Tyler Taormina's Ham On Rye is a wonderful film that contextualizes the transformation from adolescence to adulthood with a distinctive formal identity and penetrating perspective, serving as a pertinent reminder of cinema's transcendental capabilities that are rooted in creative ingenuity, not economic excess. Managing to have a heightened sense of wonder that is satirical yet earnest, the first half of Ham On Rye offers an alluring and distinctive look into the coming-of-age archetypical story with a formal panache that synthesizes satirical sensibilities with the brazen honesty of adolescence. Sincere yet subversive, Ham on Rye manages to remain extremely well-balanced tonally, while ultimately shifting modes from youthful idealism and a sense of unheeded optimism about the world to a more structured and confined definition of living ultimately defined by adulthood. The film's deviation is startling and effective, shifting its POV from adolescence to adulthood. Juxtaposing the endless promises of youth with the tedium or stagnation many feel in adulthood where spontaneity and access-points to living have narrowed significantly due to social-political-economic realities. What makes Ham on Rye so compelling is how this is done completely with a show don't tell approach. The more dynamic, avant-garde cinematic language of its first half is replaced with a static, cold formal template in its back half that elucidates this transition in a way the viewer feels in their bones. A revelatory examination of the transition from childhood to adulthood, Ham On Rye deploys a singular formal style and structure that provides a truly unique experience on familiar story motif.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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