Down and Out in Beverly Hills

demi adejuyigbe

Decided to watch in honor of Little Richard's passing, who also popped up in Last Action Hero a few days ago. Pleasant surprise. :)The bones of this thing are fairly standard– an outsider somehow enters a family with problems and ends up improving their lives and becoming part of the family. In this way, it is much like the really-does-not-hold-up-to-time 2004 Steve Martin film Bringing Down The House, which I cannot recommend enough that you erase from your memory outside of the moment in the trailer where Eugene Levy says "You got me straight trippin', boo."I'm endlessly fascinated by the politics of this movie. Dips into some surprisingly anti-capitalist, racially-just highs for an 80s family-style comedy before boomeranging right back around on a lot of them. It builds an empathetic, caring homeless protagonist with a tragic story and tries to tell us how thin the circumstances are between his fate and our rich protagonist, but also has to showing us that he's actually also worthy because he's talented and educated and serves a value for the family. It's sweet, and loving, and made with such good, surprisingly radical intentions, but maybe a little confused.My roommate Gabe points out that this is probably because of the warmth Paul Mazursky likes to bring to his characters. When he said this, I nodded and said "Mmm." This is because I did not know who Paul Mazursky was, and because his name sounded like "Mike Wazowski" to me, which was a fun thought I could not react to in the moment, for fear of being rude.

Matt Singer3.0

Nick Nolte has huge Cosmo Kramer energy in this, which is not something I would have previously considered possible.

Dave Taylor3.5

At some point during a ‘free Superchannel weekend’ back in the late 80’s, my family taped this on a blank VHS. Therefore, parts of this movie are super-nostalgic because of the sheer number of times I’ve seen them (particularly the ‘eating dog food’ scene, and the first video montage the son makes…because there are boobs in it). But the rest of the movie is just as nostalgic due to the sheer amount of pastel colours blanketing the house interiors (honestly, I’m very much pro pastel furniture and gold-plated faucets, so I’m all set for this look to make a comeback).In many ways, Down and Out in Beverly Hills mirrors What About Bob? Both star Richard Dreyfus as a guy who can’t get rid of a houseguest, and in both movies the rest of the family is drawn to the outsider. Whereas Bob was both sweet and understandably annoying, Jerry from Down and Out, turns out to be kind of a rude sociopath. I found it super entertaining though, in that family sitcom dynamic the 80’s did so well. However, I was not really a fan of that ending…but to be honest, there isn’t a clear ‘satisfying ending’ I can think of based off of the character arc of Jerry. First you like him, then you still like him, but he starts doing things you don’t agree with, then he really goes too far. It’s hard to know what to do with a character you both like and detest. Hey wait, maybe this actually does have the perfect ending!