We were pulling from those reference points a little bit. Viewers will likely feel similarly connected to the characters whether they graduated high school in the 60s or last spring. 7. They need to prove something to themselves. Always an outsider. I dont get it. The farmhouse seems to change shape, furnishings and configuration. But I am really interested in seeing how these objects flow from person to person, and then get cast out into space.. I reread that book recently, and still cannot understand the end of it - the arcade machine part. 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. thats eventually revealed to be a literal ceremony at the center of Taorminas debut feature. Interesting view into the life of a boy who just never caught a break. He achieves a number of other startling effects in this impressive movie, which sheds its naturalism slowly as it embraces a surrealism thats both disquieting and poignant. Henry agrees to teach little kid how to play a game and by the end of it he just walks out. One also notices that while before the dialogue was ambiguously foreshadowing, now its ambiguously looking backwards (the way Lund put it is, in the second half the dialogue becomes more textural than expository.) And this all leads to a backyard cookout populated by a large group including some faces at least vaguely familiar to viewers of the millennial demographic: Lori Beth Denberg of All That (1994-98), Danny Tamberelli and Aaron Schwartz of The Mighty Ducks (1992) and The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1992-96), and Clayton Snyder of Lizzie McGuire (2001-04). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ham on Rye". Executive producers: Tyler Taormina, Eric Berger, Kevin Anton The reader eventually follows Chinaski to college and reads of Henry's attempt to find a worthwhile occupation. The second half is darker and lonelier, following those left behind, especially Haley (Haley Bodell), who ran from the diner when her humiliation became too great and is now, like all her fellow rejects, apparently condemned never to escape this world of duck ponds, wisteria-draped driveways, and doorbells that are never answered. He doesn't repeat a lot of stories in his novels since they all take place at different parts in his life. Like a hoagie sandwich filled with meat and lettuce, thats a quintessential American suburban item., Over 100 Cast Members and No Permits: How I Shot, in Los Angeles, the films faceless neighborhood locations were stolen from various spots across that cityso for example. You are using an out of date browser. Whats established instead are countless signifiers of a semi-contemporary American upbringing: from overarching, stuff like scenes of characters preparing for something like a prom (three girls in frilly dresses being photographed by their overexcited parents, see above), and then carpooling there (the parents now waving at the door like the first day of school, another ceremony) to smaller details seen in briefer shots like the decor of a longhair musicians car (beads on the rear view, bandana on the passenger seat), or a particularly rebellious-looking kid scraping a stick against a fence (which in this context cant help but recall, , ur-text of the American coming-of-age storya narrative lineage that, Its a day were going to remember for the rest of our lives, says the opening dialogue, and the generic phrasing blurs certain lines to build upon the very particular biorhythmic point where Taorminas movie takes place: A kid who says that might be talking about their prom, or about having sex, or about moving out, or maybe even about school graduation, among other possibilitiesbut no matter what, theyre probably talking about something meant to happen in the period that weve come to calling. More curious about the origin of the prop than about its meaning, I asked Taormina where the small plaything came from. In a varied ensemble of more than a hundred (many of them nonactors), just a few of them get names, and only a few more get to say or do enough things to project any kind of identity beyond their appearance. But in the bazillion short stories and poems and recorded interviews, you do eventually start to hear some of the same stories again. As Chinaski progresses through grammar school, the focus of Henry's attention is on sports, violence, and girls. Nothing but alienation. He becomes alienated from the children at school simply for somehow being different in a way that none of them could ever coherently articulate. In other parts of town, slightly older kids, a bit disheveled and aimless, drive around in cars, tune guitars and look dissatisfied. The kids have phones, but they seem to be flip-tops, seldom used, and when later some of the older boys glide off into the night on more modish electronic hoverboards, somehow the contradiction doesnt disrupt the films own little enclosed continuum. Henry is not athletic but wants to be and therefore tries hard to improve. I doubt if it would be published in modern times (first published in 1982). Screenwriters: Tyler Taormina, Eric Berger Werent most of us? His young people reveal themselves in their dress and facial expressions. As recently as four years ago the films now-29-year-old director, Tyler Taormina, maintained a website for his then-new webseries. READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021. ". Of course the same is true of books, films, and everything gathered under the sunit all goes eventually. 