just enough acne-ridden raunch to give a little edge to its otherwise placid, complacent lament for childhoods passing not again. , . 5 (3): 5, Fontana, Ernest. For example, Henry's parents, like Bukowski's, had met in Germany after World War I. It focuses instead on the vaguely insidious side of life that we not only tolerate, but embrace. s semi-decontextualized meeting spot Montys is in real life actually Berges, a deli in the La Caada Flintridge area of Los Angeles County. Ham On Rye was an absolutely enthralling experience and taking this journey with Henry "Hank" Chinaski was nothing short of a delight. Haley (Haley Bodell), the closest the film has to a protagonist, flees the deli ceremony, casting herself off as Amy Irving's character was cast off in Carrie. 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. Henry agrees to teach little kid how to play a game and by the end of it he just walks out. But I am really interested in seeing how these objects flow from person to person, and then get cast out into space.. His father was a mean-mouthed man who never showed his son any love or compassion. just finished ham on rye and was curious to hear some analysis/opinion on the abrupt ending with hank playing . Distributor: Factory 25 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 other has varied over time - first Jeanette Winterson's The Passion, then Donna Tartt's The Secret History, then Philip Roth's The Human Stain, alternating between them, back and forth - but always side by side with Ham on Rye. The unease is existential, as the fates of some of the couples make clear. thats eventually revealed to be a literal ceremony at the center of Taorminas debut feature. Enjoy them. 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. Its depiction of the American Suburbs feels less like a screenwriters nostalgia trick and more like the visual translation of a genuinely mental image, rich with detail and specificity. Like his previous works, Ham on Rye is set in Los Angeles where the author grew up. Filed Under: A+E, Film. Ham on RyeNot rated. Henry is not athletic but wants to be and therefore tries hard to improve. 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. 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. Researching the creative figures behind, (2020), what stuck out to me was the inevitability of certain voids. This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. Discomfort rises to terror as Louisa meets Jakes parents, played intensely by Toni Collette and David Thewlis. I reread that book recently, and still cannot understand the end of it - the arcade machine part. 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. However, this thread would be disingenuous if I did not say that I identified so strongly with Hank. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. 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. All the dread and the emptiness is what comes up after the big Monty's scene, when day turns to night, and when most of Ham on Rye's first-half cast disappears from the picture. Their dress and facial expressions not only tolerate, but I really liked this drove with. And Im Thinking of ending itbut Jake may actually be the one to end it all! 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