Redbox Recommendation: Revolutionary Road
Posted by Dewan Gibson | Filed under Arts
If you’re broke like me you probably frequent Redbox, the DVD vending machine that charges only one dollar per day for a movie rental. It’s great for catching up on films you wouldn’t dare pay movie admission for and for the oldies (Coming to America!) that they occasionally stock. What’s best about Redbox is that they stock neighborhood appropriate films. So if you leave in the hood you might have the option of renting Master P’s classic Bout It or any other straight to DVD film that you had no idea existed.
Unfortunately or fortunately, my neighborhood is comprised derelicts and druggies, university students, a brotha who works for UPS and tends to just sit in his truck and chill at around 4pm everyday and old white people who made the mistake of not buying property and are therefore stuck in subpar apartments. As a result I tend to get a good Redbox mix of Spanish language soft porn, numerous Cuba Gooding Jr. movies and of course the big box office films.
I recently rented Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet. Well let me be completely honest. I saw this film in the theater and rented it again months ago. I thought I returned, until Redbox deducted $20 from credit card for not bringing it back. I called Redbox and they refunded the $20, as I was sure the film was returned. Not too long ago I found the film in my apartment. I guess I should return it, oh nevermind…
Anyway, what I got from the film was “fear.” Fear of pursuing your dreams, fear of finally coming to the acceptance that you’ll end up average and middle class like most people in the US and fear of boredom with your partner. If you are the person who has not accomplished what you wanted to due to fear (stop being a lil bitch!) this movie will really shake you up. Also, if you are tired of your banal job and know you can do much more, watch Revolutionary Road for the scary inspiration.
I won’t give the entire film away, but Leo and Kate are a young married couple living in 1960′s suburbia. Winslet plays a failed actress turned housewife and mother, while Dicaprio is an unhappy 8am-5pm working man. They make plans to move to France, but fear and a conflict arises. The best scenes are when Leo gets down with some young intern and comes home to see a family that really loves him, when Kate goes crazy, when Kate goes crazy again and bangs this big oaf of a man, and when Kate goes crazy one last time and performs at home surgery.
Speaking of Kate Winslet, damn man she was an on-screen nymphomaniac last year. I saw two of her films and she was setting it out. Guess you do what you have to do for an Oscar.
Dewan W. Gibson: Author of The Imperfect Enjoyment
8 Responses to “Redbox Recommendation: Revolutionary Road”
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Allana Lake Says:
December 17th, 2009 at 7:36 pmSeent it! Excuse me, I saw that film. Didn’t think it was all deep like u made it sound lol. But it was a good movie, for a drama.
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Ruby Says:
December 18th, 2009 at 12:26 amI have never heard of this Redbox thing, which makes me think that perhaps they don’t have it here in Canada.
Interesting that you came up with “fear”. In my Motivation and Emotion class, we were talking about evolution, and how some automatic responses we as humans have were adaptive in the past but it takes evolution a good long while to catch up with us sometimes, so we’re left with maladaptive traits. One of which can be fear, incidentally, because it’s one of the strongest primal reactions we as humans have, which was really fantastic for us back in the days, but now can impede us greatly as fear in modern society often will be the death of you either directly or indirectly (not to mention anxiety disorders, PTSD, ulcers, lack of ambition, inability to reach for you dreams for fear of not being successful at it, etc etc). I haven’t seen this movie yet, but the way you’ve made it sound it might be an interesting watch…
…here, without Redbox, we get our cheapie movies another way, although I won’t incriminate myself by telling you how :-p
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illbedouin Says:
December 18th, 2009 at 9:39 aminteresting take on fear not being an evolved emotional response. I do think that it could stand to evolve a bit but at the same time fear is a strong motivator! lol A lot of people only visit the doctor for fear of something terribly wrong going on. I think “fear” Is necessary and yet needs to be managed well or it can take precedence in your life where it need not.
all in all i will check this movie out since leo is a great actor. i have been avoiding it as i couldn’t stand the last movie these too did together! :P ( couldn’t get into a 3hr love story where you knew the big ending ahead of time. )
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Ken Gibson Says:
December 18th, 2009 at 11:15 amI would rather watch Hangover again, are you in my Wolfpack? Lol
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Dewan Gibson Says:
December 18th, 2009 at 3:05 pmYeah “Ra-tard” lol
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Dewan Gibson Says:
December 18th, 2009 at 3:06 pmTru dat, tru dat. I mean fear of putting it all on the line. Fear of rejection, fear of “NO!”
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Dewan Gibson Says:
December 18th, 2009 at 3:09 pmWhat’s taking Redbox so long to get in Canada! Or what’s taking Canada so long to get Redbox? As for fear I’m scared of one thing: having to take a dump in a crowded nightclub, well night club bathroom of course. Not right in the middle of the club obviously.
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Ruby Says:
December 19th, 2009 at 7:49 amFear is definitely a useful tool to help us negotiate life, it’s the fact that the fear response hasn’t yet caught up to help us effectively navigate life in the 21st century. You see this with animals too: we all know the typical “deer caught in the headlights” phenomenon – in nature it makes more sense for a deer who is in danger to freeze because it makes them harder to spot and therefore to kill – but evolution hasn’t caught up to our new modern technology of cars…we don’t wanna hit the stupid deer and if it they would just get out of the way they would live to see another day.
With humans, we have so many unproductive fear responses, things like generalized anxiety and PTSD, which may have been helpful in the past but in society nowadays can be more hindering then helpful. I think when the fear response catches up we will see fear responses – they are natural, and useful in context- but they will be more helpful to our nowadays situations – fear and excitement at experiencing new things, fear of drugs and alcohol intoxication (instead of using drugs and alcohol to try and control non-useful or unreasonable fear that we feel), etc etc
And I’m sure it’s not Canada’s fault…We’re just the middle child, we always fall through the cracks until we make a big stink and Mommy decides to give us a new car to shut us up :-p
