What relationship (if any) does affection have with care and/or concern and/or desire and/or love and/or lust? What generates these emotions? What terminates them? Are there lines of demarcation and how and when do they become blurred? Do we have totally free will over the way we think and feel? How do you keep a life in balance?
So - just what is going on in this film (which feels more like a poem and/or fable to me?) You could probably get a spectrum of viewpoints from different people (indeed, the present comments attest to that) - mine is as follows, and will contain spoilers.
One of the pivotal points occurs when one of the researchers in the lab where Dr. Leo had worked asks Shane a two-part question dealing with both loyalty & betrayal. In the same conversation she comments on his acceptance of work from the pharmaceutical company with the best financial offer. Let's leave that on the back burner and go to some other questions . ..
Why is Shane in Paris? What were he and Leo doing out in the rain forest (or some such place with yet unexamined botanical specimens)? What did Shane steal from Leo, and why?
Ever think about how much money the makers of Viagra make annually? I don't, but I bet it's pretty substantial - possibly even more than minoxidil (aka Rogaine). Sex and vanity - two rather powerful drives. What if you could come up with a drug for sexual desire, rather than just a physiological support for a body part? What if before you had all the safety protocols in place, before the double blind experiments were done, one researcher started dosing himself, and the wife of another researcher also was given/took the drug?
That's my premise - if you need a premise. It works for me. But the story seems to be about imbalance - unbridled desire to an extreme, whether it be sexual or financial. "Greed is good", said Gordon Gecko. But you can get too much of a good thing. And both Shane and Leo and Core have found this out. June hasn't yet - but she probably will.
There are a number of unanswered questions in the film - nagging, but perhaps unimportant.
Whatever the effect of the drug in amplification of sexual desire to the point of eating one's partner, it's not totally over-riding either Core or Shane's basic humanity. Core doesn't want to go on living the way she is; she says she wants to die. Leo seems to be doing as much as he can to protect her, both physically and by coming up with some solution in the research lab. June discovers numerous vials of unlabelled pills in Shane's bag - attempts to dampen his drug-induced desire so he doesn't harm her? Shane is having nightmares (daymares?) in the plane coming over to Paris about ravaging (literally) June. At one point in foreplay he seems to realize if they go through with copulating, he will kill her, and runs to the bathroom to jerk off so she'll be safe. He hasn't told her anything about what's going on, and feels incredibly rejected.
Shane and June's decision at film end? "Let's go home." But - you can't go home again. As Heraclitus noted some millenia ago "You can't step into the same river twice."
Nikki Giovanni said "Love is the only true adventure." Some "adventures" can get out of hand. This film seems to be a warning against that unbalance. KOYANNISQUATSI has already been taken for a film title. But an English translation of this Hopi word, "life out of balance" could well go along with TROUBLE EVERY DAY as a title for this film.
So - just what is going on in this film (which feels more like a poem and/or fable to me?) You could probably get a spectrum of viewpoints from different people (indeed, the present comments attest to that) - mine is as follows, and will contain spoilers.
One of the pivotal points occurs when one of the researchers in the lab where Dr. Leo had worked asks Shane a two-part question dealing with both loyalty & betrayal. In the same conversation she comments on his acceptance of work from the pharmaceutical company with the best financial offer. Let's leave that on the back burner and go to some other questions . ..
Why is Shane in Paris? What were he and Leo doing out in the rain forest (or some such place with yet unexamined botanical specimens)? What did Shane steal from Leo, and why?
Ever think about how much money the makers of Viagra make annually? I don't, but I bet it's pretty substantial - possibly even more than minoxidil (aka Rogaine). Sex and vanity - two rather powerful drives. What if you could come up with a drug for sexual desire, rather than just a physiological support for a body part? What if before you had all the safety protocols in place, before the double blind experiments were done, one researcher started dosing himself, and the wife of another researcher also was given/took the drug?
That's my premise - if you need a premise. It works for me. But the story seems to be about imbalance - unbridled desire to an extreme, whether it be sexual or financial. "Greed is good", said Gordon Gecko. But you can get too much of a good thing. And both Shane and Leo and Core have found this out. June hasn't yet - but she probably will.
There are a number of unanswered questions in the film - nagging, but perhaps unimportant.
Whatever the effect of the drug in amplification of sexual desire to the point of eating one's partner, it's not totally over-riding either Core or Shane's basic humanity. Core doesn't want to go on living the way she is; she says she wants to die. Leo seems to be doing as much as he can to protect her, both physically and by coming up with some solution in the research lab. June discovers numerous vials of unlabelled pills in Shane's bag - attempts to dampen his drug-induced desire so he doesn't harm her? Shane is having nightmares (daymares?) in the plane coming over to Paris about ravaging (literally) June. At one point in foreplay he seems to realize if they go through with copulating, he will kill her, and runs to the bathroom to jerk off so she'll be safe. He hasn't told her anything about what's going on, and feels incredibly rejected.
Shane and June's decision at film end? "Let's go home." But - you can't go home again. As Heraclitus noted some millenia ago "You can't step into the same river twice."
Nikki Giovanni said "Love is the only true adventure." Some "adventures" can get out of hand. This film seems to be a warning against that unbalance. KOYANNISQUATSI has already been taken for a film title. But an English translation of this Hopi word, "life out of balance" could well go along with TROUBLE EVERY DAY as a title for this film.