SPOILERS: I saw B&J around the time it came out. I remember going to the local record store and buying the sound track afterwards. I was 13/14 or so... when i was 11 i had just learned to juggle (and begin performing) so there can be some obvious connections made as to why I love this movie. I recently watched it again and took away some new feelings, while revisiting some old ones.
Depp is great in this movie, he plays his character half sane, half with-it. He is extremely soft spoken and communicates mostly through imitations of slapstick comedy routines, aping Chaplin, Keaton(Buster), among the more well known. In this way it comments on silent film. Though the film is a talkie, the love shared between Sam and Joon Pearl, is a silent yet deep one, cooked under the warmth of an iron.
The movie is also the dramatization of collage, thus invoking dada, surrealism, fluxus, and various 20th/21st century art movements / techniques. Playing cards for random house-hold items, and of course SAM's entire character and existence in this narrative, are case in point. As a performer, one learns how to cut, flip, spin, collage, and imitate (copy... think xerox)... Another movie in which this is also shown is FUNNY BONES 1995 (Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt (Eric in B&J), and Lee Evans (who would be the equivalent of Johnny Depp's character). There are probably more, i need to think about it, but these are wonderful studies on performance, the role of the performer, as well as the lives behind these great entertainers. Yet, with Benny and Joon, what we get is as a somewhat melodramatic love story.
The movie is not a super amazing awesome film, but it deserves an 8 out of 10. As I remember the movie reminds me of a time in my life before I discovered the punk community, when I saw glimpses of an alternative / arty / different than mainstream world. This movie somehow fits into that era, at the moment when the word alternative went from being used accurately within a community to describe their artistic endeavours, to the present when "alternative" as been co-opted and is now the norm (to continue on this time-line... it also seems as if we are passing that moment into the now, which is a blending of the two the mainstream and marginalized communities to the point where the margin and mainstream are both accomplice... yadda yadda) anyway... You can imagine they were listening to Nirvana on the set, (there is something very Washington (state) Oregon-ish to the whole setting??) or maybe i am imagining things, either way the film is somehow born of the time.
With B&J you have a sappy love story, which is more or less the main plot, and on the other hand you have some wonderful examples of this trickster (joker) character of Depp's who just shows up in the movie and is a perfect match for our "matchless" Joon. It is also the story of Joon's brother and his ability to let go off his past (which involves the losing of his parents, after which he takes on the responsibility of caring for Joon.... could the death of their parents been a contributing factor to Joon's instability?) and move on to enjoying his own life and the life of Julianne Moore's character Ruthie. The end scene when Benny lays the flowers for her (them) in the doorway is especially sweet, as it shows us he is ready to move forward. ... not interrupting their "silent" moment.
Another wonderful tidbit, is that in the end, Sam is totally content and wants be Joon's partner, as opposed to Benny's dream for him of touring and performing for people. He is happiest being with Joon, she is his greatest audience. Our art-hero shines brightly in this small-town, in-love and living with Joon, working at the movie store, hanging with the fam.
(gratuitous star fawning) Oh the "woman customer" played by Lynette Walden is totally hot (in the most grunge rocker STP, Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, Polvo way)!!! she could come back stage to my show anyday!!! amazing!!!
Depp is great in this movie, he plays his character half sane, half with-it. He is extremely soft spoken and communicates mostly through imitations of slapstick comedy routines, aping Chaplin, Keaton(Buster), among the more well known. In this way it comments on silent film. Though the film is a talkie, the love shared between Sam and Joon Pearl, is a silent yet deep one, cooked under the warmth of an iron.
The movie is also the dramatization of collage, thus invoking dada, surrealism, fluxus, and various 20th/21st century art movements / techniques. Playing cards for random house-hold items, and of course SAM's entire character and existence in this narrative, are case in point. As a performer, one learns how to cut, flip, spin, collage, and imitate (copy... think xerox)... Another movie in which this is also shown is FUNNY BONES 1995 (Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt (Eric in B&J), and Lee Evans (who would be the equivalent of Johnny Depp's character). There are probably more, i need to think about it, but these are wonderful studies on performance, the role of the performer, as well as the lives behind these great entertainers. Yet, with Benny and Joon, what we get is as a somewhat melodramatic love story.
The movie is not a super amazing awesome film, but it deserves an 8 out of 10. As I remember the movie reminds me of a time in my life before I discovered the punk community, when I saw glimpses of an alternative / arty / different than mainstream world. This movie somehow fits into that era, at the moment when the word alternative went from being used accurately within a community to describe their artistic endeavours, to the present when "alternative" as been co-opted and is now the norm (to continue on this time-line... it also seems as if we are passing that moment into the now, which is a blending of the two the mainstream and marginalized communities to the point where the margin and mainstream are both accomplice... yadda yadda) anyway... You can imagine they were listening to Nirvana on the set, (there is something very Washington (state) Oregon-ish to the whole setting??) or maybe i am imagining things, either way the film is somehow born of the time.
With B&J you have a sappy love story, which is more or less the main plot, and on the other hand you have some wonderful examples of this trickster (joker) character of Depp's who just shows up in the movie and is a perfect match for our "matchless" Joon. It is also the story of Joon's brother and his ability to let go off his past (which involves the losing of his parents, after which he takes on the responsibility of caring for Joon.... could the death of their parents been a contributing factor to Joon's instability?) and move on to enjoying his own life and the life of Julianne Moore's character Ruthie. The end scene when Benny lays the flowers for her (them) in the doorway is especially sweet, as it shows us he is ready to move forward. ... not interrupting their "silent" moment.
Another wonderful tidbit, is that in the end, Sam is totally content and wants be Joon's partner, as opposed to Benny's dream for him of touring and performing for people. He is happiest being with Joon, she is his greatest audience. Our art-hero shines brightly in this small-town, in-love and living with Joon, working at the movie store, hanging with the fam.
(gratuitous star fawning) Oh the "woman customer" played by Lynette Walden is totally hot (in the most grunge rocker STP, Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, Polvo way)!!! she could come back stage to my show anyday!!! amazing!!!