Kicking and Screaming

"Kicking and Screaming" is Noah Baumbach's debut comedy (with a twist of drama), originally released in 1995. My original interest in the film derived from how much I love Baumbach's later work "The Squid and the Whale." Later, I saw the cover when digging through DVDs put out by the Criterion Collection, and when I realized that it was available from streaming from Netflix, the table was set.

The plot of the film is nearly untraceable, if not almost non-existent. The story begins with several friends celebrating their college graduation (for one character, not his first). At this party, the young men realize that they are at a crossroads, and from that point on they spend the rest of their time trying to figure out what to do with their lives, whether it be writing, starting a book club, or (ironically) going back to college and taking all the classes they couldn't take earlier. Meanwhile, Grover - our dubious protagonist - is also trying to work out his feelings regarding his estranged girlfriend, who has moved to Europe rather than join him in stasis. The emotion reaches its climax when Grover, finally deciding to take action, attempts to buy a ticket to join his girlfriend in Europe only to be foiled by lack of a passport.

Considering it was merely his rookie work, Baumbach's "Kicking and Screaming" is impressive. Granted, the production is very low-fi, but that factor can be overlooked. Chris Eigeman, Eric Stoltz, and Josh Hamilton all bring their characters to life without over-acting or forcing the drama.

The film does not have a clearly linear narrative. It's more episodic and random, punctuated by recurring motifs such as the characters' inability to find their IDs when they need them (symbolizing, not so complexly, their inability to "find their identities"). Still, the film subtly builds to a climax in which you can't help but feel Grover's despair when - once again - he cannot move forward because he does not have the proper ID.

The writing of the film is rough and unrefined. The characters - especially the minor characters - tend to blend together into one indistinguishable list. The main characters themselves seem somewhat interchangeable - most of the dialogue could be delivered by any of the characters. The direction of the story is impossible to grasp as the film unwinds, although that may have been a point of style considering the characters themselves lack any direction. Either way, it dragged the movie to a crawl at points. It's also hard to figure out whether it's supposed to be a comedy with dramatic moments or a drama with moments of comedy.

Overlooking these flaws, "Kicking and Screaming" is enjoyable. Clearly, Baumbach was developing the style that he now relies on and setting himself up for his later success.

Lies My Teacher Told Me

Last week, I finished reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen. First published in 1995, the book analyzes twelve common high school American history textbook in regards to both the actual facts presented as well as the way in which the history is presented.

The opening volley of the text uses history textbook treatment of Christopher Columbus's voyages to condemn the textbooks as Euro-centric by pointing out the ways in which they omit certain facts, distort other facts, and (in some cases) invent undocumented facts. Most of the rest of the book follows this same pattern. There is also a breakdown of the process of "heroifcation" that takes place in textbooks, in which historical figures are presented as unblemished and ideal, rather than the flawed figures that they are. For example, the book points out that while most history textbooks mention Helen Keller overcoming her blindness and deafness, but not a single one mentions that she became a noteworthy radical socialist.

One of the more interesting chapters (actually, pair of chapters) discusses the disappearance of race (both racism and anti-racism) in American history textbooks. There is little to no mention of the history of explicit racism which saturates American history. In doing so, then, the textbooks prevent students from understanding complex historical figures. For example, the abolitionist John Brown is always presented as being a lunatic when, in fact, he was a highly intellectual person. But to discuss his intellect would reveal to the students that he spent much of his time arguing against racism, which is a taboo subject, so the students are only given a simplistic view of the man, which prevents them from truly understanding his motivation.

It is also funny Loewen points out how textbook authors strategically use the passive voice in writing, which effectively prevents students from seeing any causality in history. For example, he cites one textbook which, in discussing the Korean War, claims simply that "in June, 1950, war broke out" without any discussion of how the war broke out or what caused the conflict.

The title is a bit misleading because the book really condemns the American history textbook publishing industry and state textbook adoption methods (of which teachers are only a small part). But I guess a title along the lines of "Lies My American History Textbook Presented Me With and Which the State Textbook Adoption Board Approved, Making Them Complicit in My Miseducation" would have been a bit clunky.