From the presidential debate:
“McCain calls me wildly liberal, that just means I’m opposing George Bush.”
-Barack Obama
Beautifully said Obama. Or in other words, McCain just got owned.
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Yearly Archives: 2008
Emmys Go "Mad" for "30 Rock", "Men"
I’m going to make this quick, considering I still have some English reading to do. Mainly, the ceremony contained 5 awful hosts, a few big surprises, and a lot of “I saw that coming”.
First off, whatever God there is answered my prayers and brought a 30 Rock takeover. Giving Tina Fey three awards and brilliant Alec Baldwin one as well. Maybe this (as well as Fey’s promotion for the show in her speech) will finally get people watching. But seriously though, watch this show. WATCH THIS SHOW.
Meanwhile, Mad Men predicatbly won. I can’t say much more about it, so I guess I’m going to have to start watching it now.
Meanwhile in other categories, Michael Emerson didn’t pull off the upset I hoped for as The Others’ creepy leader in Lost (or he may not be, I’m only in season 3). Stephen Colbert picked up his first Emmy ever for the writing of the always genius Colbert Report. However he lost best varitey show program to The Daily Show (however, either show winning would’ve satisfied me). What really bugged me though was Colbert being passed over for guest host for Don Rickles. I don’t care how old/legendary Rickles is. Colbert has created his very own person four days a week and has found a new place for humor in keeping such a straight face. But, you’ll get it one day Stephen. For now, you’ll just have to live with being Martin Scorsese of the TV host world.
A prevalent theme of the ceremony itself seemed to be nostalgia. Nostalgia for the shows of the good ol’ days of TV. But maybe that nostalgia instead should’ve been for better ceremonies of the past. Instead of a comedian (geez, they’re so rare nowadays, who is this Stephen Colbert fellow anyway?) they went with five reality show hosts. Each one was a lot more smug then funny. Couldn’t Seacrest use any of that funny he had in his Knocked Up cameo for hosting the Emmys? Guess not. This really shows how our society has sadly been taken over by reality TV. Next thing you know, the cast of The Hills will host next year’s ceremony and the cast of Disaster Movie will host the Oscars. Shutter.
As far as snubs go, there were many. Too many maybe. Amy Poehler should’ve taken home the best supporting actress Emmy for being by far the best part of the now crumbling Saturday Night Live. There won’t be much left of that show once she leaves for good after her baby is born. Meanwhile, the best comedy category could’ve used some improvement. While 30 Rock was a deserving win, the weak fourth season of Entourage wasn’t worthy and neither was Two and a Half Men. How about some love for the emerging sensation of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or the still underappreciated My Name is Earl?
And how can you nominate 30 Rock but forget to mention it’s funniest character; Tracy Morgan’s portrayal of well…himself should’ve been a best supporting actor shoo-in, as should’ve Jane Krakowski’s performance as the very paranoid Jenna “Me Want Food” Maroney.
So that’s all. Hopefully, this ceremony taught you that 30 Rock is the best show on TV and needs to be watched. What else did I learn? That reality shows may be popular, but they still suck. Leave the hosting job up to comedians…they know what they’re doing. Until next year, happy TV watching.
The Emmys: Who Will Win?
In this year’s line-up: It’ll be Tina Fey’s show, with a little bit of Mad Men and maybe a break in the Senifeld curse. Meanwhile, will Stephen Colbert finally get the Emmy that’s been stolen from him two years in a row?
Best Comedy: 30 Rock
Best Drama: Mad Men
Best Actor (Comedy): Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Best Actor (Drama): James Spader (Boston Legal)
Best Actress (Comedy): Elaine Ben…I mean…Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) Wildcard: Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Best Actress (Drama): Glenn Close (Damages)
Best Supporting Actor (Comedy): Rainn Wilson (The Office)
Best Supporting Actor (Drama): John Slattery (Mad Men) Wildcard: Michael Emerson (Lost)
Best Supporting Actress (Comedy): Amy Poehler (SNL)
Best Supporting Actress (Drama): Dianne Wiest (In Treatment)
Best Variety, Music, or Comedy Series: The Colbert Report Wildcard: The Daily Show
Best Writing (Comedy): 30 Rock
Best Writing (Drama): Mad Men
More coverage tonight following the awards ceremony
Movie Review: In Bruges
Bruges. Where the hell is that? Is it real? Is it fake? Who knows. Well, Bruges is real. It’s a city in Belgium that looks kind of like a run down version of Venice and Amsterdam. But it turns out it’s a city full of surprise, midget actors, and very dark secrets. No, I’ve never been to any of those cities. But In Bruges is such an accurate portrayal, I might as well have been in the canal with them.
