Amerika

This movie lists itself as a comedy, but within that framework, it is a dead-accurate bullet aimed at the heart of the Baby Boomers. It takes on the attributes of that generation — narcissism, flightiness, divorce, promiscuity, manipulation — and mocks them from the perspective of someone who has had to live through it.

A.C.O.D. follows a man in his late 20s, Carter, who is still recovering from his parents’ acrimonious divorce and the months leading up to it. He thinks that his life is together, and that the past has passed, but as a family event looms on the horizon, he finds that all the old wounds have been concealed not healed.

With that in motion, this movie reverses the tiresome trope of the movie where the child of divorce wants to see his parents get back together. In this film, Carter does not want reunion, but destruction. His rage is all-encompassing at how his childhood was betrayed and his self-esteem crucified by the selfishness of the “Me generation.”

Each scene shows a new horror: the complete “live in the moment” narcissism of his parents, his own inability to bond with pretty much anything, and the degree of moral corruption and uselessness of supposedly functional members of society. In a land swimming with riches, the people have become poor in their hearts.

This film may not make you laugh, but you might be cheering along for the high truth quotient: it reveals the lasting trauma of divorce, but even more, reveals how Generation X were all children of narcissists who leave nothing but ruin in their wake, and then skip off gaily complimenting themselves on how successfully they ignored the rot.

Tags: baby boomers, divorce, generation x, the me generation