Lines of coke? In Jersey? Never...
My friend Jeff claims that Method Man saved Garden State when, in the motel hallway for voyeurs where his patrons watch the motel's guests having sex, he says, "Who here just saw some titties? Raise your hand if you just saw some titties!" While this is clearly a pivotal scene in the film, I propse that it is but one in that film's long line of similar absurd yet somehow enlightening moments. Of course, since this is a blog and I don't want to bore all of you, I'm only going to talk about one.
The one I'm thinking about occurs just after Andrew Largeman takes out his old motorbike with the sidecar that his grandfather left him for the first time in the film. He's speeding down the road when a policeman pulls him over. The cop takes a hard-ass attitude the moment he steps out of his cruiser, and when Largeman attemps to respond to his initial question, the cop says "Shut up!" and Largeman turns around. The cop then says, "Put your motherfucking hands on your head...please." As the cop approaches, Largeman does a double-take when he realizes that it's his old high school friend Kenny. Largeman says, sounding a bit indignantly shocked, "You're a cop now, Kenny? Last time I saw you, you were doing lines of coke off a urinal." Then Kenny puts his fingers in his ears, says, "Lalalalala," and then makes some remark about having to move on and grow up because he wasn't making shit at "that fish market" and because he was having trouble getting laid.
This cop scene, I think, does a wonderful job of expressing the sort of bizarre, post-Generation X vocational wandering around that seems to be going on these days. While I can admit something of the scene's absurdity, I think it does illustrate how good people of our age seem to lose their authentic selves for the sake of gainful employment. If Kenny was a party animal who liked to do lines of coke off urinals and had a job working for a fishmonger, so what? Why isn't that a valid lifestyle? Why should such a guy have trouble getting laid? Poor Kenny. Here's to hoping he gets shot in the line of duty so he can collect that fat workman's comp check about which he seems so excited.
The one I'm thinking about occurs just after Andrew Largeman takes out his old motorbike with the sidecar that his grandfather left him for the first time in the film. He's speeding down the road when a policeman pulls him over. The cop takes a hard-ass attitude the moment he steps out of his cruiser, and when Largeman attemps to respond to his initial question, the cop says "Shut up!" and Largeman turns around. The cop then says, "Put your motherfucking hands on your head...please." As the cop approaches, Largeman does a double-take when he realizes that it's his old high school friend Kenny. Largeman says, sounding a bit indignantly shocked, "You're a cop now, Kenny? Last time I saw you, you were doing lines of coke off a urinal." Then Kenny puts his fingers in his ears, says, "Lalalalala," and then makes some remark about having to move on and grow up because he wasn't making shit at "that fish market" and because he was having trouble getting laid.
This cop scene, I think, does a wonderful job of expressing the sort of bizarre, post-Generation X vocational wandering around that seems to be going on these days. While I can admit something of the scene's absurdity, I think it does illustrate how good people of our age seem to lose their authentic selves for the sake of gainful employment. If Kenny was a party animal who liked to do lines of coke off urinals and had a job working for a fishmonger, so what? Why isn't that a valid lifestyle? Why should such a guy have trouble getting laid? Poor Kenny. Here's to hoping he gets shot in the line of duty so he can collect that fat workman's comp check about which he seems so excited.
Labels: Garden State, Jeff, Method Man, suburbia, work
posted by Brian at 7:38 PM
2 Comments:
When Method Man rebuts the concerns of zach braff and natalie portman by asking who had just seen titties, he also rebuts my (many) problems with the film as a whole. How can you be against something when you just saw some titties?
Just wanted to clarify.
Thanks for the props and the Hamlet, zerolio. And I do appreciate your clarification, jeff. My memory of these sorts of things often becomes fuzzy for one reason or another...
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