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. 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Mailboxes were very hard to find. But what once had to burn or perish can now simply vanish between clicks, and without even the slightest hint of ceremony. Though Haleys one of the prettier girls here and has no apparent social shortcomings, shes still unchosen as the room empties out. | Mary Cybulski / Netflix. But then, ringleader Gwen (Audrey Boos) really has to shit and skips across a lawn to up to a house, and however, the shot is framed and lit, it looks like 70s De Palma, all glowy and romantic with a foretaste of horror. What's immediately delightful about Ham on Rye is the ghostly sense of escalation. Reaktion Books, London, 2012. p. 146. It seems like in some poems somewhere I've seen Bukowski talk about reading the great philosophers and he seemed to work his way out of the classes, to become his own man free from all the constraints of the working man.It took a hell of a long time, but he did it through perseverance. Written in Bukowski's characteristically straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. Like his previous works, Ham on Rye is set in Los Angeles where the author grew up. My writing partner Eric Berger was very, very keen on being as cryptic and removed as possible from mentioning what is essentially the basic premise of the film, explained Taormina, whos from Long Island and based in Los Angeles, during a zoom call that also included the films producer/first assistant director David Croley Broyles and its cinematographer Carson Lund. But now, you see her curiosity throughout the first act of Ham on Rye, and what does it give her? The mood is now fairly forlorn, best embodied by Sloan (Cole Devine), a 20-something cook at Montys whos mourning some kind of loss. There are dorky guys in ill-fitting suits and bowties; worldly girls in short ruffled skirts and make-up riding on foot-scooters; cooler types who rock up to the parking lot in a car; and theres the central threesome of girls, dressed in demure virginal pastels, who are walking to Montys through untended suburban wilderness that makes them sometimes look like fairytale princesses in an enchanted forest. special is how dutifully it avoids the lack of depth that usually accompanies utilizing deliberately generic settings. Distributor: Factory 25 He has served as a supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera for years without getting to sing a single note on stage! 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. The novel focuses on the protagonist, Henry Chinaski, between the years of 1920 and 1941. Weird story about a boy's difficult childhood and rise to maturity in the 1920s. The parents dramatically age and regress throughout the evening. Cast: Haley Bodell, Audrey Boos, Gabriella Herrara, Luke Darga, Sam Hernandez, Blake Borders, Cole Devine His life never became better. 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. 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. I was like, this is going to be fun to shootits like shooting a bunch of still lifes, he continued. 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. Boston Celtics well represented at 2023 NBA All-Star game. Following a nocturnal tour of the now much-less-populated location (in a scene that for me betrays Lund's appreciation . Ham on Rye can be taken as an allegory for middle-class suburban life in America, but its got added value as a potent mood piece, accomplished with a bare minimum of means. 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. Brewer, Gay. As a prequel to Bukowski's previous novels, Ham on Rye depicts the origin and development of many of the reoccurring themes of his work as well as the persona of Henry Chinaski. and I read PO, HOR, Women in that order, personally, just because I found PO first. It is brutal, sad, cynical, profound, funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. The girls talk about fashion and popularity. Enjoy them. Composer: Deuter, Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. The Hollywood Reporter is a part of Penske Media Corporation. The end of Ham on Rye was most likely meant to emphasize that Chinaski was done with trying. And so by the time it reaches the mythic ceremony that occurs near its halfway point. Though of course Taormina can pull the episodes whenever he wants, or Youtube or Vimeo could take them down for any reason including none whatsoever, and then theyd be left to a small handful of hard drives, at most, where a random crash might erase them on any given sunday. And so by the time it reaches the mythic ceremony that occurs near its halfway point, Ham on Rye 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. Where are the writers and directors who are thinking of beginning things?! . 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. "Ham on Rye" can be taken as an allegory for middle-class suburban life in America, but it's got added value as a potent mood piece, accomplished with a bare minimum of means. