Mall (2014)

Cameron Monaghan: Jeff

Photos 

Quotes 

• Jeff : [narrating as people flee the mall]  Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours. I *do* want more. I am not content with being happy. I was not made for it. It is not my destiny. My destiny is the opposite.

• Jeff : [narrating as Mal walks away from the mall]  He went on two legs, wore clothes, and was a human being. But nevertheless, he was in reality a wolf of the Steppes. He had learned a good deal, and was a fairly clever fellow. But he had not learned, however, was this: to find contentment in himself and his own life. He knew all the time that he was in reality not a man.

• Jeff : Human life is nothing but a bad joke, a violent abortion of the primal mother, a hopeless and barbaric catastrophe of nature.

  Donna : Dude, snap out of it, you're being antisocial.

• Jeff : Why did you shoot them?

  Mal : Because they were there.

  Jeff : I used to work at the mall. You could have shot me.

• Mal : There's a .45 in my bag, and you're gonna get it.

  Jeff : Why, so you can kill me?

  Mal : No, idiot. So you can kill *me*.

• Jeff : [thinking about Mal's request to be shot]  You are willing to die, you coward, but not to live.

• Jeff : [narrating]  I am not the coward in the woods with the gun. He is stuck in his man-wolf dichotomy. I am made up of many more elements than that. I am not stuck, I am unstuck.

• Jeff : [walking along]  It's like what Orwell said, we all live in a giant machine. We're nothing but numbers. No one needs to torture me to make be behave, no cage of rats around my head. I have no choice but to behave.

  [stops to urinate on a dumpster] 

  Jeff : And that's what they want - you to give in. So think about the rats and the futility, and you know what I say? Fuck it.

  Jeff : Look, they made that sidewalk to look a sidewalk to make this mall look like where people thrive. But it's not real. No one walks on the soul-less paths. No one cares about the dystopian landscaping. This place is like a cardboard cut-out of a mall. We believe in a world generated by computers and corporations. The reality does neither replicate a real human experience.

  [pointing at a kiosk] 

  Jeff : Artificial scented candles.

  [a video playing] 

  Jeff : Hmm, artificial sex appeal.

  [a Chinese place] 

  Jeff : Cultural simulation. Nostalgia. Fabricated memories. Manufactured happiness. Hot cookies, fresh out of the oven. Just like mom never really made them.

  Adelle : Those smell good...

• Jeff : [observing a mother and child]  That kid's gonna wake up one day and realize it's not his wife he hates. It's his mother. But since he married his mother, it'll be too late to do anything about it.

  Adelle : Where do you come up with these things?

  Jeff : I collect observations.

  Adelle : You should write them down, Jeff. Write a book.

  Jeff : I will.

• Jeff : [narrating as peeping tom is taunted]  Life is always frightful. We cannot help it, and we are responsible all the same. One is born and at once one is guilty.

• Jeff : [drinking a beer]  I used to always come here with my parents, before they got divorced. My dad always ordered the steak, medium rare. My mom always ordered the fish, as if by ordering fish she was some how improving herself. She was always trying to improve herself, never noticing any change.

• Jeff : So what are you doing sitting here by yourself.

  Donna : People suck out loud, I hate people.

  Jeff : Yeah, especially when there's a lot of them.

  Donna : I hate them individually, too.

  Jeff : Hate's a strong word. I don't want to hate anybody.

• [last lines] 

  Jeff : [narrating]  One day I would be dealt a better hand than a king. One day, I would learn how to laugh.