REPO YOUR ENTHUSIASM (9)
By:
April 28, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of “offbeat” movies from the Eighties (1984–1993, in our periodization schema). Series edited by Josh Glenn.
HOUSEKEEPING | BILL FORSYTH | 1987
I saw Housekeeping, accompanied by my then-new boyfriend Josh, not long after it was first released, at the local art-house cinema in Williamstown, Mass. It struck me as an unusual film, in a good way, and it’s stayed with me since. A family of women, two of them oddballs who prefer to be left alone — that’s not an easy thing to negotiate, then or now, especially in a small town, and especially for women. I hadn’t seen characters like this before! And then there is the movie’s setting: the looming mountains, the deep icy lake, so many scenes shot at night. It’s entrancing.
Ruthie (Sara Walker) is a striking figure: Her physical and social awkwardness is beautiful, and so rare in movies. The contrast with her sister Lucille (Andrea Burchill), who is compact and coordinated, and eventually becomes determined to fit in, is perfectly depicted and wrenching. Skating on the lake, when Lucille barks “Relax your arms, Ruthie, the stiffness goes down to your feet,” we feel her embarrassment about and frustration with Ruthie… but also her fierce love for her.
When Aunt Sylvie (the great Christine Lahti) shows up, at first we’re relieved. She brings some warmth, love, and fun to Lucille and Ruthie, perhaps for the first time in their lives. She liberates the girls from their stifling great-aunts. But Sylvie is a free spirit and she makes her own rules. Ruthie and Lucille study Sylvia, trying to decide whether her deeply idiosyncratic way of life is healthy or unhealthy, desirable or to be avoided. They come to their own conclusions; so do we.
Ruthie doesn’t know what she thinks about anything… we see her slipping away, her nose in a book. So when Sylvie takes her along on an unorthodox adventure — hopping into a “borrowed” boat to sneak up on some forest spirits as dawn arrives — we’re thrilled to see her relax, finally, and come alive. But our pleasure in this moment is tempered by our anxiety about what will become of them both. However, when the two of them flee town, running across the railroad bridge over the frozen lake, with night sky and mountains all around, I appreciate how nonjudgmental the movie encourages us to be. Two women disappearing into the unknown could read as ominous. Here, though, it’s simply… undefined.
REPO YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Annie Nocenti on AFTER HOURS | Lynn Peril on BRAZIL | Mandy Keifetz on BODY DOUBLE | Carlo Rotella on ROBOCOP | Marc Weidenbaum on GROUNDHOG DAY | Erik Davis on REPO MAN | Mimi Lipson on STRANGER THAN PARADISE | Josh Glenn on HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING | Susan Roe on HOUSEKEEPING | Gordon Dahlquist on SOMETHING WILD | Heather Quinlan on EATING RAOUL | Anthony Miller on MIRACLE MILE | Karinne Keithley Syers on BETTER OFF DEAD | Adam McGovern on WALKER | Ramona Lyons on MILLER’S CROSSING | Vanessa Berry on WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS? | Elina Shatkin on NIGHT OF THE COMET | Susannah Breslin on MAN BITES DOG | Tom Nealon on DELICATESSEN | Lisa Jane Persky on RUMBLE FISH | Dean Haspiel on WEIRD SCIENCE | Heather Kapplow on HEATHERS | Micah Nathan on BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA | Nicholas Rombes on SLACKER | Mark Kingwell on WITHNAIL AND I.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!