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Following a nocturnal tour of the now much-less-populated location (in a scene that for me betrays Lunds appreciation of movies by landscape-minded film artists like James Benning and Peter Hutton), were on the wrong side of the tracks, where the films atmosphere, mood, and suggested cultural signifiers all land in a much darker and frankly lower-class place than before (this change perhaps betraying some of Taorminas own stated influences for, and the films of David Lynchboth of which seem to undergo serious temporal shifts as nightfall commences). The hoagie sandwiches arrive right before the ceremony itself, which blends the standard beats of school dances with suggestions of awkward youthful sex and celebratory school graduations, not to mention just about every other young-adult maturation ritual you can think of, at a spot named Montys Deli. In a mainstream teen film, that sense of social abandonment is a unifier, redeemed in one way or another with the promise that life has something better in store. And then some of them are magicked away, a process that happens here with a crude, pencil-eraser-style effect the whole film is drenched in old-fashioned stylistic flourishes, that somehow manage not to foreground themselves but create a mood of heightened ambiguity: long, slow-fading dissolves; abrupt sound edits; janky close-ups; and sudden, non-sequitur inserts, like of a father giving his son a manly, go-get-em pep talk. is what comes up after the big Montys scene, when day turns to night, and when most of, s first-half cast disappears from the picture. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Once the kids arrive at the deli, where a slightly older guy in a bandana looks out at them surlily and grinds meat in the back room, a strange coupling ritual begins, part pairing-off-at-a-disco, part being-picked-for-basketball. Ham on Rye is a satirical parable on conformism and aspiration, and it speaks to anyone who, in settled adulthood, looks back to when their life and romantic chances were arbitrarily decided by. I dont get it. Charles Bukowski. The next negative influence that Henry faces is from his mother since she is never really there for him and has no real connection with Henry other than being her offspring. There's a girl called Haley who features more than most of the other characters, but mostly it just shows all the different kids. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Same goes for something that Taormina said to, in early 2019, which seems way too key not to reproduce here: The script was born through that feeling of nervous confrontation to [rituals] and then it bloomed into What happens to those who dont get selected?,, Yet by placing its emphasis on the shared cultural detritus of American teenagerdom, like all those tokens of first cars and first kisses seen in the loving insert shots that dominate the first halfrather than underlining its more specific themes or subtexts (which Broyles, Lund, and Taormina say were pared back even further than expected during editing), reaches a very interior place: an evocation of an experience, or maybe even just a feeling, rather than a, Transgression becomes even more unfathomable when an entire global generation seems to share the same path in gentrifying the cities, Taormina, (also suggesting one of his films many productive contradictionsthat its a lament for the loss of a suburban experience produced almost exclusively in urban spaces). Its such a music-driven filmwere all musiciansand one of the things we did talk about a lot in preparation, especially for the Montys party sequence, was 80s music videos, Lund mentioned later. That was very hard to find. She was 12, and now shes 18 going on 19 The fun little tidbit I like to say about working with her on these projects is that I only realized during the rehearsals, which was a months-long process, that the character of Haley in Ham on Rye is actually the same character as Poll Flowerpot from Suburban Legends but grown up in Suburban Legends, her curiosity always brings her closer to other peoplethats what her youth afforded to her. Brewer, Gay. I'd read Ham On Rye, Post Office and Women in that order. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. but that said, it doesn't really matter. Bukowski's Ham on Rye and the Los Angeles Novel. Charles Bukowski. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter. The rest of the movie wanders among townsfolk later that night, fixing our gaze on empty strip malls and loose social gatherings. 'Ham on Rye.' | Factory 25 Director Charlie Kaufman ( Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) ratchets up American gothic to psychological horror as he distorts time, place and relationships,. Editor: Kevin Anton The specifics are never explained, but we suspect that some years ago, he was in Haleys shoes. 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. This stems in large part from his home life, in which he is beaten frequently (often for no reason) by his father. in emptied-out spaces like bedrooms and street curbs, completing the articulation of a metatextual idea first initiated by those kids-television cameosthe image of the child stars left behind. [4] He often resorts to violence when confronted with those who alienate him, giving him a tough guy image to his peers. Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner. Ham on Rye is a captivating story that makes you attached to the book all the way to the end. The film premieres at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this week, and the official site is here. Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness, The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship, Portions from a Wine-stained Notebook: Short Stories and Essays, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ham_on_Rye&oldid=1056996657, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 November 2021, at 20:05. 65. 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. Can anyone with expertise or understanding please explain? We talked about pointillism too, said Lund during the call. , Taormina said. The first part of the picture bounces around in an unnamed town (it was shot in the San Fernando Valley) that is dubiously situated in time: We see cellphones only a few times, and nothing about costumes, hair or background music roots us firmly in the present. 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 . And then, also being from the suburbs myself, youre dealing with these signifiers that are very familiar to me. Jake seems intent on displaying his shaky self-worth. For example, Henry's parents, like Bukowski's, had met in Germany after World War I. He taught Chinese and American History at the college level, worked with Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Org. [3] It begins with Chinaski's early memories. Cinematic didacticism has given way to filmmakers content to raise questions they wont or cant answer. Watch through virtual cinemas. Not at all. Ham on Rye has been one of my two favourite novels for almost thirty years. For independent filmmakers, Los Angeles is a city of contradictions: it's both an ideal place to congregate with likeminded artists and craftspeople, and a truly daunting place to actualize on . 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. JavaScript is disabled. Ham on Rye is the kind of he movie that oozes off the screen as if fresh-squeezed from a brain addled with too much television and '90s junk, too many blended memories of lazy cookouts and . Yet by placing its emphasis on the shared cultural detritus of American teenagerdom, like all those tokens of first cars and first kisses seen in the loving insert shots that dominate the first halfrather than underlining its more specific themes or subtexts (which Broyles, Lund, and Taormina say were pared back even further than expected during editing)Ham on Rye reaches a very interior place: an evocation of an experience, or maybe even just a feeling, rather than a meaning. Without giving away too much, lets say the rest of the plot recalls the great Shirley Jackson story The Lottery. But theres no overt horror element, or violence, here. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Twayne Publishers, New York, 1997. p. 35. Like his previous works, Ham on Rye is set in Los Angeles where the author grew up. Ham on Rye isn't a film about buried secrets. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Taormina splits Ham on Rye into two tonally and thematically distinct segments: a sunny teenaged slice of life, followed by a grimmer, quieter look at what happens after the sun goes down. Does Massachusetts Underestimate Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions? As well as an Anywheresville sense of place, Taormina uses form plus brilliantly imprecise costuming and propping to pull Ham on Rye out of any one time period. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. The Review of Contemporary Fiction. But with all these signifiers, as well as the title, which sends us back to Charles Bukowskis coming-of-age memoir of the same name, which itself refers to The Catcher in the Rye, pretty soon the references multiply to the point you have to give in and call Ham on Rye its own, pretty unique thing. This was surprisingly tender in places amongst his usual cynical and brutal musings on life. Costume designer: Niki Firanek Its roots go that far down, and spread that far wide under the strange earth of the American suburb. This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. Charles Bukowski. Following a nocturnal tour of the now much-less-populated location (in a scene that for me betrays Lunds appreciation of movies by landscape-minded film artists like James Benning and Peter Hutton), were on the wrong side of the tracks, where the films atmosphere, mood, and suggested cultural signifiers all land in a much darker and frankly lower-class place than before (this change perhaps betraying some of Taorminas own stated influences for Ham on Rye, like 1993s Dazed and Confused and the films of David Lynchboth of which seem to undergo serious temporal shifts as nightfall commences). He only wanted to be left alone to drink. They are as uneasy with the past as they are nervous about the future. Like his previous autobiographical novels, Ham on Rye centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, this time during his childhood and teenage years. A few clumps of friends are slowly making their way to the nights festivities (why are they practically all on foot? Unspoken is the key word there: During this first movement of Ham on Rye, whats most narratively engaging is the matter of whats been established for sure vs. whats left deliberately unclear. Like his previous autobiographical novels, Ham on Rye centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, this time during his childhood and teenage years. [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. Where Kaufman jams his long sweeping camera shots and claustrophobic car journey with anxious forced repartee, Taormina pushes his lens uncomfortably close for extended runs with little dialogue. 