Laurel Canyon

The most interesting aspect of Laurel Canyon was the relationship between the carefree, hippie-ish mother, Jane, and her son, Sam. Jane is far from the typical mother in the way that she is completely open around her son, even exposing him to her sexual life and her heavy drinking and pot smoking, and she is not responsible in the way that is expected of mothers. Therefore, Sam rebels against this lifestyle, as is evident in his uptight, closed-off nature, and his desire to pursue a responsible, upstanding career in psychiatry. I thought it was interesting that he didn't rebel in the conventional manner of sex, drugs, and rock n roll, since this was the very thing he was rebelling against. However, I think it was the mark of a female writer-director, Lisa Cholodenko, that Jane wasn't portrayed in a negative fashion, in fact, she was portrayed as mostly positive, since she was a likable, vibrant character. Although she definitely was not a responsible mother and had some regrets in the way she raised Sam, it is still clear that she is unapologetic for her lifestyle choices. I think this is because as a woman, Cholodenko realizes that there is more to woman's life than simply being a mother, and she shouldn't have to sacrifice everything for her child. However, I think it is acknowledged that some degree of responsibility and sacrifice is required to raise a child, and this is something which Jane did not fulfill. However, a male director would have made her into a negative character for these reasons, but from a woman's point of view, we see Jane in a more complex way. Another illustration of this is the way that Sam deals with one of his patients, who is rebelling against his uptight, controlling mother by experimenting with drugs. Sam tells the mother that she needs to be less angry and more understanding. This shows that he appreciated the emotional openness that his mother does have, and so he isn't completely resentful of his upbringing.

Another major aspect of the film was the way in which Sam's girlfriend, Alex, was pulled out of her quiet academic lifestyle towards the partying lifestyle of Jane and her boyfriend Ian. However, I thought this was a kind of cliched storyline, and the way it was resolved left a lot of questions, like as to whether she actually enjoyed her experimentation, because at the end she went back to the same lifestyle. I thought Sam's relationship with her was more revealing, especially the fact that he was uptight sexually with her. He even used the excuse that he was tired, which was a definite gender role reversal, and again a sign of a woman's direction. Sarah's forwardness in pursuing him was another example of this. Sam's uptightness about sexuality could be seen as a response to his mother, but I think it is also a result of female direction, because his motives (and Ian's, which fulfilled the typical rock star cliche) were less clear than the women's. I don't know if this is because Cholodenko wanted to show that men are less open with their emotional motives than women, or because she was less sure of how to portray this herself. I also thought the ending was extremely open to interpretation as well. Sam's going in the water of the pool was an obvious symbol of a rebirth or new beginning for him, just as Alex's sexual experimentation in the pool was a sign of her initiation into a new realization of her sexuality - the water was like a weird kind of baptism. But beyond that, I think that the ending was too open ended to have any real effect. It seemed like him and Alex would work out their issues and stay together, but this was not entirely clear, and there was still the entire issue of Sarah completely out in the open. It seemed like a cop out, as if Cholodenko did not know how to end the film, and so left it that. I thought it was a somewhat disappointing ending for a film that was otherwise interesting for its unconventional female characters and questioning of traditional gender roles.