I was completely overjoyed when sheeny named the god 'Albert, after Albert Camus.' I know it's a small side part of the film, but it is nice to see an agnolegment in the mainstream media that teenagers can, in fact, read good novels and know about existentialism and stuff, and (GASP) still be hot!
As a fifteen year old Camus fan, that made me smile.
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Yes they do. You know the wrong teenagers. So evidently there is at least one fifteen year old camus fan, and I know several others, although you'll have to take that on trust.
shareAt the moment sheeni named the dog Albert, every person in the entire theatre stopped laughing for the rest of the film. The comedy in that film flies over the heads of about 98% of youth today. It was untruthfully marketed to youth of 2010. I appreciated it, but I'm 30.
shareI think your an exception to your generation, but for that I commend you, the majority of 15 year olds these days read twilight, but I do also know intellectual youth its nice to see them represented in a movie
What happens when you spill carpet cleaner?
What a marvelous gross generalisation.
What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here
I was also overjoyed when she made reference to Jean-Luc Godard and Serge Gainsbourg.
shareLearn how to spell "acknowledgement" before you talk about how smart you are.
shareThe jokes were simple and the references could not possibly fly over anyone's head: where I live, philosophy is a mandatory class, including Sartre and Kierkegaard (for the post mentioning existentialism), and film history is a voluntary one. This being in high school.
Knowing names like Gainsbourg, Camus and Godard is expected, it's a part of a general education and while the ones who are unaware of them might be ignorant, inane namedropping doesn't make anyone intelligent in the least. Neither does appreciating older music or admiration towards European cinema.
Everything needs a basis, a reason, or we're talking about some elitist craving to be superior to others aka swimming against the tide for the sake of the action. Not certainly, but possibly. This "anti-sheep effect" is how subcultures are formed and it creates mentalities as bad as the ones they set out to deviate from.
I advise no teenager to stamp themselves as intelligent or mature. We're simply not there yet.
You must be exceptional because the I've lived my whole life without meeting someone in real life that enjoys the kind of films that I do, unless of course I introduced it to them. Actually, I did meet a prof or two who knew about Tarkovsky or something along those lines, but no people my age and definetly no high school kids. When I heard the name dropping of these artists, I rolled my eyes. The writer needs to try and remember that he's writing about kids, not uber-educated adults.
shareI think it's a cultural thing. I'm in london, and while it's not everyone, there's definitely a significant majority of people at my school who read good books and listen to good music. Don't underestimate youth. People like the people in this film are rare, but they do exist.
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Camus can do, but Sartre is smarter. :-p
sharePeople who sit on top of their horses and crow about how intelligent they are do not strike me as intelligent people.
shareI agree fully.
Intelligence is just a flawed/inaccurate concept for the sole purpose of ranking and classifying a person's worth.
Why is it someone who has the ability to memorize irrelevant factoids perceived to be more intelligent than the average joe? Why is it that those who have an interest in math or science get acknowledged for their 'brilliance' when they are simply applying rules they have been exposed to? If genius is determined by cognitive speed and not articulation, memory, or application, would there be a smaller percentage of true genii? What about creative or musical types? Are they not included in the intellectual spectrum? What qualifies as 'intelligence' anyway? Does anyone have a clear answer to any of these questions?
I like to think we're just 'gifted apes'. If you believe you are a 'gifted person' then you likely just suffer from a superiority complex (or maybe an inferiority complex for the sake of balancing out your insecurities).
I don't think anyone in the movie struck me as 'gifted'. They even had to throw in a line about having gifted children. It made me cringe.
There is another word that starts with 'p' that hasn't been thrown around that I think fits this movie perfectly: pompous.
Oh yeah well Scooby Doo can Doo Doo, but Jimmy Carter is Smarter!
*awkward silence*