Articulate Monsters

Saw Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime at the slick new IndieScreen theatre last night in Williamsburg .

The film could not be clearer in its politics: America is a nation of over-medicated human shells posing as "normals" and living the bland life in Florida. Fine. Not an uncommon viewpoint, especially in independent film. But while Solondz's other films seem morally ambiguous,  "forgive and forget" is a lietmotif in this film, down to the theme song, "Life During Wartime," (lyrics written by Solondz and performed by Beck Hansen*). You could dismiss this as Solondz's ironic sensibility. But the movie reinforced these values so 'sweetly'.

From the child who forgives his pedophile father to the woman who works with (and eventually marries) ex-convicts, Solondz articulates and explains the compulsions of the most gruesome offenders. For example, by linking a pedophile's sexual urges to his seemingly innocent compulsion for gum-drops, Solondz implies that the perv has just as little control over his pedophila than he does over a sweet tooth.

Paul Reubens is also in Life During War Time, and during a q+a after the screening last night (hosted by another L magazine contributor, whom I'd never met before) Solondz said he cast Reubens precisely because of the cultural baggage the actor carries with him. Far from a reactionary or sensationalist artistic decision, Solondz is actually exonerating Reubens by hiring him, while at the same time generating a tension with the audience; forcing viewers who have not yet forgotten Ruben's gaffes to sympathize with this scripted character and forgive him.

* not a Talking Heads cover.