In In Bruges, the phrase “In Bruges” is used many times (mainly with “I’m” before it). Many times the person saying they’re in Bruges follows this statement with a question mark, and other times with an exclamation point. In this sense, the audience gets a feeling that you and the characters have no idea where they are, and where they are going.
The story focuses on a pair of two very different hitmen. There’s the Irish Ray (Colin Farrell), the young one with a bad temper but a huge conscience, and his partner is Ken (Brendan Gleeson) who seems to have much more control of himself and the situation.
The movie begins with a brief narration that informs us that Ray accidently shot an innocent boy while on the job in London. Ken and Ray’s boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes), a man who is soulless, controlling, yet principled, sends them to lay low in Bruges until the situation is sorted out. Little do they know that they’re actually on assignment.
Ray and Ken’s views on the city help define their characters. At first, Ray is resentful to the city and finds himself getting in fights with ignorant American tourists. Ken however, cannot get enough of the city’s Medieval sites. Ray’s views begin to change when he meets a beautiful woman on a movie set. Once the boss butts in, things go a little crazy.
Many buddy comedies are made, and most are basically the same formula with a few exceptions. One of those exceptions being In Bruges. Ray and Ken’s relationship works so well not only because of the plot surrounding them. It is also the actors that portray them.
Before this movie, I had no idea that Farrell could act but he does it perfectly here. He is able to become the character by showing him as an extremely hilarious screw-up yet at the same time a man of many emotions. And even when he screws things up, his facial expression never seems to change. Always that look as if he just wants to go to the pub and have a few beers. But then as the change finally occurs, Farrell plays him as such an emotional roller coaster that we can really connect with his complex feelings.
With Farrell and the combination of Gleeson, the buddy comedy aspect of the film shines. Maybe it is also in the fact of how utterly different these characters are from each other. It is almost difficult to tell whether they were even friends before they ended up in Bruges, or even while they are there.
Their strange relationship adds a lot of mystery to the film. And yes, there is much mystery surrounding it. Despite the hilarious parts of the film, it is also brutally violent, as well as a look at the existence of God, Heaven and Hell, and how to cope with guilt. In Bruges certainly gives you more to chew on then most comedies being released nowadays.
And that’s the thing about In Bruges, it’s not like most typical comedies nowadays. In fact, it’s not even like most typical films. It embraces the most brilliant aspects of storytelling in an absolutely perfect way. It contains storylines that don’t make sense at first but come together perfectly when connecting with another storyline. And in later parts of the movie, characters who disappear early on come back to impact the story or be part of a subtle background joke (ex: the fat American tourist). In a way, In Bruges resembles an episode of Arrested Development. And you can never have enough Arrested Development.
A large area explored in In Bruges is cultural differences. It could be the differences between Americans, Europeans, and Canadians or it could be between a gap as small as the British, the Belgians and the Dutch. But In Bruges could have the potential to unite the European and American film worlds. With an explosive mix of British humor and Tarantino plotting, Bruges’s director does not rip off Tarantino’s style like many have but has more been inspired by it and created something extremely successful out of it. This is the reason why Guy Ritchie isn’t quite the new Tarantino yet (also, he made Swept Away) but maybe Martin McDonagh will be someday. And this is only his debut film.
Maybe the reason In Bruges didn’t do so well is because it was advertised as a comical-but-violent gangster romp when it is more like Departed/Pulp Fiction meets Lost.
In Bruges caught me wildly by surprise, and it without a doubt deserves to be recognized as one of 2008′s best movies. It could be considered something radically new, but it went totally under the radar.
While most films set in Europe take place in London, Paris, Venice, or Rome, this movie gives us Bruges. It is not a place that is glorified like those cities. It is strange, hellish, and perhaps, not real. Who are these people? Is In Bruges trying to tell us that Bruges isn’t real? Is this a dream or inescapable prison? As one of the character’s says “at least in prison and at least in death, you know, I wouldn’t be in fuckin’ Bruges.”
