 Let's do it in the morning. I gotta get home. I'm tired and I gotta get home. All tears flow from the same source. Back to life lessons in the film. Hello. Hello. And today we're gonna be making sense of life through Beatrice at dinner. A brief Samari summary. How do you say? Samari. Samari, yeah. Good thing you say it's Samari. To Samara is the synopsis. It follows Beatrice as she goes to dinner living on her own. She's a holistic passer-healer. Yeah, holistic passer-healer. She goes to do her work with this one client and she ends up her car breaks down at their place. So she tells the person that the wife offers that she can stay for dinner while she waits for a friend to help her with the car. And then most of the movies are having an awkward dinner with the guests. Yeah. Did we mention the name of the movie? Yeah, she said it. Okay. It was a dinner. Diagonally. So we just watched it and I'm very role. I'd say two main things came up for me. Class and migration. I think the thing that hurt me the most was getting sad over it. I mean, I guess it's both. But I suppose the thing that really hit me hard was the immigration aspect of it because Beatrice is from Mexico and she came to the U.S. with the help of relatives that were living in the U.S. because there were protests. She was involved in a protest back home against the usual story. Big Western or American conglomerate goes to a more disadvantaged country to source some kind of either resources or to displace villages and by building some hotel or resort for their own financial gains. And that's her story. And this man, that is the guest of honor at this dinner of her client's husband. He is the worst of the 1% basically the whole time. The whole dinner is Beatrice realizing who this person is. Their first encounter really is where he's asking her to refill his drink because he just automatically assumes, okay, well, you're the help. She then says, no, I'm actually a guest like you are. And he's visibly shocked by that and they have a bit of a conversation which then leads to him asking, where are you really from? And then she shares while I was born in Mexico and then later, did you come here legally? Oh, good thing you have a job. Good thing you're contributing. I just wanted to be sure. I wasn't surprised by him. He is that kind of person. He's someone who is financially privileged. And it's not to say that everybody who's financially privileged is like that. That's what I'm saying. The worst of people who are financially privileged. And so yeah, so there are those immigration elements there that really hit me hard because the questions that he poses to her like, did you come here legally? It is so ignorant of the main realities of being an immigrant. I think this guy, his name was Doug Strudt, right? He's the kind of person who believes that if you are coming from Mexico and move to the US, you're pushing for the American dream. You know, in his mind, that's what migrants move to the US for. Completely ignorant of the fact that there's a whole hardship that comes from being a migrant. You know, there are migrants who move. They're willingly looking for that American dream, but everyone loses as a migrant even if you're moving there for what you're thinking is a more westernized life. Yeah, like if you're looking at moving as an opportunity, you still lose things like culture. Let's say you move there, you find someone you fall in love, you have kids. There's so many things like reference points that you're never going to be able to share with the people that you love. Your kids are going to be so different from you. You're going to be stuck in this perpetual state of assimilating and learning each time without pass down your personal life experience because where you are, it doesn't matter anymore. And so all these things that made you who you are before you even came to this place, all these things that have so much me carry so much meaning for you. You can't really revel in them as you would back where you're from with people who you wouldn't even have to explain them to. They would just understand because this is something that they personally experienced too. But then even worse when you're an immigrant who was forced to move because of poverty or war like Beatrice was, she's forced to move because of conflict within her country or where she's her community. And she is still pining so much for, she's still longing so deeply for her home. Later when she's alone at that, still at the home at Cathy's place, she calls narrowly. I hope I'm not butchering the name, but she's like, do you remember, it seems just like yesterday when we were playing in the, was it the mangrove? And she's like, are they still there? You know, is the place basically that I love still that way? Yeah. And that's one of the things, you know, you go back to this place that you love, that you have such a connection to and you go back and it's not even there anymore. And it's like, again, that part of you is gone forever. That's the stuff that I think people like Doug Strutt in this movie never think of because it's such an ethnocentric view of analyzing people that you perceive as outsiders. You have the sense that where you're from, your culture is so superior to anyone else's and that the only way, logically to you, the only reason that anybody would move to this cultural mind, which is better than yours, is because you understand the same. You see me the same way. You understand that I'm superior to you and you're lucky to be here. Not realizing that what you consider to be a valuable existence isn't the same. It's not what someone else could consider that. And even in that whole dinner party, everybody has very little understanding or even interest to understand where Beatrice is coming from to see someone else's point of view, to remove themselves from what the ideal that is their life versus the ideal, what she considers an ideal. The movie does a good job of showing all the guests, just having a lot of blank stares or a lot of, they seem very cut off emotionally, just kind of in terms of being able to be a human around other humans. You know, it's a lot of, they're burying, well, they're burying all their feelings. There's a lot of envy, obviously, anytime you've got people coming over to a dinner and there's other people and it's all comparing. It's like, look at my daughter's