First, Brandon Hicks takes an irreverent look at economic ironies in “Competitive Marketplace.”
Then, setting is paramount in the Saturday Rumpus Review of Antonio Ruizpalacio’s film, Gueros. The director’s vision of Mexico City, writes Alex Norcia, symbolizes “Güeros’s struggling and disaffected youths, an external rendering of what’s most internal.” Its characters fight to create meaning for their lives in a landscape that resists them at every turn.
Meanwhile, in the Sunday Essay, Jennifer Steil confronts the tragic and shocking drug overdose of her ex-boyfriend, a “disciplined” philosophy professor, and the guilt that attends his death. Questions about blame become central. Her ex’s philosophical background helps to explain the story of his decline. Stiel writes:
His investigations into the meaning of life, morals, behavior, and addiction were far more profound than I could ever achieve. If he couldn’t save himself with the whole of his philosophical arsenal, perhaps no one could.