The director is giving us no sort of comfort or answer here. Rather we must explore it. And debate will rage on. Maybe in 10 years, when critics and audiences alike finally embrace In Bruges as a new age masterpiece.
If you liked In Bruges…some other movies you might like: Pulp Fiction, Snatch, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, The Departed, Arrested Development (TV show), Lost (TV show)
Fall TV Begins
Unfortunately, The Office and the underrated My Name is Earl don’t start up again until next Thursday. Even worse, 30 Rock won’t be returning until the end of October. However, if you haven’t started watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia yet, now’s your chance. Sunny’s season premiere tonight is at 10 PM on FX. And since creator/star Rob McElhenney is such a great guy, he decided to kick the year off with two new episodes. In these episodes, the gang develops a taste for cannibalism and then tries to solve the gasoline crisis. Knowing Sunny‘s sick, twisted sense of humor, these episodes will be outrageous, offensive, and brilliant. And I cannot wait.
To get a preview of Sunny’s sick little mind, here’s one of there best, most shocking episodes yet:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4920/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-the-gang-finds-a-dumpster-baby
And to see why Charlie Day should be nominated for an Emmy already, watch this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-6KJxP5bbY
Movie Review: Burn After Reading
At a certain time in a director’s life, they’ve made so many movies that each one can be distinguished by the tiniest features in plot, setting, characters, themes, etc. Joel and Ethan Coen, who are among the few directing pairs left in Hollywood, can be added to that list.
“Burn After Reading” is in every way a Coen Brothers movie. After 24 years of filmmaking, the so-called “Two-Headed Director” haven’t lost their touch for making incredibly shocking and original films.
The world of the Coens is a world of idiots. The less intelligent minds focused on in this film are the brain dead fitness instructor Chad Feldheimer (scene-stealing Brad Pitt) and his co-worker Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) at a D.C. gym. They stumble upon a CD filled with files that may be the work of Osbourne Cox (the always bizarre John Malkovich); a man just kicked out of the CIA who now wants to write a memoir.
Believing the disc is valuable, Chad decides to return it to Cox in hopes of reward money and Linda joins in, desperate for cash to pay for her plastic surgeries in a goal to reinvent herself. It seems like a perfect plan, but it turns out the files are totally useless. Somewhere along the way, a man named Harry Pfarer (George Clooney) and Cox’s wife (Tilda Swinton) get sucked into this elaborate scheme. Trademark Coen Brothers chaos and miscommunication ensues.
It would be impossible to compare any Coen Brothers movie to another without examining the musical score. A Coen movie’s music usually defines something about the characters. The Creedence filled soundtrack of “The Big Lebowski” shows that the Dude is still living in his burned-out hippie days. The music-free “No Country” represents an emptiness and Godless feeling in the world.
“Burn After Reading” contains a score that is at times too intense for moments in which nothing is happening. This is used as a way to trick the audience, and make it impossible to know what will happen next. In this way, the directors succeed in making the audience feel as dumb as the characters.
Some critics have complained that a problem with the movie is that it makes fun of its characters and it is therefore impossible to like any of them. It may be true that the audience is laughing at Chad as Cox punches him hard in the face as Chad begs for a reward. However, it is the directors’ point for the audience to feel a sort of emotional distance from the characters.
The film is meant to be watched as the viewer not being put in the characters’ shoes but instead watching in utter shock from a third person perspective that some people are actually capable of doing things this stupid.
This is different from the type of comedy popularized by Judd Apatow in recent years but in a way, some sort of sympathy can be felt for the characters. It is unfortunate to see that Chad, an overall good guy, doesn’t realize what a terrible trap he’s gotten himself into. Maybe he should learn what blackmail means first.
“Burn After Reading” is Marx Brothers humor laced with a “Maltese Falcon” like conclusion. All this, put together with the Coen Brothers thoughts on the stupidity of humanity, the dangers of miscommunication, fate and freewill, and the idea that people think they can handle everything but actually have no idea what they’re doing.
In a changing world of cinema, the Coen Brothers continue to make movies the way they want to. “Burn” might not earn the Oscars of “No Country” but for stark originality, unpredictability, and great entertainment it will earn a spot on the list of the year’s best films.