room and like it's all just showing off. Everyone is trying to show off or to upstage, right? And all their conversation is about who's making more or like who's doing what, you know, it's all a competition all the time. Going on a holiday here. Yeah, you should come here. You should come too, but it's still kind of like, I'm inviting you to this thing. We had the idea, so we're still better than you, but yeah, you can tag along if you want. Like it's all trying to get one up on each other and when you do that, you can't connect and feel closer to people. So it's all a game. They can't just let loose and let go and not worry about how they're perceived. It's all hyper intensely. Who's being, how am I being judged? How am I judging them, right? So they can't actually just be themselves and actually get to know each other on a more meaningful level. It's all vapid conversation and when Beatrice tries to talk about things, about the story about when her dad was kicking an octopus or about back home and you know how many people are struggling there and she's like, I wonder what it's like there if it's worse or how is it? Any time she tries to have more meaningful conversation, they just can't handle it and they try and change the subject. They still see themselves as the superior culture, the superior way of living, yet she is way more in touch with herself and nature and the world and living than they are. There was such a stark contrast between these two worlds, Beatrice's world and these people's worlds, right? Like these are, it's a very culpable class divide, right? And I think the thing about it as well is how much of an impact it has on relationships with people because this lady, Kathy, very well meaning she's going on and on about how beautiful Beatrice is. What a beautiful soul. Yeah, a beautiful singer and such a kind person did so much for her daughter. She's so intelligent, you know? Singing her praises throughout. In the end, this relationship of theirs, even when she's working, she will listen. She just talks about her experiences. You can tell that she's really attentive to Beatrice. And so superficially, if you look at their relationship, you think, you know what? Despite their class differences as well as cultural differences, these two people can be friends. Yeah, be friends. Yeah, she's very complicit in how her reality affects other people. She's kind at the end. Well, in her mind. Here, having money is going to be expensive. I understand that you're struggling, but it's like I would have preferred her to be kind before when Doug was being so abrasive. Yeah, instead of just trying to appease everybody and be like, okay, let's just forget that happened. Yeah, and in her mind, she doesn't realize the transactional move towards giving her money for the tow truck is meaningless to someone who's very empathic and sensitive as Beatrice is. Where she's like, I know that your world is money. Everything revolves around that. But for me, this is not a sincere gift. This means nothing to me. And this is why you don't actually know me at all. Exactly. Because you doing this is pointless. It's kind of offensive to me that that's your way of resolving this. With those kinds of relationships, it could only go so far. There's a level of comfort that Kathy has with the lifestyle that Doug strut, perpetuates. Grant, the husband says, look, this is my guest when he's talking to Beatrice. This house, you know, I have this house. He paid for this. He paid for this. You know what I mean? This is Kathy's reality. Beatrice is so against this man that gave Kathy this comfortable reality. And so how can these two people really have that close relationship that Kathy assumes that they have? Which I think is why so many people are complicit to a degree. And maybe sometimes they feel more guilty or less. Like say, Kathy probably isn't, if she knew about all the displacement of natural habitats or people because Doug wants to build another property somewhere. Kathy might not even be supportive of that, but she can only protest so much because her livelihood is based on what Doug does. And that's where I think you get a lot of people that are like, kinda sucks, but my hands are tied. I can't really, I can only ever do symbolic gestures or only kind of do some clicks or likes or shares of links because really I can never, I can not really bite the hand that feeds that much. Exactly. Yeah. At one point when he talks about hunting, he's like, I've experienced all the world-big pledges of the world because again, it's kind of a boasting thing, but it's wrapped in like a, here's a piece of wisdom I'm gonna share, but it's still boasting. Everything's about boasting and showing off. And then he says, but like hunting this rhino, it was better than any drug, any experience ever. And it's, again, it's something like you would, you would read a poem or something about trying to get back to human nature and trying to find something pure in the pure essence of something. But he's doing this as like- A sport. A sport. And he's talking about how it's, it's the greatest thrill. Because again, they're so detached from everything that, everything is a game. There's nothing about connecting, but why are you murdering this creature? Are you gonna do anything or are you just doing it as a trophy? Take a picture, upload it on social media and that's it. Not respecting- Yeah, I mean, one of the things that like he's talks about, the way he cocks, all of it is just, he knows that certain things are in marker of power and dominance. Things like poaching are illegal. Like this movie is like set in 2017. At this point, if you are hunting, you are most likely doing it illegally, but then you have the power to do that and get away with it. You know what I mean? Very rich people can do that if they want to. And he understands that. And I think this is why everybody outside of Beatrice Pandras too, him and why Beatrice is so frustrated is like the reality is Doug has cultural capital in the world. The world is so centered around money and wealth, you know, capitalism dictates a certain kind of accomplishment. Yeah, a certain kind of worth or value instead. These are the many yardsticks, you know, like outside of money, you have a certain house, you live a certain place, you go on vacation, you go kill, you go poaching in Africa, all of these things are indicative