Charlie Chaplin

One of Hollywood’s first superstars Charlie Chaplin was most famous for his character the Little Tramp or The Tramp. This was a ridiculous, good-hearted, bumbling, unlucky but optimistic character, getting caught up in scrapes and escapades without meaning to. The Little Tramp endures real hardship and there many sad moments but he often greets them with a playful sense. In the famous scene in The Gold Rush where he and his companion boil and eat his shoe, the other man grimaces throughout the difficult task whereas The Little Tramp seems to enjoy the experience, twirling the laces like spaghetti and sucking the “flavour” from nails.

The Starving Artist – Inside Llewyn Davis

Oscar Isaac stars as Llewyn Davis, a talented folk musician in New York in the early 60s, struggling to get by. He relies on friends and well-wishers letting him sleep on couches and lending him money. Davis is clearly immensely talented but can’t seem to find the luck he needs and is weighed down by the recent death of a close friend. On Brett Goldstein’s phenomenal film podcast Films To Be Buried With Nish Kumar cited Inside Llewyn Davis as the scariest film he had seen that year beating out any number of horror films because that is the fear of the musician/comedian/writer/artist. Davis’ struggle as he goes to friend after friend or running through the various contacts he has to find some way to make this work is heart-breaking – all the more so as he is talented.

The Drifter

A common feature of American storytelling and particularly in television as it lends itself to an episodic medium is that of the drifter. The person without a home who drifts across America, perhaps taking odd jobs, perhaps some manner of criminal, or maybe someone with a greater purpose. Recent hit Poker Face sees Charlie on the run from the mob driving across America, no home other than her car, getting casual labour and occasionally solving murder schemes. The old Incredible Hulk tv used this trope, with every episode seemingly ending with Banner hitchhiking to a new place, constantly on the move. Likewise, The Littlest Hobo featured much the same story – a drifter travelling from town to town – getting involved in scrapes and helping people, but the “littlest hobo” was a dog.

For much of Supernatural’s fifteen-season run Sam and Dean Winchester were monster hunters without a home – simply driving from case to case like a Mulder and Scully from a lower socio-economic background. When at one point the duo come to possess something akin to a home Dean, the more drifter-y of the two, who has perhaps never really had a home appreciates so much about the more settled life.

The Vigilante

The drifter who wanders from town to town helping people has a scarier cousin in the person who is homeless and is more vigilant. Rorschach in Watchmen is such a person, whether Rorschach’s situation is something he purposefully adopted as part of his extreme superhero lifestyle, or his extreme vigilante lifestyle means having the requisite money, resources and time needed to have housing (or a mix of the two) is not clear. In the film his superhero friend Daniel Dreiberg talks of Rorschach coming over to steal his food. The zenith of this trope could be the movie Hobo With A Shotgun and the title gives away much of the film. If a person fights evil, organised crime, supervillains they potentially have a lot to lose…Rorschach and the Hobo (the character has no name) could be seen as having a lot less to lose.

Tragic Situations

Some films are more thoughtful and harrowing portrayals of homelessness- such as The Florida Project, where the threat of homelessness hangs over the characters living in motels in the shadow of Disney World. Or 99 Homes where Andrew Garfield plays Dennis Nash who is evicted from his home and the only way to support his family is to work for the real estate broker who made him take away his home, doing the same to other families. These films highlight what many see as hopelessness and injustice in the system, Nash is a hardworking construction, and the families in The Florida Project have the odds stacked against them at every turn.

Also Read: How Hollywood Portrays Billionaires

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What’s Going On?

Poker Face stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie and early on it is revealed she has an unusual ability – she can tell when people are lying, essentially 100% of the time. As Charlie points out this is not as helpful as it sounds, the best practical use was with playing cards but a mobster put a stop to that and she now works in his casino as a waitress. Events transpire that Charlie must go on the run and every episode she is in a new place with a new cash-in-hand job. Poker Face follows the formula of Columbo in that we see the murder at the start of the episode, we see who did it and why and the elaborate plot they concoct to get away with it. And they would have too if it wasn’t for that meddling Natasha Lyonne. The show is mainly Charlie working out how the murder was done and then being able to prove it – she may know but she needs “cop proof”. It seem odd that every week Charlie finds herself dealing with another murder…and it is, but you have to just go with that.

In Front of the Camera

Now as just about the rest of the cast changes every episode the show rests on Natasha Lyonne. Fortunately, Lyonne is a great actor and immensely charming and likeable. Perhaps known to many for her role in American Pie Lyonne has worked on many amazing projects such as starring in But I’m A Cheerleader and Russian Doll, the Groundhog Day-style Netflix hit.

Every episode features an array of talent – Adrian Brody, Chloe Sevigny, Tim Blake Nelson, Luis Guzman, Jameela Jamil all-star in episodes, and that is just the beginning. It seems like great actors have been throwing themselves at Johnson to either be murdered or a murderer.

Behind The Scenes

Rian Johnson is credited as the show’s creator and writes and directs a number of episodes but there are a number of writers and directors who work on the show.

Does It Work?

Poker Face is great television – not perhaps like Succession or Better Call Saul – but in an immensely enjoyable episodic TV made by talented people to a high standard. Each episode is different and often they focus on different things – not simply how was the murder done, in one episode the writing of a song is as much as a mystery as the murder. The show does a lot to play with your expectations – people we assume to be villains aren’t and people we assume to be nice are shown to be deadly. People are complicated and Charlie often makes friends not just with the victim or the wrongfully accused but the murderers themselves, there are no caricatures of bad people who are thoroughly unpleasant.

Natasha Lyonne is fantastic and you feel like you could watch her for hours just chatting to people. Unsurprisingly, for someone who can tell when people are lying, Charlie has a cynical aspect to her, yet will repeatedly put herself in harm’s way to help others but Lyonne is only the best part of a great show.

Rating: (4 / 5)

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