the lesson learned: drugs are terrible.

Jesus' Son certainly brought up the question of what is reality and what is not. Where does reality begin and the illusion end? It is difficult to decipher what happened at what point in his life and if situations he remembers are fabricated in some way or altered because of the drugs. But, I'm taking the film for what it is and as it shows it to me. For example, in the scene were FH and Jack Black's character are in the hospital, they do ingest a lot of pills. He hallucinates as they walk through the empty drive-in parking lot where he believes they're in a graveyard but in reality it is just a drive in and those are stands where the cars are. That is his hallucination and as soon as he realizes it is his reality. The same with the tragic incident of the bunnies. It really happened. In his drug induced state he had completely forgotten about them and sat on top of them. I'm glad they didn't show any squashed bunnies!

As for the question of when he began his drug habit seemed to only become really defined when he met Samantha Morton's character. His involvement with her really brought his problem out and his use became more frequent. It seems he began with her and then the habit took off on a course all its own, even going to score alone from someone that he doesn't even know. He could have died buying those drugs unless she woke him up again. It is ironic that she was able to wake him up from his almost dead-state but he wasn't able to wake her up in the same way later on in the film. He did seek redemption in the form of rehab. Those religious themes are littered throughout the film in obvious forms and not so obvious forms.

Two times when this religious theme is apparent is when he sits in the diner and he places his face in the window. It looks as if there are a crown of thorns on his head as Jesus had when he was persecuted. Another example is when he follows a man that he believes to be lucky to the laundromat and the heart with the thorns around it, often used in religious images, is right against his chest. The film seems like it's ultimately about redemption. At his core, he really is a decent human being. I liked him from the start. He just seemed honest and that line at the beginning of the film really got to me. He just wanted to feel again after feeling numb for so long. I sympathized with him and I wanted to see him have a happy ending. In a way, he had the best ending that he could have. He no longer had to take comfort in someone from a distance (the Amish family). He's walking down his own road, his own path and hopefully he stays clean.

mr. hall, how can i answer that?

I watched Clueless for the first time when I was 11 years old. It was at a party where all the teenagers and kids were gathered in one room and someone stuck a movie in and that was it. I admit that I didn't understand most of it since most teenage lingo had been completely beyond my comprehension for an 11-year-old but I understood the basic plot. I fell in love with it immediately. I bought it and watched it several times over, when my friends were over and watch it at least once a year if not more. Monday night's screening of Clueless definitely brought about new revelations of the film for me that I have not even considered before.

I put Clueless into the same category as the Breakfast Club. Both films really presented the idea of class really well even though I believe that Clueless has a level of sophistication in it that the Breakfast Club doesn't. The character of Elton is the quintessential snob character, even more so than the main characters of the film. He shouts at Cher, "Do you even know who my father is!" Cher hits the nail right on the head when she proclaims him a snob -- and a half. Clueless approaches the subject of class really well with the introduction of the character of Tai. There is a definite class distinction between Cher and Dionne and Tai. Though Tai's home life isn't profiled (no mention of mother, father, where she lives) it's all in the outfit and that's all that the film needs. The film begins with Cher choosing her extravagant wardrobe so wardrobe is a large feature. As was said in class, Tai's wardrobe isn't exactly from Dior or Versace but it becomes the same style as Cher and Dionne. She becomes one of them by emulating style and even conversation and thereby becomes one of them. She's included, regardless of her background.

The other observation I made is the same as an observation made in class that the popular kids in school (probably with the exception of Elton) are really kids with good hearts and good intentions. They may seem ditzy and incredibly superficial on the outside but once conversation is heard, they want to be activists, believe that they're doing something good for Tai and Cher even retains her virginity as part of her values. That's something that isn't regularly viewed in high school movies. Again, I reference the Breakfast Club and Molly Ringwald's character who is also a virgin, both instances where the popular kids in school retain that value. Yes, not all the main characters retain it but the narrator of the story -- Cher -- does and she should be the focus. This is a very smart film, capturing the vernacular of the time very accurately and launching those phrases into popular culture. I still hear the occasional conversation where someone tosses in an 'As if'. I just hope that the rest of the audience has also recognized what a smart and clever film this is and that it's not just the teenage film that it seems to be.

supposedly gripping but lacks a bit.

I am an independent film fan. I love the abnormal, strange, films that really make you think and some of those have a narrative plot and some don't. I'm not going to categorized Eve's Bayou as a black film as I wouldn't call a film with an all white cast and a white director as a white film. It does have a fantastic cast and a story and scenery that is so appropriately set in the beautiful rural landscape of the south. The cinematography is stunning. Not only did the cinematographer know how to film the countryside but there are also the sequences of the flashbacks and the psychic visual interpretations that really had me paying close attention. The way it's filmed is so gritty as if that is truly a memory. A memory and a prediction according to the visual image is gritty, brilliant flashes of a thought where there are familiar characters but that person isn't really sure of what's happening. That's why the characters interpret someone, one of the children, dying. They see the flash but they don't know what it's in reference to and the black and white images really captured that uncertainty because I didn't know what was happening either.

The actors in this film are all incredibly talented. I recognize Jurnee Smollett who plays the young Eve as a regular guest star on Full House. Meagan Good is a very talented actress who has been in plenty of television and film recently. Samuel L. Jackson of course is the celebrity name in the film. His Cajun accent seems dead on, that mix of French and English that is so rampant in that area and I enjoyed the authenticity. Lynn Whitfield is very talented and I hadn't seen her in many of her performances but have certainly heard of her. Her performance is very memorable as the mother, very commanding and her presence draws my attention in immediately. The last name I'll mention is Debbi Morgan whose character is Mozelle. She's very recognizable to me because of her performance in the television film Roots. Her screen presence is absolutely mesmerizing. Her eyes really capture my attention and as she speaks it's always as if it's about something really important and in this film, it usually is because she's a psychic. People are drawn to her because she has the gift of sight and can absolutely answer someone's question.

Lastly, I do want to say that unlike the previous films, I couldn't find a strong connection in the plot. As soon as I felt like the story was going somewhere incredibly dramatic and compelling, it immediately falls flat. The father's various affairs leads him to his death. His sister has a premonition of this. Eve catches him with another woman. I just hadn't really been interested in the story itself because it isn't a powerful story. The narration begins with a woman talking about her name and some family history. Therefore, I expect more family history throughout the story than what is presented in the film. For example, some historical flashbacks to Eve's namesake and her story that relates to the present story being told. Unfortunately, I did not receive that. Maybe my expectations are too high for the film but I don't think so. I've heard so much about the film and was disappointed after watching it regarding the plot but certainly not the visual aspects of it as I've already discussed. Though I feel that the plot falls flat doesn't mean that I'm not intrigued by the dynamics of family and the strong bonds that are formed within this particular family. There are the sibling bonds between the three children (Eve going so far as to curse her father because of what she thought he did to her sister), Roz's relationship with Mozelle, Mozelle's relationships with her husbands and Louis's relationships with everyone else. This is a strong family dynamic and ultimately it's what bonds them to one another in times of sadness and joy.