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I've seen two movies where I'm supposed to empathize with the character that Miles Teller plays. In both cases I'm supposed to see his life as hard and challenging so come to understand and agree "He just had to do the things he did" or his life is over and just so tough.
In Whiplash he goes from being a kid at an exclusive music school I could never afford, my kids could never afford, my college educated computer programmer father could never afford to being in an even more exclusive class in the movie.
Let's just say that it feels really hard to ever feel sorry for him because even if he fails the class he's still getting a world class education and it's not like failing will somehow devastate his life. Yet I'm meant to feel the pressure he's under as a way of seeing his character.
Fast forward to last night where I'm watching War Dogs. Once again Miles Teller once again I'm supposed to feel like this character is about to "fail at life" and that's why he just had to go into Arms Dealing.
Finding out his girlfriend's pregnant he talks about "oh god how am I ever going to afford this on what I make? Oh god it's all going to hell!"
Here's the thing I know families that are getting by on a minimum wage of $13.50/per hour both working full time work. That's grossing $1080 a week with two people working.
Now here's where I find myself wanting to punch his character in the throat and tell him to "suck it up Buttercup"
It comes up that he's a Licensed Massage Therapist. He is his own boss, does the massages at his client's homes and has a client base that's wealthy and can afford his services. One of his clients lives in a gated community with a security guard.
He has low overhead and no one else to share his profits with besides his girlfriend and Uncle Sam. He makes $75 an hour. He claims at one point "How am I going to raise a kid on my job" thing is I happen to have a friend who's raising a kid on that job. She doesn't make 75 an hour. She works for someone else. While she has the help of her boyfriend and her mom.
I asked her how many clients could she do in a day. She said 6. I did the math if he did 6 clients at 5 days a week he'd be making 2,250.
That's $9,000 a month. He doesn't live in some out of the way rural community either. He lives in the Miami area. Somehow I'm expected to feel sorry for this guy and totally get why he had no choice but to get into arms dealing when his annual salary is clearing 108,000 a year.
Having seen how much massage companies charge I honestly don't doubt he could charge 75. I don't believe it's a case of Hollywood forgetting how much a massage costs.
How are any of us supposed to feel sorry for these characters?
In Whiplash he goes from being a kid at an exclusive music school I could never afford, my kids could never afford, my college educated computer programmer father could never afford to being in an even more exclusive class in the movie.
Let's just say that it feels really hard to ever feel sorry for him because even if he fails the class he's still getting a world class education and it's not like failing will somehow devastate his life. Yet I'm meant to feel the pressure he's under as a way of seeing his character.
Fast forward to last night where I'm watching War Dogs. Once again Miles Teller once again I'm supposed to feel like this character is about to "fail at life" and that's why he just had to go into Arms Dealing.
Finding out his girlfriend's pregnant he talks about "oh god how am I ever going to afford this on what I make? Oh god it's all going to hell!"
Here's the thing I know families that are getting by on a minimum wage of $13.50/per hour both working full time work. That's grossing $1080 a week with two people working.
Now here's where I find myself wanting to punch his character in the throat and tell him to "suck it up Buttercup"
It comes up that he's a Licensed Massage Therapist. He is his own boss, does the massages at his client's homes and has a client base that's wealthy and can afford his services. One of his clients lives in a gated community with a security guard.
He has low overhead and no one else to share his profits with besides his girlfriend and Uncle Sam. He makes $75 an hour. He claims at one point "How am I going to raise a kid on my job" thing is I happen to have a friend who's raising a kid on that job. She doesn't make 75 an hour. She works for someone else. While she has the help of her boyfriend and her mom.
I asked her how many clients could she do in a day. She said 6. I did the math if he did 6 clients at 5 days a week he'd be making 2,250.
That's $9,000 a month. He doesn't live in some out of the way rural community either. He lives in the Miami area. Somehow I'm expected to feel sorry for this guy and totally get why he had no choice but to get into arms dealing when his annual salary is clearing 108,000 a year.
Having seen how much massage companies charge I honestly don't doubt he could charge 75. I don't believe it's a case of Hollywood forgetting how much a massage costs.
How are any of us supposed to feel sorry for these characters?