4/1 Klosterman Reading

Summary

This article discusses how many movies attempt to tackle the question of “what is reality?”  The author complains of the lack of audience appreciation for current movies attempting to answer this question.  Klosterman claims that the movies that receive the prestigious awards are often very dull and lack deeper meaning. Some movies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, like The Matrix, left a lasting mark on both audiences and critics as films answered this question of reality in their own ways.  The Matrix and Vanilla Sky depict their main characters choosing between two worlds- one that is fake and one that is real.  Other movies take different routes that involve one’s ability to remember reality and another’s difficulty to differentiate dreams from reality.  Klosterman argues that movies no longer consist of forward-thinking since reality is difficult to define in our present-day. At the end of the article, Klosterman concludes that reality may just be “both reflexive and inflexible.”

Example

When reading this article, I immediately thought about the movie American Psycho.  It leads you to believe throughout the movie that Christian Bale, a businessman in New York, becomes a serial killer and tries to get away with his numerous murders.  The movie comes to a close as Bale seems to have possibly lost his mind and made all of this up in his head, but the movie concludes without clarification of whether or not Bale is a serial killer or schizophrenic.  This movie shows reality through Bale’s eyes, but then the audience is slammed with the idea that Bale’s reality does not align with other sane characters’ realities. The audience is quite literally left with the question: what was the reality?

Connection

Klosterman’s argument that movies from the past often depict reality or question reality much better than current movies.  American Psycho would coincide with this claim since it is highly regarded by both critics and audiences and was filmed in 2000.  Christian Bale’s character takes us on a journey through his own reality without our knowledge. Many believe that everything Bale is doing is actually happening in the reality of the film.  That is what makes the ending so shocking. So many people did not expect to face the deep question of reality at the end of the movie. Was Bale’s confession a real confession to multiple murders? Or was it the ramblings of a man who is experiencing a psychological breakdown? If you believe in the latter explanation, then the movie shows great insight into how different someone’s perspective of reality can be when experiencing psychological distress.  There are multiple theories about the possible true endings of this movie, but the director intentionally left it unclear in order to spark discussion and reflection on numerous levels.