The Films That Have No Smokers In Them: The Movies of Nicole Holofcener: Part Two by Dave Jaffe

     The Films That Have No Smokers In Them: Part Two




        It's great that nobody smokes cigarettes in the movies I've seen that are scripted and directed by Nicole Holofcener. Yet her politics don't turn me on.
      Holofcener is not a progressive which is too bad. Her film 'Please Give' features Catherine Keener as a middle-aged mother who runs an antique and furniture store in New York City. Keener, like myself is a liberal who gives sometimes big sums of money to the poor and the homeless. I give fifty or thirty cents a time to panhandlers. Keener gives away sometimes twenty dollars a time.
     Now in the film no one thanks Keener for helping people, and some like her teenage daughter just dump on her. An older neighbour throws the birthday present that Keener gives her into the garbage. An African-American man refuses part of a leftover meal that she offers him. He explains that he's waiting outside a restaurant to get a seat inside the place. Keener's daughter tries to stop her giving $20 to a homeless man.
      "You never give me $20," she says to her mother and she grabs the $20 and keeps it.
    At one point in the film Keener breaks down and cries when she sees mentally challenged teenagers playing basketball. Yet afterwards she doesn't volunteer to work with them. And at the movie's end everything turns out well, as Keener finally forks out $235 dollars to pay for her daughter's jeans. All of these events shouldn't surprise anyone.
     "I don't think you'll find too many left leaning films coming out of Hollywood," one film critic told me years ago. How many American film makers lean consistently to the left? Maybe there's three or four. Oliver Stone, Spike Lee and John Sayles come to mind. In Britain there's the great Ken Loach. And that's about it.
     Like most film directors Holofcener's a conservative. The main message of 'Please Give' is: Give money to your loved ones and you'll do fine. It's a waste of time and money helping the poor and the homeless. Few powerful or wealthy people will disagree with this message. So though I like parts of Holofcener's films she's not my favourite  film director.
    I like the fact that no smokers pop up in her flicks. I just don't like her politics.