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Film: Last Man Standing (Bruce Willis movie, not Tim Allen tv show) 

Dull and nonsensical from the moment the film starts. Cannot believe this film cost 60 plus million to make in the late 90s. Felt like almost no point to making the film, like a pure exercise. A lesson in here somewhere. 

Film: Jackie Brown

Odd feature of prime video - during credits of Last Man Standing it just flowed right into Jackie Brown. Music caught me. I ended up watching an hour, then fast forwarding to certain parts. DeNiro's character - Louis Gara struck me this time around. I could not help but associate him with with his Neil McCauley character from Heat. These films were made close together - Heat in 95, Jackie Brown in 97. So DeNiro more or less looks the same. In Jackie Brown, DeNiro spends most of the movie in Bridget Fonda's Hermosa Beach apartment looking at the Pacific Ocean. In Heat, McCauley has a famously post modern, unfurnished Malibu beach house that also looks out upon the Pacific Ocean. They are both ex-cons released from prison for bank robbery. DeNiro in Heat dresses very well, in Jackie Brown, DeNiro is most happy when Sam Jackson buys him some new duds and cleans himself up. On the surface, their characterizations couldn't be more different. Louis is a loser. A pothead. A space cadet. He can't even hang up a phone at one point. In fact, Louis is basically stoned out of his mind most of the movie and not paying much attention to anything at all. Methinks he's fantasizing. And what's he fantasizing about? Being Neil McCauley. Heat is Louis's fantasy version of himself - a version of what he should be, a coping mechanism for what he is. He should have discipline. He should have a code. He should be the best bank robber in Southern California. This is what Louis is thinking about as he watches dumbass TV shows with Bridget Fonda and smokes weed. He's powerless and what do powerless men do? They fantasize. 

The final moment of the Louis's journey suggests it as well. Sam Jackson says to him "you used to be beautiful." Really? There was no suggestion of this side of his character throughout the film. But Sam Jackson doesn't say this to anyone else. He lies only about things to advantage himself. He has no reason to lie in this moment. So what he says is true. Louis was something once. So maybe he could've been Neil McCauley. Because the best fantasies possess at least a possibility of truth. Maybe his fantasy version of himself wasn't so far off the mark. If only he had turned down that weed and that crazy pussy...