AUSTIN TANNENBAUM

ARTANNENBAUM@GMAIL.COM
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Austin is an MA candidate in Creative Publishing and Critical Jounralism at the New School for Social Research. After receiving his BA in communications at The Johnston Center for Integrative Studies at the University of Redlands, he’s gained nearly a decade of professional journalism experience. His musical project is called Learning.


FILM.



MEANTIME
1983 | DIRECTED BY MIKE LEIGH


True-to-life filmmaking.

Mark and Colin's dynamic in particular gets at the contradictory, irrational, inexplicable nature of human relationships. Mark terrorizes his brother the whole movie and then tells him he loves him and means it.

You could call Mark narcissistic and his relationship to Colin abusive and you'd probably be right. But it's more than that, more mysterious than that.

After Mark sabotages Colin's job, you'd expect Colin to scream at him. Instead, Colin screams at their parents after they start screaming at Mark. There's an unspoken sibling thing between them, a perverse bond, a "principle."

Sometimes in a shitty situation your shitty brother is all you got so you stick with him. Which speaks to the other true-to-life piece about Meantime: that life goes on. There's no grand resolution or reconciliation, just another morning, another breakfast, another family row.



READ HERE.