MovieChat Forums > Hysterical Blindness (2002) Discussion > WTF?

WTF?

posted 16 years ago by smoke0
4 replies | jump to latest

With all the clubs (nobody called them bars) available in NY-NJ during the 80s, and the easily traveled routes to these clubs, nobody went to some sleazy local bar to meet new people, and it's obvious that the characters didn't go to this bar so they could hang out with old friends. On top of that, Uma's character commuted to work in the city each day, in her car!, so she couldn't stay there and go out with coworkers? or have Juliette's character take a bus or train in, or go home and then drive herself and Juliette's character back into the city at night? Even if they wanted to stay local so Juliette's character could get home quickly, there were plenty of places they could go to with dance floors, DJs or live bands, bouncers who let pretty girls in for free, and countless numbers of guys to flirt with, rather than going to some neighborhood dive.

Revenge is a dish that best goes stale.

[–] ElixerSue 16 years ago

they have neighborhood dives because some people prefer them. if they didn't, they wouldn't exist.
the club scene gets really old and sometimes you want to go somewhere less flashy. Not to mention sometimes people don't want to drive all that far to have a few cocktails. There's a million reasons why people prefer clubs to bars and a million reasons why they don't. One being the men are usually smarmy and looking for only one thing at clubs.

Alice abuses Bella with beauty products
Jasper: He knows his way down south

[–] smoke0 16 years ago

That's nice, but I am not talking about you, I am talking about the girls in this movie, who made a point of adjusting their appearances to be as "flashy" as possible to attract the attention of men. They were clearly not interested in going to the local bar just to have a couple of "cocktails" with all their friends for a couple of hours. The desperation the movie tried to portray in Uma's case would play better if the girls actually did the '80s club scene instead of concentrating on one local dive.

Revenge is a dish that best goes stale.

[–] noveltylibrary 15 years ago

Aw c'mon everyone loved the neighborhood dives in the 80's!

[–] gameengineer 15 years ago

I think the movie paints an accurate picture of many naive girls from small towns. Yes, they want desperately to meet a man, and he'd better be attractive, a good provider, etc. But they're not looking for a banker or a doctor or anyone too "city." They want someone from their own little world, i.e. their own social class and ethnic group. If they tried to "marry up" they probably wouldn't be happy or comfortable. They wouldn't share their mates' values. For example, a professional husband might be too busy working to strut around at the local bar. In my experience, that's a big deal... people from small towns tend to view their lives through the filter of their townspeople's expectations (always wondering what Aunt Bea and Ol' Man Hatchett would think...) and won't do anything too unexpected. So, while the girls are ambitious in their own way, it's a limited and endogamous ambition.