SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS
US, 1998, 91 minutes, Colour.
Alan Arkin, Natasha Lyonne, Kevin Corrigan, Jessica Walter, Rita Moreno, David Krumholtz, Carl Reiner, Marisa Tomei.
Directed by Tamara Jenkins.
Slums of Beverly Hills is certainly an oddball comedy. The juxtaposition of slums and Beverly Hills in the title indicates the ambiguities that are there in the characters and in the plot. The film is the work of writer and director Tamara Jenkins. It has a very good cast led by Alan Arkin and Carl Reiner as two brothers but focuses on a young teenager, played by Natasha Lyonne. There is a very good supporting cast with characters like Marisa Tomei, Rita Moreno and Jessica Walter as well as Kevin Corrigan who has appeared as a strange character in many films.
The setting is the 1970s, the focus is on a dysfunctional family, a father who has an addiction to gambling, drives around Los Angeles with his daughter and her two brothers going into cheap motels. One of the reasons is that living in Beverly Hills qualifies for the daughter to get a better education. However, the kind of education that the daughter receives is from the strange characters in this nomadic existence. The focus is on family, family relationships. However, it is also on rites of passage, especially about sexuality. The film itself plays for oddball comedy rather than explicit moralising. In this way it is entertaining - but requires some reflection on the part of the audience so that they can assess what is really happening, the values of the characters, the ultimate ends of this kind of life.
1. The impact of the film? The title, the contrast between slums and Beverly Hills? Rich and poor? The ironies of American society?
2. The 1970s setting, cars, clothes, manners, mores? The contrast with the 90s and comparisons?
3. The Beverly Hills setting, Los Angeles? The seedy motels, the parks, homes? The home base for these eccentric characters? Their not having a permanent home?
4. The nature of the comedy, broad comedy, satire, irony? The physical comedy, verbal comedy, innuendo? Combining for an oddball comic experience?
5. The portrait of family, the single father (later mistaken for the children's grandfather) and his relationship to his children, his neglect of them, care of them? His wanting a better education for Vivian? Neglecting the boys? The decision to move from hotel to hotel to have a Beverly H ills address for a better education? His character, dodging the rent, his relationship with his brother, with Rita? His girlfriend and the response of the family? The other women in his life? Gambling, success and failure?
6. The focus on Vivian, her age, experience, smart, her father wanting to get her a better education? Her relationship with her brothers, love, antagonism? The moving into the hotels, the demands for space, for rooms etc? Her love for her father? Her meeting with Elliott, his drug-dealing? The arrival of Rita, Vivian and her looking after Rita? Rita and the police, Murray and his bringing her home? Her staying with the family? The influence on the others? The move to the better motel, Rita and the discussions with Vivian about sexuality? Vivian and the meeting with Elliott, the sexual encounter and its impact on Vivian? Their return to the hotel, finding Rita, the struggles with reviving Rita? The family lunch, Mickey and his attack on the family, the irony of Vivian stabbing the leg with the fork? What Vivian had learnt from these encounters, from Elliott, from Rita? Moving off to the new hotel?
7. Rita, drugs, age, experience? Emotional instability? Wandering, the police? Her moving in with the family, her father giving money, his wanting her to go to nursing college? Rita, the discussions about sex? The urine sample, her being pregnant? Her boyfriend, the phone call, his refusal to acknowledge the child? Her taking the sleeping pills, Murray, the paramedics, Rita being revived? Her parents coming, her father attacking her, attacking Murray? Telling her parents she is pregnant, the return home - a future?
8. Murray, a decent man, trying his best despite his addictions? His girlfriends?
9. The brothers, their age, experience, on the move, neglect of education, having to cope?
10. Elliott, the L.A. drug dealers, the friendship with Vivian, the sexual encounter? Helping with Rita? His future?
11. A glimpse at the American way of life, a caricature of family - yet its relationship to actual families and the challenge for people to reflect on the nature of families and relationships?
