You, the Living is an absurdist drama complete with musical numbers, a hilariously muffed tablecloth trick, and Beckett-like repetition. It's slow and often difficult to comprehend, but in the end, I found it relatively interesting and engaging. I think my two favorite moments are the failed tablecloth trick and the
fact that during an execution, the audience is eating popcorn. One is just slapstick comedy, but the other is a good point about our voyeuristic fascination with violence and suffering.What this film amounts to is difficult to assess, but I think the general point is a lamentation about the impossibility of understanding other people. It is impossible to ever get inside someone else's consciousness, and this, the film implies, is the stem of human beings' remarkable cruelty and indifference. But at the same time, the desire to know others leads us to our triumphs.Overall, You, the Living is an interesting film for those who like absurdism, but it's too slow and veiled for many other audiences.
January 9, 2011
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