I’ve recently been reviewing a few of my favorite films and I realized that in three of them main characters all drive the same car. I noticed this because it was the same car my mom had for a while when I was growing up, the Mercedes ML-320 Sport Utility Vehicle. Ours was even silver.
1999-2001 was a golden time for America, the last few years before President George Bush teamed up with Osama Bin Laden to bring us one of the darkest times in history. All was not well however, as our three very different filmmakers set out to show us with the same car, in chronological order no less.
“I will sell this house today!” Carolyn (Annette Benning) puts on a happy face in American Beauty (1999). (Enjoy the creepy 90s website)
“There’s good chloresterol and bad chloresterol.” Helena (Catherine Zeta Jones) is about to discover her husband’s the biggest drug dealer on the west coast in Traffic (2000).
“I’m not an idiot man. I watch TV.” Scooby (Mark Webber) about to get his mom’s car stolen in Todd Solondz‘s brilliant Storytelling (2001). (It upset the hell out of the socialists, who apparently review movies now.)
Three very critical looks at American life, three silver Mercedes ML-320s. I would recommend one for your next magnum opus.
