Lousy Carter

What gets me about Bob Byington’s Lousy Carter is the implied claim of moral superiority. Yes, Gatsby's sequinned version of the American Dream was inexorably flawed, and yes, the current (symbolic) state of the nation and its discourses is lamentable. To make fun of this state of affairs is legitimate, perhaps even necessary, but reducing the root cause of the malaise to immaturity and moral failings on the part of “baby men”? That seems insufferably moralistic. Say what you will, but Fitzgerald never had to explain why his sentences worked.  

Bob Byington | USA 2023 | 80’ | Locarno Film Festival 2023
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Text: PM Cicchetti

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