of how successful you are at attaining the capitalist dream. No matter how much the other people grant and the other guests may dislike Doug and most likely even hate groveling. Who likes to grovel at the end of the day. They understand that this is the world that we live in and I have to play the game. All of us to a degree play the game in little ways because we're all forced to do it. They're not really affected. He said, oh, that might be illegal. And they're like, I'm a lawyer, I'll get you off because they all feel like they have enough influential positions for jobs that laws are a joke to them or they just, they feel untouchable. They feel like things don't apply to them. Just why I thank Beatrice is like, at some point it's going to get reached to you. You can't keep living like this forever and just ignore everything else that's going on. That's the problem. There's just way too many people. You think that you can hide up here behind these gates and that everything is going to be alright? No, it's coming for you. What the fuck is going on? Okay, that's enough. It will touch you. You're done. Come on. It's uncomfortable for them to hear because no one wants to feel like they're a bad person. So they have to either just be like, well, that is what someone whose interposition would say. They want, they're just envious or they want, like they have to kind of rationalize it in some way. They don't want to actually feel like, geez, should we really change dramatically how we're living or what we're thinking or what we do, how we do things? If you grow up wanting for absolutely nothing, no matter how good a person you are, the lack of exposure means you're automatically, I don't know, like I don't want to say this as a truism, you know what I mean? But it just means that it's harder for you to empathize with what Beatrice is saying. How can you really be sympathetic to something you've never experienced or never had the opportunity to understand? And it's not even to say I'm absolving anybody in that position of their responsibility to actually at least make an effort to because the whole movie, these people aren't doing that. They just want to eschew her the whole time. Go to sleep, please. You know what I mean? I think maybe, honestly, you should just go to bed. Just go to tears room, okay? It's fine. Did you bother him? He's a tough guy. That beautiful rhinoceros gut. Why? Don't think about it. We don't want to deal with it is too much. I'd rather not deal with it. And I think that is disrespectful of being a human being. I think the greatest contribution that we can give to each other to really being valuable people to anyone is understanding or trying to understand or realizing that my life is different for sure and your life is different. But both of our experiences matter and we can both learn from each other. You know what I mean? Like even if I live a disgusting life you can learn from me in some way. I think the closest she got to affecting them was when she was singing which is probably why you can talk about the power of music where it transcends these normal barriers people have towards others when she's singing and they're all kind of like even Doug's kind of starting to get more interested in his posture changes and he's less closed off and they're all kind of you know I think sometimes that's when you have to use different ways of communication to break through those normal barriers people have and Beatrice is talking to the other wives about needing more old souls in the world because everything is falling apart and we're in trouble and everything is dying and you know she talks about that and they're all kind of like that girl you know her vagina is all over the head and they just talk about a reality star and she's just like oh my god yeah it has warts and I do want to see the pictures but she's just like what is this we're on different worlds yeah have you guys seen the pictures of Zoe Mars what is that about so there's these pictures all over the internet that she apparently sent to her gynecologist of her vagina poor girl she's herpes so she has all these crusty red inflamed sores all over her vagina I mean if you see the pictures you want to see the pictures I just have to eat oh that was another thing that I thought was interesting again the disagreement on how two people that are in this industry of big money making talk about Grant says you know I feel like you can never get to know your employees because they're always trying to please you and they're always phony towards you and Doug's like actually I think that's when you do get to know people the best because you get to see their egos and their insecurities and their authority issues and everything which I kind of agree with both when people disagree both people are usually right or wrong in a way but they're looking at it from different perspectives there's only seeing one part of the elephant or whatever that analogy is where one person is feeling the hoof of the elephant then there's the trunk they're both talking about the elephant but they're different parts so they're both right instead of trying to heal all these people it'd be better just to find the source of all this suffering what's the source what do you think I'm the source I think she does all pain comes from one source what do you think the source is I was thinking is it greed money, violence, power, oppression I don't know what would you say I'm not sure I wrote that because I really liked it and I was kind of trying to figure out what she meant do you have an idea of what she meant I think maybe it is lack of understanding selfishness maybe is the root of all if you had to come up with one word to be the root of all pain which one seems to get closest to it because you're like yeah there's power but power could still be kind of more of a tool that could be used for good selfishness means also the inability to first of all be altruistic and selfless but also to be able to understand and want to see other people's point of view and their situations and everything so unless there's a better word for that ego or something or whatever that's maybe the root of all pain that's all I have but we would love to to hear your thoughts so comment down below and share your thoughts I really appreciate that yeah please do hope you enjoyed and until next time take care that's a wrap