I caught two movies this weekend that reminded me why it’s so hard to play to your strengths.
A Reformed Arrogant Drummer
Drumline was on reruns on MTV, and it’s actually a really good movie so I watched it again. This time I had a new lens to watch it through thanks to Dave Rendall’s Freak Factor blog.
Nick Cannon plays Devon, a cocky, superstar drummer in one of those great college bands who gets a scholarship to A&T in Atlanta. He wows the crowd with his amazing drum solos and entertainment power. It turns out that he can’t read sheet music so his arch rival calls him out and gets him kicked out of the band.
It also doesn’t help that he’s arrogant and doesn’t want to be a team player. He is better than the whole drumline.
After a fight with Sean, his rival band member, Sean admits Devon is the best but gets him to focus on being more of a team player:
Sean: “You’re the best, Devon! But when we’re on the field, nobody hears you! They hear the band.”
Devon becomes convinced he needs to change. He teaches himself sheet music and focuses on becoming a team member of the drumline. This proves to the band director that he has developed his character and he lets him back into the band, (spoiler alert) just in time to win the final band championships.
The band director and school system certainly socialized Devon into working with a team, but what will happen to his confidence in his ability to come up with new sounds independently? No longer a freak, how will he be able to stand out again?
A Reformed Womanizer
The other movie I watched was Nine (2009) about an Italian film director named Guido who couldn’t come up with a new script for his film because of his personal problems with all of the women in his life. It turned out his other movies were successful because they were about all of the personal problems he faced in his life.
(Spoiler alert): Without giving too much away, Nine resolved by Guido making a movie about apologizing to all of the women in his life for how he’s treated them.
The movie implies Guido was a good storyteller and film director because of the practiced he had in telling good lies to all of the women in his life. Now that Guido is morally better after he stops womanizing, what will happen to his storytelling? Can you change for the better as a person without losing your unique talents? I think so, but thought it was an interesting question. When should you allow yourself to be socialized and when should you not change?
Hollywood Makes it Hard
Enjoyable Hollywood movies make it hard to stand out because so many plots focus on the drama of society morally reforming a confident outsider. What’s interesting to me is that there would be no movie without this outside, or freak, character. Think of all of those nerd makeover movies. That’s who the movie is about. No freak, no movie. But it’s up to you to decide if you will become more like them or more like yourself.
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