MY FIRST MISTER
US, 2000, 100 minutes, Colour.
Albert Brooks, Leelee Sobieski, Carol Kane, John Goodman, Mary Kaye Place, Michael Mc Kean.
Directed by Christine Lahti.
My First Mister is directed by actress Christine Lahti. It is a strong film about adolescent alienation embodied by Lily Sobkieski very effectively. She is a lonely seventeen-year-old with a chirpy mother (Carol Kane) and a silent stepfather (Michael Mc Kean). Eventually persuaded to find a job, she encounters the manager of a clothing store in a mall, played very effectively and differently by Albert Brooks. Gradually they become friends and have an effect on each other. There is pathos at the end as it is revealed that the shop manager has leukaemia and is about to die.
Well performed, a strong performance by Leelee Sobieski contrasting with that of Albert Brooks who is usually far more ironic and deadpan. The screenplay is very direct and sometimes confrontative. However, it is an interesting example of films about adolescent alienation (and could be compared to the later Charlie Bartlett).
1.Americana at the beginning of the 21st century? The world of adolescents, alienation, family, loneliness, the contrast with age, business, illness?
2.The different Los Angeles worlds, homes, school, the malls, shops? Outside Los Angeles, New Mexico? The musical score?
3.The range of moods, with J, with R, the clashes, the alienation, change?
4.The title, J and her relationship with R? J and her look, age, voice-over? Her black clothes, the piercings, tattoos? Her mother perennially bright? Bob as silent? With her peers, not having any real friends, seeing herself simply as not a boy? Her room, sullen? Her father and his absence, her anger at him, going to see him and the clashes? The frustration? Getting the job, at the mall, going into the shop? Her fantasies and changing people’s appearances?
5.R, his age, appearance, manner, the shop, clothes, his initial reaction to J? Her return, his giving her the job, not wanting the piercings? Her transformation? Her mother admiring her in a dress? The tryout, the other members of the staff, the stacking room, her attempt to sell a suit to the man with blue eyes? Talking, the growing trust?
6.R giving J the lift, the café and her types, the different kind of music? The effect on J, liking R’s company, the outings, home, listening to each other’s music and disliking it, persuading R to have the tattoo and his wanting a very small one, the woman with the tattoos all over her and her head, the dares? Her changing? Her mother’s visit to the shop? The meals?
7.R and his friend, the nurse, J jealous, the testing of trust, hurt? R and going to the apartment, her looking it over, taking it? Telling her mother about moving out? The visit to her father? The issue of sexuality, the platonic friendship?
8.R’s collapse, in hospital, J upset? Searching for photos, for R’s wife? Going to Mexico, finding the son, his hostile reaction, not knowing about his father, his mother’s death and her silence? The drive to Los Angeles and their tension?
9.J and her visit to her father, his being a slob, manner of talking, his reaction? The later visit for the meal?
10.R and his friendship with the nurse, the sexual encounter, being caught by J and his son? At the hospital, the home meal, everybody at the table, commonality, the toast, cheerful, dancing? Her mother and Bob, her father and his girlfriend, R’s son, friend?
11.The effect of R’s death, the funeral ceremony, the aftermath? J and R’s son?
12.R’s life, closed in on himself, reading, quiet, disillusioned by marriage, not knowing about his son? Illness, change in possibilities? J's life and the potential for her funeral?
