User:Aya9896/sandbox

Psychoanalysis
This film belongs in a grouping which revolve around a young working professional who is placed under threat, named the "yuppie nightmare cycle", a sub-genre of films which combine two genres in itself - screwball comedy and film noir. Some critics present a psychoanalytic view of the film. Paul is constantly emasculated by women in the film: by Kiki with her sexual aggressiveness and a lust for masochism, Marcy turning down his sexual advances, Julie turning a vigilante mob on him, and Gail entrapping him in paper-mache, rendering him helpless. There are many references to castration within the film, most of which are shown when women are present. In the bathroom in Terminal Bar where Julie first encounters Paul, there is an image scrawled on the wall of a shark biting a man's erect penis off. Kiki holds a cigarette in her teeth when first encounters him, a phallic symbol, and Marcy makes a reference to her husband using a double entendre when saying "I broke the whole thing off" when talking about her and her husband's sex life. A mouse trap clamps shut on a mouse when Julie tries to gift Paul the bagel paperweight.