Main character is a loathsome creep
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AllieMDA — 10 years ago(February 11, 2016 08:43 PM)
eqdealerguy:
Reading this post of yours, I recalled a favorite novel of mine: 'Jernigan' by David Gates.
Underrated, sadly unknown, written by a guy whose day job was an arts & entertainment critic.
The narrator, Pete Jernigan, is a horrible person but he knows he is a horrible person, berating himself but unable to quit, as he goes on about his life. Talk about self-loathing but somehow still compelling.
If you dislike obscure literary references you might not like it. But from what you write here, I think you might get a kick out of it.
Example:
"I guess it's a Catch-22"
Obnoxious guy (Jernigan himself): Something Happened.
"How did you know???"
This is one of the less-obscure. I'm sure I have not caught them all, and most likely never will, but it makes it all the more fun to re-read once in a while. (Especially since I was 16 when I first read the thing. I now have mixed feelings about giving this book to a teenager) You don't have to get the refs to appreciate the book but it does add to the enjoyment - bitingly satiric.
David Gates (not the musician). Jernigan, the novel. Remember!! I think it was first published in 1991. I wish more people knew this book. People who like American Beauty would like this. -
LukeLovesFilm28 — 10 years ago(February 11, 2016 02:34 PM)
This strange, petty hatred for men who like younger women is a very new phenomenon, created by SJWs to further condemn male sexuality as evil. We have 19 year old lesbians who are fighting for the ability to date their 16 year old girlfriends. That's ok but not when it's a male in love with a female. I mean, 20 years ago, everyone was totally accepting of old men marrying really young women.
And Lester is a human being. He is not a fcking robot, programmable to respond to everyone and everything, one way and one way only. And I wouldn't have him any other way. Who wants to watch a character that is morally perfect?? That sounds boring as hell to me. -
homerj2us — 9 years ago(August 13, 2016 12:42 AM)
@lukelovesfilm28
Jesus Christ, you're gross.
There's nothing wrong with old men marry young women if both parties are of consent. Forcing women into young marriage b/c they have no other choice is not progress.
You sound like you have no brain, just a cock to think with. Lester isn't 19he's 45, and the girl he changes his whole life to beep is a messed up girl his kid's age. -
cartesianthought — 10 years ago(March 15, 2016 09:06 AM)
With so many movies establishing their characters as role models and Mary Sues, it's important to understand that sometimes movies want to make flawed characters so the viewer can relate to their flaws. This is similar to what F Scott Fitzgerald did with The Great Gatsby.
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phoenixandrew — 9 years ago(April 18, 2016 08:55 PM)
hiitsmewutsup-953-300236 wrote:
"I used to love this as a kid, believe it or not. The characters were so lively in a sitcom-y way, but the addition of tits and profanity made it a little naughty- like an HBO original. I'm reading the script now, and I never realized what a repugnant little beep Lester is. So pompous, and smug about how enlightened he's become! That's what happens when you embrace your inner pedophile, I guess. As unsympathetic as Carolyn is, he is absolutely largely at fault for the dissolution of their marriage."
You just don't get it. You sound just as messed up as Carolyn and Jane. They were both the reasons for Lester's demise. At least Lester realized that making love to Angela was wrong and acted more like a father figure to her, something that Jane wouldn't allow her dad to do with her. Lester had the misfortune to live with an unloving family. -
Hythlodaeus — 9 years ago(April 20, 2016 09:30 AM)
Well, I turn 42 (same age as Lester) in a couple of months and at the time the film came out I was what 26? Well at 26 I was blown away by the movie because I could see how true it was. However, back then I was still happily married and back then I didn't see Carolyn at all in my wife (Or Styler from Breaking Bad).
The main character is a person caught in the currents of history. Men were not made to be broken and flabby working at desks (but we can't all be construction workers addicted to pain killers or the Marlboro man dying of cancer now can we?)
Lester was probably given the name Lester because it's like Hustler's character "Chester the Molester" but Lester is not a perv, he is just a regular guy having a hard time in life. Scientists are now proving that people go through various developmental periods - they now say (1) Adolescence (2) teens and 20s (3) 40s and (4) 70s where they grow and change.
Lester just is going through a self-reflective period that Carl Jung saw in his patients but he doesn't have anyone to help him figure it out so he struggles, but in the end he makes the right decision.
What hump? -
ruem-119-846172 — 9 years ago(January 22, 2017 08:24 PM)
beep Lester IS a beep pedophile. Get over it. And quit blaming WOMEN for his problems. His problems are his own and he can't own up to it because the truth is, he's a little BOY in a man's body. And given the entitlement afforded to straight, white men, he thinks that he SHOULD own whatsername's body, so he becomes his own chickenhawk. I'm GLAD he eats it in the movie. Men like that NEED to "walk toward the light", so to speak. And NO, old men marrying younger women is NOT totally ok..they see it as their privilege. They need to grow the beep up.
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liutenantsalt — 9 years ago(May 15, 2016 05:07 AM)
All the xharacters in this movie are laughable, unbelievable caricatures and cliches. This movie is nothing else than the Hollywood Regressive Elite looking down their collective noses at the middle class, or at least at some hysterically vilifying cartoon thereof.
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moralesmassin — 9 years ago(July 14, 2016 04:22 PM)
What the OP doesnt understand is what the character is going through and how this propels his evolution until the end of the movie. Someone already pointed out that evolution, so I
ll just talk about why him liking the girls does not make him "a creep". People have sexual urges and fantasies, and his attraction to her is normal within these boundaries. His attraction/adoration towards her is there to show us how much of a loser he is. He has nothing and so when he sees this beautiful sexy girls hes blinded. He starts pulled towards her, but what youre trying to ignore is that when he starts changing he absolutely stops. She was a catalist but not much more. This is not the story about him hunting her down, its the story of Lester going from a numb husk of a man to a happy one.
The proof of that is what everyone here is telling you: he doesnt sleep with her. In the end she is attracted to him and his fantasies come true. He still has the hots for her but in spite of that, he backs down because he realizes its not right. What creep would do that? Youre not seeing the shades of grey, its like you were watching another movie or only the first 20 minutes of it. Youre condeming the charachters sexuality and thats childlish. People are attracted to others all the time and have fantasies, even if theyre married or if its morally wrong. Thats not only normal but its healthy to admit. The creep factor comes in when people act on it and hurt others. -
Lester_Burnham_Risen — 9 years ago(August 11, 2016 04:45 PM)
She had finally had someone ie Ricky stand up to her and explain the REAL American Beauty about life so it was way past the time she HAD to get laid as she was essentially over the hill and the older she got the more frigid she got and the more "unfriendly" to any possible blokes brave enough to be abused.
http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/ -
Picnic10 — 9 years ago(August 12, 2016 02:40 PM)
Lester_Burnham_Risen, I think your comments are bizarre.
Ricky, OK, is a voyeur with a thousand yard stare. He has, or claims, some interest in art and is cool in a detached kind of way but he utterly unfairly makes out that Jane, obsessed with her boob size and angry all the time, is somehow more authentic than Angela who has been inwardly dying for a long time, not because of personality failings of her own (as Lester says, he'd be lucky to have her, temporarily or permanently) but because the average person unfairly fears her Lolitaish wrapping (perhaps because they sense an emotional intelligence, albeit a naturally scared one, in Angela that society generally prefers to imagine doesn't exist in young girls).
And you want to make some completely paedophilic comment that Angela's over the hill for your tastes? This is American Beauty, not Lolita.