Raising Arizona (1987)

We spent our final night in Arizona watching this movie. It’s silly and whimsical, but quietly reflective as well. This must have been quite a radical film back in its time. While some of the ideas don’t feel quite as fresh anymore, they also didn’t age badly.

I think modern films and TV has tunneled on the theme of “childlike wonder and whimsy vs crushing responsibility of adulthood” much deeper than what this film has to offer now. So I wasn’t super moved by the McDunnoughs’s lostness and the choices they made because of it. Adulting is hard and sometimes, people commit crimes because they don’t know how to adult. I think we have moved way past the arguments where this maladaptive pattern is acceptable. 

What did move me was Nicholas Cage pioneering the himbo twink. Such an archetype must have held such promise. Unfortunately, the modern audience is fickle and this genre of men never quite panned out. It does comfort me, looking at Cage now, to know that there truly endless ways to age out of twinkdom gracefully. After all, not every one can pull of a Jake Gyllenhaal.