This review will also be posted in the upcoming issue of Inklings
Movie Review: Y Tu Mama Tambien
Every once in a while, a movie comes along that holds you in it’s grip for two hours, shatters you’re expectations, and leaves you breathless at the end; still not totally grasping this new view of life you’ve just been provided. Director Alfonso Cuaron did this to me once before with 2006′s Children of Men, and he’s done it again with his totally different, yet very similar Y Tu Mama Tambien.
Y Tu Mama Tambien combines the elements of many different genres, and blends them beautifully together into a whole. It displays the kind of humor and truthfulness you’d find in a Judd Apatow movie with the conflicted love triangle of a recent Woody Allen drama.
The film is set in Mexico City, Cuaron’s hometown. The story centers around two rich teenagers, Aztec-named Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal). After their girlfriends abandon them for Europe for the summer, they hang around and drink and get high until they eventually grow bored. At a political event, they meet the enchanting, older Luisa (Maribel Verdu), a Spaniard visiting Mexico with her snobby writer boyfriend (Juan Carlos Remolina). Desperate for her attention and a getaway, the boys make up a story to her about a secret beach known as Heaven’s Mouth and invite her for a trip to the beach. Intrigued, she accepts and they set off on the road, barely knowing where they’re heading and unaware of the strange experience to come.
Narrated not by one of the teens but instead by a dull sounding old man whose never once present in the story, it gives off a feeling that the characters are being watched, perhaps by a God like figure or someone like The Big Lebowski’s Stranger; a man who has no relation to the characters but just finds an extreme fascination in their story. The narrator plays an important role in the movie, explaining backstories and bringing life to the vast Mexican desert.
As I mentioned before, Cuaron also directed 2006′s Children of Men, a film that is behind only There Will Be Blood and Kill Bill as the masterpiece of the decade. That film dealt with the horrors of an all too real dystopian future where humans are on the verge of extinction. Y Tu Mama Tambien on the other hand, is a modern day dark dramedy about two rich kids coming to terms with reality by leaving the confines of their safe homes and viewing the devastating poverty that makes up the rest of their country.
Like in Children of Men, Cuaron incorporates subtle political messages into this film by filling them into every frame rather than discussing them. Seeing it rather than talking about it works much more powerfully, especially the fact that Cuaron is one of the great visual storytellers of our time. He pays great attention to small details in every shot. The rundown villages of Mexico look like the refugee camps of Children of Men, only these ones are real.
Like Men, in Tambien the greatest storytelling technique is quite simply the camera itself. Like a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, the camera is constantly moving around and barely stops. In this film, it works perfectly, helping move the characters move through the countryside while capturing the restless energy of the two teens and their endless curiosity that moves the story along.
Y Tu Mama Tambien captures teenage angst like no one’s ever captured it before. It is daring and unafraid in it’s graphic portrayal of sex. The film finds a way to use that as both an element of drama and comedy, as well as a way to shape Tenoch and Julio’s relationship. The film doesn’t hesitate to go deep and hurt and disturb the audience as it is about false hopes and lost dreams. It looks beyond the world of the wealthy and goes deep into the harsh realities of life. Not all of the world is as rich as you are, and not every friendship is as perfect as Tenoch and Julio once though. Nope, sleep with an older woman you’ve never met before and things might change.
Y Tu Mama Tambien is probably the best film of the year 2002 and certainly one of the best of the decade. It is one that must be seen by those with a daring spirit. It is a movie that doesn’t escape you immediately after watching it. Director Alfonso Cuaron has joined the ranks of directors Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Alejando Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel) as part of the new movement of great Latin American cinema.
Some say this might be Latin America’s century. Well, maybe not (it’s probably China’s). But with more films like Y Tu Mama Tambien this will most certainly become Latin America’s century in the film world.
Recommended for fans of: Children of Men, Babel, Easy Rider, My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy, The Graduate, Superbad, Dazed and Confused, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Brokeback Mountain
TV Review: It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Something peculiar happened as I began watching It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. It began funny, taking on some controversial topics (abortion, racism) that had already been mocked before in somewhat of an original way. Then suddenly, as the show departed from season 1 and turned into season 2, things totally turned around. The show started covering new ground and transformed into one of the funniest shows currently on TV.
