Recently, I saw Watching the Friedmans. Immediately after that, I put on The Mating Game, a "60s" romantic comedy (it was from 59 actually) with Tony Randall and Debbie Reynolds. To me, these movies and movie experiences side by side offer a perfect case for asking whether the point of life is to be happy and if so what choices one might make. Why the hell did I submit myself to the ugliness of Watching the Friedmans? I felt dirty and sad afterwards. Watching The Mating Game I was between amused and laughing out loud. Tell me, why would one choose the former over the latter? Life is hard enough, filled with enough ugliness. I don't need to add to it by looking inside the minds of sick people that the world would be better off without. Give me farce. Give me romantic comedies. Give me fantasies. Or if I am going to look at ugliness, study depravity, let there be some lesson to it other than that life sucks. It reminds me of my old American Beauty - Magnolia distinction. American Beauty says that underneath the seeming normalcy and attractive facade is depravity and evil. Magnolia says that underneath the apparent depravity and messiness is an innate desire to be normal and good. They both have truth in them, but I'd rather go through life seeing that potential for good in people than assuming there's unseen depravity. And to the extent we make our own reality, of course, that choice affects what we find. I love a good psychological thriller. But I know that's fantasy. It's entertainment. The thing about Capturing the Friedmans, or American Beauty despite its being fiction, is that they are saying: This is what the world is. It's not.