"United States of Tara" Recap 309: Max Gives Marshall the Stinkeye in NYC

Marshall gets a thumbs down, an alter goes on a murder spree and what, you're surprised Charmaine drinks? In the latest episode of United States of Tara!

Moosh is having one of the top five best days of his life with Max in New York City where they have gone to see Marshall’s movie in the film fest. They buy some meat off the street (they get hot dogs, you pervs) and make plans to hit the Algonquin Round Table, the Village Vanguard and the Chelsea Hotel.

I traveled to New York in 2003 with my best friend for my birthday and the Algonquin Hotel was at the top of my list of things to see. I've been a fan of Dorothy Parker's forever and have read pretty much everything I can get my hands on about the Round Table. We had brunch at the hotel and while we weren't at the Round Table (which doesn't exist anymore) we were at a round table, so that counts for something, right?

We also went to the top of the Empire State Building (a destination Marshall and Max eschew), the United Nations and the Museum of Sex, which had an extremely disappointing gift shop. And we made a pilgrimage to the statue of Shakespearean actor and father of John Wilkes, Edwin Booth, for reasons too complicated to describe.

Of course, I had to have a drink at the Stonewall Inn.

Anyhow, back to the recap.

A scud of a cloud appears overheard when Max remarks how great it is to be away from the "crazy [expletive deleted] at home." He immediately twigs that Moosh might get upset by that comment, but Marshall brushes it off. "Mom's a handful,” he says. “There's nothing wrong with saying it. We're in New York, say whatever you want."

Then it's time for a round of the city's favorite sport, jaywalking!

On a phone call back home, Marshall excitedly describes a chance encounter he and Max had on the subway with the armpit of director Jim Jarmusch. I didn't take the subway in New York; I was too traumatized from seeing The Warriors too many times as a kid and terrified at the prospect of encountering roving gangs of thugs in matching outfits on roller skates.

Marshall pronounces Jarmusch’s last name "JAR-mush" and I always thought it was pronounced "jar-MOOSH". If, like Tara, you aren't familiar with Jarmusch's oeuvre, Dr. Hattar(r)as (who is at Tara's house cooking dinner, more on that later) helpfully fills us in: "Same film over and over again, minimal plotting, funereal pacing, oddly American style."

One quick perusal of IMDb later and I find I have seen none of Jarmusch's films so I can't comment on the accuracy of this assessment. As Marshall recounts his subway encounter, he tells Jarmusch about the screening and Jarmusch, bowing to the will of an entire subway car full of people chanting at him to go, agrees to attend.

At the festival, an emcee strikes fear in my heart by announcing that there are three more hours of films to watch and then cues up Marshall and Noah's film. It's called Max Makes Good and via the title card we learn that Noah's last name is "Kane."

Really? Another rhyming name? We have Craine and Trane and now Kane, not to mention Charmaine. I am fixin' to get all Henry Higgins on somebody's ass in a minute. And "Noah Kane" sounds a lot like "novocaine" which I'm weirdly tying in my head back to Noah's near-preternatural calm, one might say numbness, at being confronted by Tara’s alters over the last couple of episodes.

So Marshall’s film, which is done in herky-jerky stop-motion animation, opens with Marshall explaining Tara and her condition in voice-over, then shifting gears to announce that the film is not about Tara but is instead about Max, "a man living one life, dreaming another."

Out in the audience max gives Moosh a bit of the stinkeye but Marshall's too wrapped up in the film to notice. But I suspect the stinkeyes are only starting.

Skipping ahead to the end of the movie, Marshall voices over some pretentious twaddle about light dying on the houses and trees and "the hospital on the hill" to conclude that "despite all evidence around him, Max makes good."

Then comes Max in a movie voice-over, explaining how they make it one day at a time, while Max in the audience looks like he'd like to sink through the floor to the center of the Earth any time now thankyouverymuch.