), being told to make the most of the big night by parents while occasionally expressing some ambivalence about attending. Interesting view into the life of a boy who just never caught a break. [2] The story takes place at home, at his different schools, at the doctor's office (for his never-ending acne treatments) and at various other locales around town. Ham on Rye despite having been published in the early 80s has 60s spirit written in between the lines. Ham on Rye 's second half is informed with a kind of survivor's guilt that's also reminiscent of Carrie. Cookie policy. Of course the same is true of books, films, and everything gathered under the sunit all goes eventually. His only love was drink. Bukowski keeps his descriptions of his hometown grounded in reality, paying more attention to the people that make up Los Angeles than to the city itself. In other parts of town, slightly older kids, a bit disheveled and aimless, drive around in cars, tune guitars and look dissatisfied. [3] It begins with Chinaski's early memories. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. The mood is now fairly forlorn, best embodied by Sloan (Cole Devine), a 20-something cook at Montys whos mourning some kind of loss. We're pleased to share the exclusive trailer premiere for Tyler Taormina's Ham on Rye, which will be released virtually on October 23rd in 20+ theaters nationwide.An unorthodox teen coming-of-age movie with an increasingly sinister twist whose details are best left unspoiled, Taormina's debut feature premiered at last year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival before making its . Like his previous autobiographical novels, Ham on Rye centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, this time during his childhood and teenage years. Both are extremely uncomfortable. Ham on Rye makes no such assurances which of course makes it more honest, even if its oblique lessons will be heard by a tiny, tiny fraction of the number who navigated adolescence by the. 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Ham On Rye was an absolutely enthralling experience and taking this journey with Henry "Hank" Chinaski was nothing short of a delight. And then, also being from the suburbs myself, youre dealing with these signifiers that are very familiar to me. My mother smiled. Cinematic didacticism has given way to filmmakers content to raise questions they wont or cant answer. The unease is existential, as the fates of some of the couples make clear. Movie Info. The reader eventually follows Chinaski to college and reads of Henry's attempt to find a worthwhile occupation. I think you could read Ham on Rye along those exact linesits not cute anymoreand come away with a pretty fair understanding of the film. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? It is brutal, sad, cynical, profound, funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. Twayne Publishers, New York, 1997. p. 36, 39, 40. But it is also Inauguration Day 2021 and Ham on Rye is heartening evidence that even throughout the last few years of permanent, screeching crisis, there have been filmmakers paying attention to the smaller things, to the more mundane cruelties of our world, that will require much more than a change of administration to address. This is a confusing taboo that weighs very heavily on mein fact, I feel it may have in a way forced me away from home. Were not told when the film is taking place, or where the film is taking place, or even whats the deal with this big local event all the kids are moving towards. I just thought, I knew the actor, the kid wed hired for that role, and I knew I wanted to have an object kind of move from the kids space to the [adults] space, and I also very pointedly wanted it to be handled very differently by these two people I dont know. Carson Lunds superb cinematography, apparently influenced by photographers like William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, picks out boys riding skateboards, borrowing Dads Volvo, and talking about the crucial importance of boning, like its a philosophy, like theyre the first ones ever to have had so original a thought. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. has successfully conjured up a cinematic space where all those aforementioned experiences have been quite purposefully blended together, forming a sunlit anxiety dream of a generic suburban upbringing. Charles Bukowski. Inside the shop, the boys form one line, the girls another, music begins and, with hand gestures for language, the kids pair off into couples. [1] Scenes outside of Los Angeles show Chinaski as an intruder, as with an early scene where he and his family are chased out of an orange grove. A bizarre rite of passage at the local deli determines the fate of a generation of teenagers. Bukowski keeps his descriptions of his hometown grounded in reality, paying more attention to the people that make up Los Angeles than to the city itself. In the beginning, and just for a little while, Tyler Taormina's "Ham on Rye" seems like every other no-budget suburban coming-of-ager you've ever seen, if maybe better shot. This study guide consists of approx. 