by Jordan Zakarin
With her 2010 1)SXSW-darling film Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham captured the malaise and uncertainty of a generation of postcollege 20-somethings with 2)grit, humor, and painful realism, transforming Manhattan into a depressing playground for overeducated, underqualified youths in an economy that had seemingly forgotten about their existence.
As she graduated college, Lena Dunham had a vision of what shed be doing as she 3)waded into real life in New York City.
“I just spent all day getting sandwiches for someone who doesnt know my name, thinking that that was somehow going to get me where I was going to go,” she said, 4)rehashing a projected inner monologue she had prepared for her postgrad self. “And I was always of the mind that I was just going to have a shitty job that had nothing to do with anything and then write when I could write, and that was my hope.”
莉娜·杜漢姆在2010年“西南偏南”大會上受到追捧的電影《微型家具》借用殘酷的現實主義,用大膽、幽默的手法,捕捉到20多歲,剛大學畢業的那一代人惴惴不安以及迷茫無助的心態。在其描繪下,曼哈頓變成一個令人抑郁的競技場,一群高學歷低水平的年輕人在苦苦打拼,其存在卻似乎被低迷的經濟全然無視。
自莉娜·杜漢姆離開大學校園,她就想象著要如何融入紐約的現實生活之中。
“我只是一天到晚給陌生人遞三明治,想著這樣做怎么都會讓我達成所愿,”她說道,重新回憶起那個為研究生畢業的自己設計好的內心獨白。“我當時總是覺得我會干一份跟所學所愛毫不相干的爛活兒,然后自己找時間能寫作就寫作,那就是我的希望了。”
《欲望都市》是“閨蜜情結”的開山之作,劇中對親情刻畫模糊甚至避而不談,卻對“姐妹情深”賦予深情贊嘆,讓每個只身在大都市打拼的女子都不得不感慨:做人當做“凱利·布拉德肖”(《欲望都市》的女主角)。這是以家庭為單位的傳統宗族觀念的一個改變,《欲》劇告訴我們:我們可以自己“制造”親人。里面的四位女郎游戲人間,沒有錢財煩惱;劇中對職場生活描寫寥寥,姐妹們只需打扮一番,談情說愛,便能打發一日。遙望《欲》劇的開播是上世紀90年代末,美國經濟繁榮,正如片頭中凱利散漫又自信的步伐一樣,有一種“山高水低任我行”的豪氣。然而,同為HBO出品,《衰姐們》的創作背景卻完全相反:金融危機過后的美國,失業率激增,剛畢業的大學生惶惶不安,工作還沒著落,大學貸款還款期卻迫在眉睫。……