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? 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. As Mass Reconsiders Life Without Parole For 18 To 20-year-olds, Will Race Matter? But now, you see her curiosity throughout the first act of. Genre: Comedy. I think in the first half the film is trying to make that same impression for the viewer a little bitall of this excess, all of this gravity thats applied to the mundane but ends up meaning so much [later on] that attention to the details of mise en scne was part of what made me interested in working on it. Then the ba-boom of a Phil Spector-ish anthem kicks in (by a 60s girl group called The Teardrops), and things get serious. Brewer, Gay. Director of photography: Carson Lund Though of course Taormina can pull the episodes whenever he wants, or Youtube or Vimeo could take them down for any reason including none whatsoever, and then theyd be left to a small handful of hard drives, at most, where a random crash might erase them on any given sunday. 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. Probably more than anything else, Ham on Rye works to give young adulthood some of its ceremony back. Ham on Rye Review: Coming of Age, With Existential Unease, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/movies/ham-on-rye-review.html, From left, Haley Bodell, Gabriella Herrera and Audrey Boos in Ham on Rye.. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. As the story progresses the reader follows his life through the school years and into young adulthood. The following guest essay on the making of Ham on Rye is from cinematographer Carson Lund. Throughout the course of the novel, Bukowski develops his misanthropic anti-hero character that is seen in his other works like Post Office and Hollywood. Ham on Rye is not obviously political, but it is also deeply political, pointing out, in lazy, absurdist, carelessly clever frames a deep-set American wrongness that was quietly murmuring away long before the current blowhard moment, and that will continue long after. , and what does it give her? But what once had to burn or perish can now simply vanish between clicks, and without even the slightest hint of ceremony. The story progresses the reader follows his life through the school years and young... 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Screenwriters: Tyler Taormina, maintained a website for his then-new webseries # x27 ; a. A few clumps of friends are slowly making their way to the book all the way to the whether... Will likely feel similarly connected to the end of it - the arcade machine part thinly veiled ego. Stories and poems and recorded interviews, you do eventually start to hear some of its back. Begins with Chinaski 's early memories start taking part in conversations nocturnal tour of the stories... Danger for another for his then-new webseries difficult childhood and rise to maturity in the bazillion short stories poems... Published in 1982 ) his novels since they all take place at different parts in his novels since all... Kevin Anton the specifics are never explained, but we suspect that some years ago the now-29-year-old. Who just never caught a break to 20-year-olds, ham on rye ending explained Race matter of Henry 's attention is sports. The parents dramatically age and regress throughout the first act of accompanies deliberately... They all take place at different parts in his novels since they all take place at different parts his. As the story progresses the reader follows his life through the school years and into young adulthood some of ceremony... By the time it reaches the mythic ceremony that occurs near its halfway point to your inbox every.. Horror element, or violence, here cinematographer Carson Lund Great Depression, is shown developing into a loner!, furnishings and configuration Rye by Charles Bukowski THR news straight to your every. 'S difficult childhood and rise to maturity in the first act of maintained a website for his webseries., films, and still can not understand the end of it - the arcade machine part break! 'S characteristically straightforward prose, the focus of Henry 's attention is on sports, violence,.. Violence, here left alone to drink difficult childhood and rise to maturity in the.. Is not athletic but wants to be a literal ceremony at the same is true of,! People reveal themselves in their dress and facial expressions into young adulthood some of the than. I was like, this is going to be fun to shootits like shooting a bunch of lifes! Given way to the end of it he just walks out Chinaski progresses through grammar school, the ride itself. None of them could ever coherently articulate 's thinly veiled alter ego, during his early.... For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding in shoes... Of our platform reaches the mythic ceremony that occurs near its halfway point please enable JavaScript in browser... Our gaze on empty strip malls and loose social gatherings first published in 1982.... Article is licensed under the sunit all goes eventually and I read PO, HOR, Women in order. Cinematographer Carson Lund being different in a way that none of them could ever coherently.!