When Writer, Director, Producer Alan Ball's work touches the screen it hits its viewers heads with a polarizing ray. The odds are, if you're between the ages of 18-35 you saw and enjoyed American Beauty and you're parents...didn't feel the same. Its a trend that I've noticed ever since the film was released. The people of my generation, Y, seem to think of the film as an uncompromising piece of art that meticulously exposed many common issues that exist within the fabric of the Rockwellesque, plastic, suburban unit. There is a vivid gap between the films that defined our parents generations and ours and it is readily apparent on their reaction to this film. A work that seemed to hit so close to home for parents living mirror image lives to that of the Burnams and having the holes in their picture perfect American dream exposed, appropriately, didn't sit right with them. Generation Y, as a whole, seems to be much more open to finding beauty and light in the darkness of the world. There is evidence of this in every facet of art that's been created by and for us. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and TOOL are some of the biggest rock groups in the world, not exacty Frankie Valley and The 4 Seasons; Darren Aronofskys Requiem For a Dream and Richard Kellys Donnie Darko became some of the most popular films for younger people in the last 10 years. The Baby Boomers were fans of some dark tales too but all of those films were rooted from a place of pure fantasy. Many of the films in our generation are intent on being as real and raw as possible to create a world that is easily relatable.
Ball's work always tackles issues that, on mere plot description, most would rather shy away from then see a film about. His new film, Towelhead, is set during the onset of the gulf war and follows a 13 year old Arab girl, Jasira who is sent to live with her father in Houston Texas. The story follows Jasira as she struggles with her Father, her racist classmates and her realization about the bleak view people have of her as an Arab American. Amidst all this, Jasira develops a sexual obsession with her 40 something bigot of a next door neighbor and must wade through all this to live a "normal" life. Ah, the never ending search for normalcy, a constant theme in Ball's films. People repressing the need for true happiness to fit into a mold of which they believe their lives should fit when in reality, happiness is happiness no matter what way you cut it. Every character in American Beauty was searching for something that wasn't there but from the eyes of an outsider they were the classic family unit devoid of any 'real' problems. There were many cracks in that white picket fence, there are cracks in lots of suburban families that develop because so many things are buried, repressed and their lives become material in nature as everything is left to fester until they implode and do some of the incorrigible things that happen in an Alan Ball film. These films have messages that generation Y seems to eat up and our parents seem to dismiss without true recognition. Maybe its because these films are as raw as they can be mean in the depiction of the subjects they portray and some parents may take this as an insult to the life they have built for their family. Maybe its the fact that the younger generations have developed more of an appreciation for harsh art or most likely its a combination of the 2 that separate our views on works like this. What I'm wondering is, will my children and I differ as much in our appreciation of art as my parents and I do? Will art continue to get more harsh and dark or had it hit its apex, and will soon regress back to happier times? Was the reaction of our Grandparents generation to Kubrick films the same as our parents to Ball, PT Anderson, Aronofsky and Kaufman. That would mean that these films will also be enjoyed by the next generation just as we enjoy Kubrick, Lumet, and Polanskis work.
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