It’s Always Sunny is a show about nothing. Sound familiar? Well, much of this show takes after it’s obvious influence, Seinfeld. The characters are no different than Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer either. Dennis (Glenn Howerton) is the self-centered, pretty boy owner of an Irish pub in South Philly. He owns the bar with his sister, Dee (Kaitlin Olson), a former UPenn girl whose constantly trying to outdo her brother. Also part of the bar business is Mac (creator Rob McElhenney) who gets jealous that he was the only one not molested by his school gym teacher. Finally, there’s Charlie (Charlie Day), their dim-witted friend who can’t tell Israel from India. The show follows their ridiculous encounters and mistrials of their unsuccessful bar.
It’s Always Sunny proves that you don’t have to be on HBO to be dirty. Airing on FX, the show can seem a bit much for network TV. It’s a big f*** you to the FCC. Not just for the repeated use of the seemingly banned from network television word “shit”, but for the topics few even dare to touch on. Who ever thought a racist old Nazi could be so funny?
It’s Always Sunny asks many strange ethical questions one never wants to deal with or ever wants to know about, but these four people must deal with it all the time. What do you do when you find you’re best friend’s grandpa’s Nazi uniform? Is pretending to be a crackhead the best way to qualify for a big, fat welfare check? Is it possible to get a girl to like you by telling her you have cancer?
Like I mentioned, this show is extremely similar to Seinfeld. The comparison draws from the idea of having a show that has absolutely no plot but just follows a bunch of random, selfish human beings around that are so undeniably like ourselves that it is impossible to watch, yet it’s so funny and shocking at times that it’s nearly impossible to look away. Basically, It’s Always Sunny is like passing a car accident on the highway, only funnier.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is Seinfeld for the new millennium. You could say Curb Your Enthusiasm had taken that title already, but that show is possibly beginning to wind down already. It’s Philadelphia’s time now. Hopefully, that time will be at the Emmys someday soon. After all, every loser has their day. And Dennis, Charlie, Mac, and Dee I’m sorry to say, are losers. Losers I’d love to follow for a few more seasons to come.
So, while the main concept behind It’s Always Sunny doesn’t break any new ground, the ideas circulated into each episode does, and that is what helps make one of the most consistently hilarious and original shows on TV right now.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia starts up again for it’s fourth season on FX on Thursday, September 18 at 10 PM. Please watch it, if you dare…
Recommended for fans of: Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Scrubs
My Latest Discovery: Lost
Well, this discovery isn’t totally new, as I am now into the second season, but I figured this show had to be discussed at some point.
Lost is a drama like few others on television. It’s the kind you can watch over and over as if it’s a half hour sitcom and not get bored. It’s one of few Sci-Fi psycological tales that manages to put a strong human story in the mix.
Lost begins with an airplane flying from Sydney to LA that encounters some rough turbulence and is suddenly split in two. Miraculously, a large amount of people survive the crash but end up on a strange island in the South Pacific that’s far from deserted. It’s filled with a flesh eating monster and…polar bears? That’s about the most I can give away without spoiling the entire story.
The survivors include Jack (Matthew Fox), the island’s only doctor and an eventual leader. Others include Hurley (Jorge Garcia), a joker with an amazing secret, John Locke (Terry O’Quinn, baring a strong resemblance to Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now) an average cubicle worker turned skilled hunter, Sawyer (Josh Holloway), a boozed up smartass who may either be a criminal or just criminally troubled, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), a former rock star going through drug addiction, Claire (Emilie de Ravin), a pregnant young Australian, amongst many others.
Lost uses all these characters in a very interesting way and rather than just having them all be stuck there and nothing more, creator J.J. Abrams (Cloverfield) made the wise choice to go deeper and show their backstories. We get to see each character off the island and the reasons that led each onto this flight and why they behave the way they do. In this way, we find ties between the each of their stories and can sometimes even connect to them. This little detail and the fact that they all coincidentally got stuck on this island together shows the small and amazing things that can connect each human being on Earth in unimaginable ways.
As well as being hugely entertaining and filled with mind-blowing twists and turns, Lost is very philosophical. It asks interesting questions about life such as the differences between faith and science, the human ability of choice, the pain in vengeance, and the overwhelming weight of guilt amongst other things. It is as if being on this island is fate and a way for these people to analyze their lives and right their wrongdoings. It also ponders whether the plane just so happened to crash, or whether it was fate. In this way, Lost questions whether or not God exists and says…maybe, depending on who you are.
Lost is a show different from most others in prime time. It is for the lovers of a good twist and an intricate mystery as well as for those who crave nothing more than a good story about people trying to get through with their lives. In that way, Lost is meant for everybody, and should be watched by all.