49 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Ham on Rye. Chinaski has been compared to both Frankenstein's monster and Kafka's Gregor Samsa, because of his alienation and outcast resulting from his "monstrous" appearance. And I think we took that philosophy and mindset and applied it to everything. 0:00 / 1:45 Ham on Rye Theatrical Trailer Factory 25 618 subscribers Subscribe 247 Share 33K views 2 years ago "Ham on Rye has the uncanny echo of a disturbing real-life dream. This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. Can anyone with expertise or understanding please explain? Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. In this case, the transgression is, oddly enough, staying at home with your familyand its definitely not a cool one. Fontana, Ernest. Depressing and dark. Henry is not athletic but wants to be and therefore tries hard to improve. What's immediately delightful about Ham on Rye is the ghostly sense of escalation. Henry agrees to teach little kid how to play a game and by the end of it he just walks out. The passage of time from adolescence to early adulthood is an uncanny experience for I presume just about everyone, but the ephemerality of modern digital life must only make it worse. Costume designer: Niki Firanek READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021. But now, you see her curiosity throughout the first act of. The one character that carries over from the pre-ceremony segments to the post- is Haley, played by the same Haley Bodell of Suburban Legends, whose only acting credits to date are for Taormina. So to both make and spruce up the required disclosure, let me say that I not only consider Carson Lund a close friend, but that I also consider myself a dedicated fanof. The vista of the road was super important, or houses that were pushed far back from the curb, said Taormina. Has. And with the exception of a couple of surprising mood changes on the dance floor and off, thats about all in the film you could describe as a plot. Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner. The post-facto rationalizations they concoct for their hostility, however, involve his inability to play sports and his being viscerally revolted by cruelty to animals, the latter being one of the favorite past-times of neighborhood men and boys alike. It became about the suburbs I grew up in, and those teenagers left when college began and they didnt come back and a whole generation of teenagers disappeared and who was left? As the story progresses the reader follows his life through the school years and into young adulthood. Jake seems intent on displaying his shaky self-worth. Gleaning a sense from all these excessive details, these things you dont strictly need to see for the sake of narrative momentum, but that maybe overwhelm the characters, who are young, angsty, and kind of overwhelmed by life. Researching the creative figures behind, (2020), what stuck out to me was the inevitability of certain voids. The story showed the evolution of the child into a man. Though calling them characters is a bit of a stretch. He becomes alienated from the children at school simply for somehow being different in a way that none of them could ever coherently articulate. The following guest essay on the making of Ham on Rye is from cinematographer Carson Lund. The girls talk about fashion and popularity. And its here that the film matures into a weirdly sorrowful look at what our world does to teenagers, at the exceptionalism peddled to them without any sense of what they are exceptional from, and how much more likely it is, when you deal in the currency of exclusivity, that you will end up among the excluded. Chinaski relates that he has an abusive father, and his mother does nothing to stop his father's abuse. This was surprisingly tender in places amongst his usual cynical and brutal musings on life. Ham on Rye is a captivating story that makes you attached to the book all the way to the end. Its roots go that far down, and spread that far wide under the strange earth of the American suburb. To make matters worse, Chinaski develops horrible acne so severe that he has to undergo painful, and mostly ineffective, treatments, essentially becoming a human guinea pig for various experiments thought up by his uninterested doctors. Now, as a memory growing more distant every day, all thats left is the dreamlike impressions of these places Ive loved so much and then abandoned. The reader eventually follows Chinaski to college and reads of Henry's attempt to find a worthwhile occupation. Well come to identify most with Haley (Haley Bodell), a mild-mannered girl who, like her two friends (Audrey Boos and Gabriella Herrara), is more dressed for a conventional school dance than most attendees. Like Henry, the rest of the Chinaskis are modeled after Bukowski's own family. She flees. Production companies: Tago Clearing Film Studio, Omnes Films On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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