I Have No Fun

On Sunday, I watched Killer of Sheep. Very little in the way of a plot or character definition or development, but still good. It's about a black dude named Stan in LA working in a slaughterhouse and his family, who he tries to maintain and support but, from what you see in the film, doesn't really feel connected to. His wife and daughter seem to adore him, but he keeps a kind of distance throughout the film that implies that their affection weighs him down rather than giving him strength. It is a very slow film (and conveniently cut to 83 minutes), and more of an observation of the life this family lead than a social commentary or even a drama. The scene where Stan's little daughter tries to sing along to this tune is incredible (couldn't find the actual scene, sadly), and the whole film has a killer soundtrack in general (seewhatIdidthere).

What I found worth noticing was that the audience was almost exclusively white. One woman in the same row as me was chuckling at pretty much everything anyone said during the whole film, funny/audible or not, which was a bit annoying. Some of the shots of children playing in the street were pretty cute, but I doubt it was the director's intention to get an "awww look at those black children playing in the dirt"-coo out of a white middle class woman. She might not have meant it in that way, but it was still annoying. Film wasn't that funny.

It's still on at the BFI Southbank on September 14 and 19 if you want to check it out.