A Rat Rant on The Way We Are (1997) aka Quiet Days in Hollywood
Drama – {interesting character study}
Ok so here’s the SS Rat, the lover of horror and what’s he watching again? More drama, some might think the SS Rat’s been sniffing the wrong kind of cheese these days but it’s true. Let me tell you the rat actually enjoys dramas, especially those that are character driven.
For this film yeah there are some name stars in it but if they were replaced by just any competent no-name actor the story wouldn’t miss a beat. We start off on the mean streets of Hollywood and meet a handful of characters, Joe Estevez’s character is a throw-away and could easily be lost but I’m digressing here. I know some complain that the characters seem “shallow” but that’s entirely the point, that’s how many folks really behave, to make all the characters in a film such as this into philosophers defeats the purpose entirely. The only character I really take exception to is the female cop {if a real police officer behaved as she did they’d be dead in a day}. The story is structured to travel from one character to another, the character we are following meets someone and soon we’re following that person who in turn meets someone else.
This kind of intertwined story also piques the SS Rat’s interest because it reminds us of the nature of everyday life and how paths cross and diverge in our own lives with people and places. Without dwelling too heavily on the plot so as to not take away from your viewing pleasure, suffice it to say that some folks have a happy story and some not so happy. The ending has a humorous twist designed to at least elicit a smirk from the viewer if not a laugh.
So what we have here folks is an interesting character study about people from a variety of backgrounds, kind of a snapshot of life if you will. For some good dramatic viewing the SS Rat says check this one out
