Sex and Satire

74 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 Culture B O O K S | F I L M | M U S I C S atires, parodies, dark comedies, darkly funny dramas —these classifications attempt to get to the meaning and perhaps the intent behindafilmornovel ,the“why” rather than the “how” of its creation. Good satire gives us wit, irony, and exaggerations for a purpose: It holds a mirrortosocietyinsomeway,howeverdistorted , that enables us to recognize ourselves and, perhaps, choose some other route.Lately,itseemstherehavebeenalot of films with, at the very least, satirical overtones, like Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona, released earlier this year, and the two films reviewed here, the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading and AlanBall’sTowelhead. Burn After Reading is uniformly critical of every character that populates it, as well as of marriage, sex, the government, and the modern cult of self-improvement. Towelhead takes on the suburbs, racism, teenage sexuality, and the hypocrisy surrounding each. Categorization and genres aside,oneofthesetwofeelsmoresuccessful whenexaminedonitsownterms,withinits owncontainedworld(hint:it’stheonethat hasbeenseen,todate,byabout1/100ththe audienceoftheother). Filmed around the same time as Oscar victor No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading is saturated with star power and, to be fair, the expectations that follow such a cast. But if there’s one thing that’s consistent about the Coen brothers, it’s their inconsistency ;theyhavegraceduswithgems likeFargobutalsowithturkeyslikeIntolerable Cruelty. You can count on them to be prolificbutnotmuchelse.Inthelight/dark espionage/caper vein, Burn After Reading delivers cleverness, usually in the form of its predominant emotional tone, vitriolic anger, in a Washington, D.C., that’s [FILM] Sex and Satire BURNAFTERREADING,FocusFeatures TOWELHEAD,WarnerIndependentPictures Review by Katje Richstatter populated entirely by assholes and idiots. On the asshole roster is Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), spitting out the best of the vitriol, his wife, Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton ), coldly conducting an affair with one of their mutual acquaintances, who happens to be both an asshole and an idiot, Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney.) On the pure idiot list is Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand ), Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), andTedTreffon(RichardJenkins),worker bees at a gym called “Hardbodies” that mightaswellbecalled“Hardheads.” The plot chugs into motion around Cox’s demotion from a CIA post for his alcohol problem (showcased during the rest “Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.” -Vladimir Nabokov Brad Pitt stars in Joel and Ethan Coen's dark spy-comedy Burn After Reading, a Focus Features release MACALL POLAY culture.qxd:MA 2007 11/5/08 2:43 PM Page 74 them from us, to form a world that is thoroughly without meaning. The sport of mockingthisemptyworldmightbetolerable ,ifonlyitwereentertaining. The world of Towelhead, based on Alicia Erian’s novel, is not a gleeful place, either : it is an ugly Texas suburb shadowed by the first Gulf War and its “These Colors Don’tRun”patriotism,andpopulatedwith characters enduring the pain and confusion of growing up. Fans of Alan Ball’s HBOseriesSixFeetUnderknownottoexpect much glossing-over of hard realities, but he does craft his characters with care, making even the most flawed and unlikable actually seem human. The story centers around Jasira Maroun (Summer Bishil), a half-Lebanese, half-white teen who is sent to live with her father in Houston after her mother’s boyfriend is caught trying to shave the thirteen-year-old’s pubic hair. The mother blames her boyfriend’sinappropriateactonJasira.The troubles in Jasira’s life orbit around her awakening sexuality, the curiosity and shameofit,attractingattentionthatisboth unwantedanddesperatelywanted.There’s also the casual racism pervading her life, both directed at her by others, and espoused by her own father, Rifat Maroun (Peter Macdissi), who forbids her to date a blackstudentinordertopreserveherreputation . Rifat is alternately overbearing and unavailable, not a bad parent exactly, but an inconsistent one, leaving Jasira to her own impulses. An immigrant, he seems to lookathisadoptedworldwithdisdainand superiority, while simultaneously buying intothe“Americandream”mentality. The neighborhood functions like a small town, paradoxically isolating and brimming with secrets. Enter the family of an army reservist, Travis Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart) and peace corps wife Melina Hines (Toni...