Never trust a hippie with your wife.

The Movie: Down and Out in Beverly Hills, directed by Paul Mazursky
Recommendation: AMC
Reason: Hey look, a movie! On TV! What a novelty!

It's very difficult to believe that Down and Out in Beverly Hills was made over twenty years ago. The cinematography's excellent, likely pretty innovative for the late eighties. It was the first thing I noticed about the film, though there were a lot of other points that caught my attention. The plot is similar to American Beauty, but the execution and tone is different. Down and Out focuses on the same sort of journey, an awakening brought to the suburbs, but this awakening is gentle.

Lester (from American Beauty) somehow felt a little more real, a little more desperate than Dave, Richard Dreyfuss' suburban dad in Down and Out. Though the catalyst for the change they experience is desire, Dave's envy seems more pure than Lester's lust. When both of them see the object of their desire exposed for what it is, the result is strikingly similar-retreat, relief. It could be a quirk of the actors, but I feel it's more a reflection of the material and mood of the respective films.

Overall, this was an interesting light to American Beauty's dark. There were a few moments of really solid brilliance in the film, though there were definitely some low points (AhemLittleRichardAhem). It had several subtle points that were made, once more about the society that the suburbs seem to create within and without. Very interesting.

-61/365 down, 304/365 to go