not that anybody will read this, but... there are spoilers. ^_^
this is a medium-length movie that's properly classified as a tragedy, in a sort of ironic sense.
it subverts the traditional tragedy in several ways. unlike greek and shakespearean
tragedies, it does not describe the ruin of some far-off king in a far-off time; rather, our ruined
protagonist is a modern everyday mostly-unemployed independent cartoonist and filmmaker. while he's
got friends and wit galore, he's pursuing that odd beast of love for the central part of the story.
the end does not herald the death of all of the characters involved in the tragedy. and, finally, it
subverts traditional tragedy by being defiantly unwilling to end on the emo final note that it
presents, but it instead offers a hope for the future.
as love frustrates our protagonist, he turns more and more into his music and the music of his friends,
something enabled by the titular lionshare. the lionshare has several roles. in one, it is the only
contact he has had with his lover since the date at the start of the movie; it represents her
interests and a new world that she has drawn him into. he also shares back to the community when
asked and we see him taking his lionshare gains onto cds specially marked with his lover's name. and
the fruits of the lionshare become the poisoning (and later the elevation) of a friendship; they
become the reconciliation of a son with his father; and they become part of the glue that binds
friends together. the lionshare is an environmental influence of division and togetherness.
the lionshare cruelly upends the film's other huge theme: private possession, something having value
because it's shared among a small community. at first it's benign: the protagonist and his lover are
unable to possess a copy of ghostbusters via any normal path, so they obtain it via the lionshare.
then it becomes disturbing: the friend gets mad that his work-in-progress music has been given to
the world by the protagonist, via the lionshare. a symbol of the protagonist's love, a band called
applecurry, goes mainstream and gets radio-play, upsetting the protagonist. and finally, when the
friend shares an in-joke (the "bear facts" in the film) with the lover, the protagonist insists,
"you can't have that joke. it's my joke. it's not yours." -- thus souring an already-somewhat-tense
moment.
between these deep themes are some deep continuity errors. for example, the lover (eva) downloads
the friend's (bracey)'s music from the protagonist (nick/nickorette), but then later claims that she
didn't know that nick and bracey were friends. her screen-name is defined by her love of fictitious
band applecurry, which drives nick to listen to them obsessively, but she kind of shrugs them off
when they go popular, indicating that she wasn't really this sort of devotee in the first place;
she's more of the stereotypical indie.
the moment when the tension bursts into tragedy comes as bracey's band plays a small-but-milestone
show. just as the nick, our protagonist says, "it obviously all works out" -- suddenly, the audience
hears the dreadful line from bracey, "and, and... i... met... a girl, dude. i met a girl. she is
awesome." and we know who it is, who she *has* to be. the wonderful thing that he shared with eva --
the relationship /qua/ possession -- has been shared with somebody else. and the tones of the
conversations suggest that this is going to be eva's and bracey's second or third date, something
that nick had been waiting the entire movie for. as this crushes love and possibly nick's friendship
with bracey, nick crushes any chance that eva could join his group of friends. at home, the
lionshare -- which would have fixed an ongoing issue between nick and his roommate -- falls apart
amid the roommate's comment on eva's "smoking body".
we see nick laugh under his breath, then bury his face in his hands. "you just knew it was gonna end
this way, though."
the film is not satisfied to end on this note of tragedy, though. the roommate, sensing that life
must go on, drives his friend back to the real world. "come on, man, we'll make our own." one is not
left feeling hopeless, and the seeds of long-term friendship weather the storm of emo angst.
overall grade: b. the story is great, and the themes are delicious. the dialogue is realistic and
funny but occasionally, you know, like, fuckin'... leaves something, like, to be fuckin' desired.
the camera-work is occasionally a little too gritty, shaky, or dark -- the viewer is occasionally
wondering whose viewpoint the camera is meant to represent when it's not meant to represent
anybody's, and this is an error.
this is a medium-length movie that's properly classified as a tragedy, in a sort of ironic sense.
it subverts the traditional tragedy in several ways. unlike greek and shakespearean
tragedies, it does not describe the ruin of some far-off king in a far-off time; rather, our ruined
protagonist is a modern everyday mostly-unemployed independent cartoonist and filmmaker. while he's
got friends and wit galore, he's pursuing that odd beast of love for the central part of the story.
the end does not herald the death of all of the characters involved in the tragedy. and, finally, it
subverts traditional tragedy by being defiantly unwilling to end on the emo final note that it
presents, but it instead offers a hope for the future.
as love frustrates our protagonist, he turns more and more into his music and the music of his friends,
something enabled by the titular lionshare. the lionshare has several roles. in one, it is the only
contact he has had with his lover since the date at the start of the movie; it represents her
interests and a new world that she has drawn him into. he also shares back to the community when
asked and we see him taking his lionshare gains onto cds specially marked with his lover's name. and
the fruits of the lionshare become the poisoning (and later the elevation) of a friendship; they
become the reconciliation of a son with his father; and they become part of the glue that binds
friends together. the lionshare is an environmental influence of division and togetherness.
the lionshare cruelly upends the film's other huge theme: private possession, something having value
because it's shared among a small community. at first it's benign: the protagonist and his lover are
unable to possess a copy of ghostbusters via any normal path, so they obtain it via the lionshare.
then it becomes disturbing: the friend gets mad that his work-in-progress music has been given to
the world by the protagonist, via the lionshare. a symbol of the protagonist's love, a band called
applecurry, goes mainstream and gets radio-play, upsetting the protagonist. and finally, when the
friend shares an in-joke (the "bear facts" in the film) with the lover, the protagonist insists,
"you can't have that joke. it's my joke. it's not yours." -- thus souring an already-somewhat-tense
moment.
between these deep themes are some deep continuity errors. for example, the lover (eva) downloads
the friend's (bracey)'s music from the protagonist (nick/nickorette), but then later claims that she
didn't know that nick and bracey were friends. her screen-name is defined by her love of fictitious
band applecurry, which drives nick to listen to them obsessively, but she kind of shrugs them off
when they go popular, indicating that she wasn't really this sort of devotee in the first place;
she's more of the stereotypical indie.
the moment when the tension bursts into tragedy comes as bracey's band plays a small-but-milestone
show. just as the nick, our protagonist says, "it obviously all works out" -- suddenly, the audience
hears the dreadful line from bracey, "and, and... i... met... a girl, dude. i met a girl. she is
awesome." and we know who it is, who she *has* to be. the wonderful thing that he shared with eva --
the relationship /qua/ possession -- has been shared with somebody else. and the tones of the
conversations suggest that this is going to be eva's and bracey's second or third date, something
that nick had been waiting the entire movie for. as this crushes love and possibly nick's friendship
with bracey, nick crushes any chance that eva could join his group of friends. at home, the
lionshare -- which would have fixed an ongoing issue between nick and his roommate -- falls apart
amid the roommate's comment on eva's "smoking body".
we see nick laugh under his breath, then bury his face in his hands. "you just knew it was gonna end
this way, though."
the film is not satisfied to end on this note of tragedy, though. the roommate, sensing that life
must go on, drives his friend back to the real world. "come on, man, we'll make our own." one is not
left feeling hopeless, and the seeds of long-term friendship weather the storm of emo angst.
overall grade: b. the story is great, and the themes are delicious. the dialogue is realistic and
funny but occasionally, you know, like, fuckin'... leaves something, like, to be fuckin' desired.
the camera-work is occasionally a little too gritty, shaky, or dark -- the viewer is occasionally
wondering whose viewpoint the camera is meant to represent when it's not meant to represent
anybody's, and this is an error.
