When College Just Doesn't Work Out: A Review of Waiting

Sometimes I'll just be driving along, going to Walgreens to buy some RU-486 because the condom just broke, or going to buy some Gatorades because my hamstrings are in knots, and I'll see an Applebee's. Or I'll see a Bennigan's. And then I'll think of Waiting, a movie I saw first in the summer of '06. Immediately, my appreciation for these places will quadruple. For I see them not for what they are--a workplace for the rabble and a dining venue for those without taste--but or what they could be--a subculture brimming with quirks, deviance, and fun.

Shenanigans--the locus of the movie's activity--is such a place. It is the paradigmatically mediocre American eatery, stuck awkwardly between fast-food joints and true fine dining. As with all half-measures, it fails miserably, but this failure can entertain anyone cynical enough to accept it for what it is and laugh. And the waiters are indeed cynical. They realize that they are not flourshing--no eudaimonia is to be had in their line of work. But who is to complain? When work is done, they can live for the orgasm and the bong hit, forget their sorrows at the nightly staff-only parties. And when at work, they can continue their hedonism in all sorts of ways. For example: flashing their dicks at fellow employees (in all sorts of configurations: the bat wing, the brain, etc.), insulting each other, putting pubic hair on the food of rude customers. The list goes on, and with it, the fun, right up until closing time.

Are there any flaws? Perhaps. I am undecided whether this is a flaw or merely a curiosity, but in any case, it wants for explanation. Most of the employees are suffering from some obvious personality flaw, or simply not enough intelligence, or maybe weakness of will, and that is what keeps them in their rut. Dean (played by Justin Long, the Mac guy) has no such problems--he is ambitious, intelligent, and has good character--and at the end of the film we see him move ahead with his life. But Monty, who is just as smart, if not smarter, and just as resouceful, remains stuck in his ways at the end of the film, and there is not even a hint that he will improve his lot. Is this some tacit argument against determinism? I leave that weighty question to the viewer.