Flashbacks
Can someone explain the flashbacks? Was Joe abused by his grandmother or just exposed to that life? What about crazy Annie and the men harassing them? What does she mean he's the only one?
shareI haven't read the book and the flashbacks are almost certainly left open for different interpretations in the film, but here's my take.
Joe wasn't abused by his grandmother, in fact she kind of neglected him when he was growing up because she ran around with a lot of men (all cowboy types and thus influencing Joe's view on male heterosexuality). Their relationship was a little too close for comfort when they spent time together though, not incestuous, but just enough to let the audience know their relationship wasn't exactly normal. The orgasmic massages in the beauty parlor, laying semi-naked in bed together when Joe is just a little too old, and sharing it with his grandmother and the man she was obviously having sex with let's the audience know it was a little strange. Very complicated relationship and I'm sure whole papers have already been written about it.
Long story short about Crazy Annie and the men. Annie had slept with a few of Joe's friends and other men around town ("After kissing Annie, you need to drink the whole drug store," or something like that is said when Joe and Annie are making out in the theater), but Joe fell in love with her, kissed her in public, was having sex with her in public, and they paid the price for it. The guys followed them, raped them both, and she was so traumatized she got sent to an insane asylum or something like that.
"You're the only one," means that Joe is the first man she's had sex with that seemed to give a damn about her and care about her, making her say he's not like the others and that he's the only one she's really liked out of all the guys she's been with. Joe takes it as he's the only who has given her real pleasure and, assuming most men are bad at sex, thinks he's really good at it and decides to try out his skills in New York on more experienced women.
My two cents, hope it answered some of your questions.
You really did help me understand it better. Thank you. Is this your personal interpretation?
shareJoe wasn't abused by his grandmother,
I don't know about that part. Everything else you wrote I would totally agree with and it actually helped deepen my understanding of the film. But I just re-watched it today for the first time in several years, and there was a scene where his grandmother is spanking him (bare-a$$ed) and then she gets an enema bag--and it cuts to the scene where the men raped him and Crazy Annie. I took that to mean that his grandma had a sexualized way of punishing him, such as using enemas when he was bad, and that he experienced that as a violation. I think he was pretty damaged by all those experiences and it ultimately affected his view of his own masculine sexuality, which is why (I believe) there was such a theme throughout the movie about whether he was gay--the first time he goes to Rico's "home" he tells Rico he's REALLY not gay, one of his female "customers" asks him if he's gay and he ends up having really passionate sex with her--clearly to prove that he ISN'T gay, Rico hugs him romantically when he's wiping sweat off his face using his shirt, repeated interactions with gay/trans characters that appear to make him feel uncomfortable and confused...that subject came up SO many times in this movie that I think it was meant to be important. share