Line #46 Film/HighStrung1991


1	[[quoteright:184:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/poster_155.jpg]]
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3	->'''Thane Furrows''': ''I'd rather be dead!''
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5	'''High Strung''' is an independent film that stars and was written by Creator/SteveOedekerk. It features Oedekerk as a short-tempered young man, Thane Furrows, who spends his whole time getting annoyed at basically everything around him all while getting mysterious messages about something coming to him at 8:00 pm that night. It was directed and produced by Roger Nygard.
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7	Other cast members shown in the movie are Creator/ThomasFWilson as Thane’s friend Al Dalby, Thane’s idealistic friend. Creator/DeniseCrosby as Melanie, Thane’s despicable boss. Creator/FredWillard as Ray, a polite insurance salesman who visits Thane. [[Music/{{Warrant}} Jani Lane]] as Vol, Thane’s obnoxious rock-star wannabe neighbor. And Creator/JimCarrey (who was uncredited) as Death itself.
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9	It was released in several film festivals that took place in January and February of 1992. It did not get any video release date, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdXEXFw4GIM but is available to watch on YouTube]].
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11	!!Tropes:
12	* AffablyEvil: Death is pretty creepy all things considered since he’s been harassing Thane all day, but once he drops his scary act, he can be polite if socially-impaired.
13	* AgeGapRomance: Marvin is old enough to be Melanie’s father. Lampshaded by Thane as he describes Melanie as half Marvin’s age.
14	* AIIsACrapshoot: Thane is called by an artificial intelligence answering machine of a carpet cleaning company has said machine at least four times (though the fourth time was Death manipulating the call to remind Thane of 8pm).
15	* BadBoss: Melanie publishes books that children make children happy and doesn’t approve of anything that would either confuse or upset children, despite the fact that those upsetting aspects could be helpful to them.
16	* BaitAndSwitch: After a scene where Melanie basically establishes her bitchy attitude and Thane's InnerMonologue hesitates to reprimand her, we get a scene where Thane puts his foot down and tells Melanie off. We see it's actually his inner monologue practicing but the real Thane does nothing of the sort, much to Inner Thane's dismay.
17	* BenevolentBoss: In contrast to Melanie, Marvin is rather kind and friendly. Thane even describes him as. A boss who was tolerable.
18	* BottleEpisode: About 95% of the entire film takes place in Thane’s apartment.
19	* CeilingBanger: Thane does this to his upstairs neighbor Vol on account of the latter playing music too loud.
20	* TheCynic: Thane spends a majority of the movie giving bleak descriptions of mundane activities.
21	* DartboardOfHate: Thane has one of Melanie in his room.
22	* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Thane's griping and refusal to shut up caused him to do this to Death himself.
23	* DisproportionateRetribution: Thane in no small part criticizes Death's rule about only being allowed to wish for death 18,000 times, deeming it to be ridiculous (and admittedly, anyone wishing for death at that rate is rather fantastical).
24	* DontFearTheReaper: Since Death is played by Creator/JimCarrey, could you expect anything else?
25	* EverythingIsBigInTexas: It’s implied that the movie takes place in Texas since Thane at one point says he went to a Texas State Fair, but we are mostly limited to the confines of Thane’s apartment.
26	* FantasticRacism: Among Melanie’s many vices is that she looks down on people with different nationalities.
27	* FreakOut: Thane does this so many times it's almost criminal.
28	* {{Jerkass}}:
29	** Thane is quite belligerent and often acts anxious and impatient to everyone, including people who are remotely nice to him.
30	** Melanie, Thane’s boss, is quite the bitch who is dedicated to publishing children’s books to make money rather than anything that could be useful for children.
31	** Vol, Thane’s neighbor, plays loud music which annoys Thane and has the gall to complain to Than when he bangs his ceiling.
32	** Death spends a majority of his screen time scaring the bejesus out of Thane.
33	* {{Hypocrite}}:
34	** Thane gripes about his mother constantly talking when he is no better in that respect.
35	** Vol gets on Thane's case for banging on his floor as it disrupts his music, even though Thane only did that to stop his disruption.
36	* JerkassHasAPoint: A MotorMouth jerk he may be, Thane brings up some good points, like how his neighbor plays his music too loud or how Melanie approves of books that are geared more to 5-year-olds or younger (like Happy the Clam) and not approving more practical books.
37	* TheLoad: As Death states, Thane spent his whole life griping instead of making himself useful. This doesn’t stop Thane from using his trademark complaining against Death however.
38	* LonelyBachelorPad: Thane’s apartment is pretty much built for a bachelor such as himself.
39	* LowerClassLout: Thane is this in spades. He’s abrasive, lives in a sustainable but admittedly small apartment, works as an unappreciated children’s book author, and barely has a social life.
40	* NiceGuy:
41	** Al, Thane’s friend, is an idealist who tries to get Thane to see the best in life.
42	** Ray, the insurance salesman seen at the start of the movie, is also pretty polite to Thane, despite Thane’s passive-aggression.
43	* NotAfraidOfYouAnymore: Thane to Death at the end.
44	* TheOner: A majority of scenes are framed in one shot, most notably one scene where Thane is seen screwing around with an answering machine in his bedroom that lasts for about a minute.
45	* RuleOfSymbolism: The fly that’s been harassing Thane all day drops dead when it stares Death in his face. Note that whenever the fly appeared, Thane would lose his temper about something. Now that the fly is gone and Thane has told Death off to the point where he decides to leave Thane alone forever, Thane has lost his cynicism, at least mostly.
46	* SatelliteCharacter: A majority of the secondary cast have their characters revolve around Thane.
47	* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Death when Thane unleashes a ReasonYouSuckSpeech on him decides that Thane is more trouble than he's worth, even telling God Himself that he won't be coming back for Thane.
48	* TheShutIn: Thane almost never leaves his apartment, most likely to avoid coming into contact with everyday annoyances.
49	* SoulCrushingDeskJob: It’s implied that Al works in an office, but he is anything but worn down by the mundanity of his job.
50	* TakeThat: Thane at one point says that book publishing companies ;like the one he works at are trying to shield reality from children due to wanting to keep their innocence.
51	* TakeThisJobAndShoveIt: After telling off Melanie for her bitchy behavior, she silently leaves, and Thane sees this as a sign of him getting fired. He gets upset at first before deciding that he wasn't big on the job anyway.
52	* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Thane does this to Death.
53	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Thane really likes cereal and refuses to eat anything else, though he does mention liking popsicles.
54	* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Thane isn’t so much unsympathetic as he does suffer through many misfortunes, it’s just that he’s pretty belligerent about life and can’t stop complaining about every little inconvenience.
55	* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Gender-inverted as Thane says this word-for-word regarding Marvin’s marriage to Melanie.

Context Film / HighStrung1991