Laurel Canyon

The concept of motherhood and how a mother should act was unique in this film. The conventional way a mother should be is responsible, caring, mature, and nurturing. In Laurel Canyon, Sam's mother was the exact opposite. He was the one who had to be mature and in a way nurtured his mother. Although his mother deeply loved him, this relationship took its toll on his personality. He was very rigid and straight edge and that seemed to be in relation to how his mother acted. Although, I was really surprised when she took the more responsible and motherly stance at the end of the movie when she said how she couldn't do that to her son in the hotel room. I think all of the sex scenes in this film were really symbolic. In the beginning of the film it starts off with Sam and Alex having sex. Although, it isn’t very passionate and Sam isn’t pleased at the end. This foreshadows how their relationship quickly gains problems. In the second sex scene Sam turns down Alex by saying he is tired when at the same time his mother is having passionate sex with her boyfriend. This explains how different the paths that Sam and Alex are taking are. When Sam kisses his colleague, it happens the same time that Alex kisses his mother and her boyfriend in the pool. This represents how separated they have become from each other and both their lives are completely separate. I was really surprised in the end how passionate they were after their fight in the hotel. I thought that they would eventually break up since neither of them seemed happy. I think that it there were several hints of a woman director in this film. Women were represented as strong, especially Sam’s mother. Also Alex and Sarah were both depicted as extremely smart and successful individuals.

-Claudia Brancaccio