Gilmore Girls: A David Lynch Tribute

About a month ago, my dad had some health problems and I went to New Orleans to see him.  I was there for about 2 weeks and I was bingeing Gilmore Girls the entire time.  I had never watched any of it, as when it was on tv I opted  to watch Smallville instead. I fell in love!  The amount of references and witty repartee was enough to make my head spin.  It is basically a Utopian society and everyone lives a perfect life and all the problems that arise are relational.  While on this binge journey, in Major Directors we were studying the stylings of David Lynch.  I happened to notice a lot of Lynch references and similarities within Stars Hollow!

David Lynch has such a unique style.  His stuff is a little bit (a lot of bit actually) crazy.  He likes surrealism, dream worlds, archetypal character structures, and pushing the boundaries of traditional film.  Twin Peaks is a perfect example of his work, both stylistically and contextually. It is colorful and weird and I made the decision that I would not be finishing the show without a care, that’s how weird it is. I like some weird stuff, but David Lynch is weird for the sake of being weird! He managed to establish this universe for a show that has become idolized and emulated in so many popular tv shows today.  Gilmore Girls is David Lynch-obsessed, and with good reason to be.

The first thing I noticed that tipped me off to the Lynch-ness was a screening the town of Stars Hollow did of Eraserhead.  I immediately sat upright because I knew we would be watching that in class. That movie is a strange telling of a scared and frustrated dad’s story in black and white (yuck). But Lorelai and Luke are fighting and they go to the screening and it’s awkward and uncomfortable. Very David Lynch.

Then I noticed all of Lynch’s women.  And men! There were a lot of repeat actors from Lynch’s work that appeared in Gilmore Girls.

Then I really started to put 2 and 2 together.  Both GG and Lynch establish mood and tone CONSISTENTLY throughout. There is always a music track with a little ooh oohhh ohhh to set the tone by either making it upbeat or forlorn.  Always always always with the musical transitions. Lynch loves to have tone-setting music in the background to let everyone know how to feel.

Both Lorelai and Dale Cooper basically live in diners.  Lorelai injects coffee into her veins, and was in love with Luke the whole time so how could she stay away? Dale seemed to be obsessed with cherry pie for some reason, but to each his own I guess. Many important scenes take place in their diners of choice

The towns people and their quirkiness was also a common theme! Kirk and the log lady would’ve gotten along, I’m sure.  Not to mention the fact that everyone in both towns know everyone.  Stars Hollow never had to investigate a murder, but Twin Peaks is obviously much more dark.  I think the darkest thing to happen in GG was Rory didn’t say thank you after someone passed her the butter.

Then there’s the Blue Velvet Americana feels in Stars Hollow.  Everything is scenic and beautiful and brings about feelings of “simpler times”.

Gilmore Girls played a beautiful tribute to the artistic stylings of  David Lynch.  She establishes a universe worthy of getting lost in, all while paying homage to the masters of film and media that came before.   Amy Sherman-Palladino is a wizard and I know that she is aware of everything she does in her shows.  Her appreciation for such a wide variety of media is admirable and I think that GG should definitely get some more credit, if not for having exquisite taste. Real recognize real, am I right? If only the media industry worked that way, then all the rain drops were lemon drops and gum drops of what a world it would be.

Get Out

So I’ve been trying to watch all of the oscar nominees for Best Picture this week, and with school and everything else going on I managed to watch 2 of the 8 I had not seen. Not too bad, and I still have a few days so whatever. Maybe I’ll make my goal, maybe I won’t.  One of the movies I watched was Get Out, written and directed by Mr. Jordan Peele. I had heard all of the hype and decided it was time. People had been talking about this movie since the day it was released. 

The final push I needed to actually sit down and watch it, other than the goal I set for myself about the nominee thing, was my mom telling me she watched it and thought it was ridiculous.  I could guess why she would say this.  My mom grew up in New Orleans in the ’60s with housekeepers and The Help culture. I knew Get Out tackled a a lot of racial tension and stuff like that and knew that I had to watch the movie to figure out why my mom wasn’t a fan.

While watching it, I noticed that the screenplay was great.  The dialogue was witty, funny, creepy, and it told the story really well.  There was a part of me that was thinking that the movie was going to end with the cops showing up and finding all the dead white people and arresting the protagonist.  I thought ‘Wow. That would really appeal to some shock factor and make people pay attention to the legal system’. And then I was talking to a friend and she told me that was the first draft of the ending, and I think it would have been just as effective of an ending to get people riled up.

The main theme and message I took away from the film was that it was a social satire, poking fun at the way that white people seek to admire, then copy, then appropriate other people’s culture at the expense of the dignity of those people.  I think that for a lot of reasons, this is a true assertion for Peele to make when looking at white culture throughout the years.

The part that I knew my mom would’ve been bothered by was the family’s portrayal of how their housekeeper and groundskeeper were “part of the family”.  We obviously know that they were, literally, members of their family inside other people’s bodies, but that ideology is consistent throughout.  I have heard my mom say “Iona was a member of our family” so many times and I really do believe her and I believe that a lot of families who had housekeepers truly felt this way.  It’s a sore subject and one that I know very little about, growing up during the time that I did.

My mom didn’t like the movie. I think she felt attacked by it or she told me that it was ridiculous in order to trivialize it and not take offense. Either way, the movie drove head first into the racial elephant in the room that people have spent so long barricading with fancy ropes and signs that say “all lives matter” and “please ignore this elephant”. I think it has an important message, wrapped up in satire and The Twilight Zone. Seriously this movie was creepy! But I don’t think all white people are racist. I don’t think that all white people want to steal other people’s culture. I do think that white people can act entitled and ignorant when it comes to other people’s cultures, but for the most part I think it really is just out of ignorance, but that is a different problem.  That problem can be fixed with knowledge, information, and patience.  And an open mind.  That is definitely the most important part.  And the part that  white people seem to have a problem with.

Did I like the movie? Yes. Do I think it will win Best Picture? No. I do think that it has a shot at Best Original Screenplay though.  I salute Jordan Peele for putting this movie out into the world.  It is something that needed to happen in order to start a conversation, although I’m starting to realize now that maybe that conversation still isn’t strong enough to change anything.  No, words and ideas can only do so much.  It’s the people behind those words and ideas that actually have the ability to get something done.