How Hollywood Denigrates Characters Who Don't Drive

Tom Vanderbilt explains adroitly "how not having a car became Hollywood shorthand for loser." Why does the film industry have such contempt for the carless?

1 minute read

August 2, 2010, 7:00 AM PDT

By George Haugh


"Greenberg is just the most recent film in which a character's non-automobility-whether for lack of a car or for lack of the ability to drive-is used for comic effect, whether as a metaphor for a deeper personality flaw or as a token of marginality and/or plain creepiness."

One reason could be a "society that has trouble conceiving of life outside the omnipresent sphere of what sociologist John Urry calls 'automobility.'"

Friday, July 30, 2010 in Slate

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