Movie Review: Tropic Thunder
It is so rarely that I leave a movie at a loss of words; blown away by amazingness that a proper response isn’t possible. I couldn’t think of what to write at first, so I looked at a picture of Robert Downey Jr. in blackface for a few minutes for inspiration. I still can’t believe that was him, and I still can’t believe what a movie this was. Tropic Thunder mixes together every genre imaginable into a hilarious and scathing satire of modern show business.
Tropic Thunder wants so much to convince the audience this is an actual movie being made and all these actors are real so it begins with three fake trailers for the film’s three main stars. Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller, also writer/director) was at one time the biggest action star in the world. Soon, audiences grew tired of his ongoing sequels (such as Scorcher I-VI) and his career was totally ruined after a shot at the Oscars with the disastrous Simple Jack, a film about a retarded farmer who thinks he can talk to animals. Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) is a comedian whose only source of humor is fart jokes, as seen in his Nutty Professor/Norbitesque film where he plays every single member of an obese family of farters. Finally, there’s Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.), a five-time Academy Award winner and method actor on the scale of Brando or Day-Lewis who goes through a controversial surgery in order to play the film’s black sergeant.
And I haven’t even gotten to the actual plot yet. All of these actors are getting together, either to revive their career, be taken seriously, or win another Oscar, onto a Vietnam War film. Along for the journey is rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson). If you don’t understand the joke behind that name, I suggest you don’t see this movie. Also tagging along is younger actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel, bearing a striking resemblance to Matthew Modine in Full Metal Jacket).
Successful movie stars? Definitely. Good actors? Maybe. Soldiers…no. The film’s director (Steve Coogan) has difficulty with the actors. On the screenwriter/novelist’s (Nick Nolte, perfectly cast) suggestion, the actors should be sent away from the set and into the actual jungles of ‘Nam and be forced to fend for themselves…without telling the actors of course. Before any of them can figure out they’re no longer in an actual movie, a group of Vietnamese drug lords mistake the harmless actors for D.E.A agents and a real war ensues.
With showing the actors outside of their natural setting, the movie set, we get to see what they really are: phonies. At least this group of actors (who may stand for all Hollywood actors) who are so up their own ass that they can’t even tell the difference between a set and reality.
Tropic Thunder is one of those movies within a movies, and a total mindwharp as well. We’re watching a movie about the making of a movie and reality gets so mixed together with fiction that we don’t know whether or not we’re watching the movie the actors are making or watching them in real life. Confusing, right? Well, like other great movie within a movie movies (Bowfinger, Get Shorty) the difference is indistinguishable yet the movie is so funny and the satire so great that we don’t even notice.
The satire in Tropic Thunder hits every aspect of Hollywood. No one is left untouched. Whether you’re a good actor, a bad actor, a comedian, a studio executive, a talent agent or an indie director, this movie will get you. And it’s frighteningly real. The fake trailer for Fatties: Fart 2 might as well be following the Norbit trend and Scorcher VI might as well be the latest unnecessary Stallone sequel.
This film is the second feature in Stiller’s directing career. The first was 2001′s critically underrated Zoolander. That explored how superficial the world of male modeling was in way similar to how Tropic Thunder shows how superficial the world of movies can be. Stiller brings a great amount of humor to it with his directing, along with co-writers Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen (no relation to the Coen Brothers).
The film inside of Tropic Thunder (also called Tropic Thunder) looks like a mixture between Apocalypse Now, Platoon and The Deer Hunter (with many obvious references to those movies). With over-the-top violence, over-the-top emotions, yet a brilliant soundtrack with songs from Buffalo Springfield and Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tropic Thunder looks exactly like the kind of Oscar bait pictures studios produce countless numbers of every year. The actors are no better.
The standout, steal the show performance of the movie is Robert Downey Jr. The former drug addict could’ve easily fit the bill as any of the washed up stars portrayed in the film but he’s had a huge comeback this year with Iron Man and Tropic Thunder. He took a big risk playing an actor playing an African American but he does it just right. The performance isn’t mocking African Americans but is instead mocking the method actor the Lazarus is, whose gotten so sucked into his performance that he forgets he’s not actually black. Yet Downey’s amazing performance keeps us under his spell and you really do forget that it’s a white guy under there. Every scene with him is mesmerizing and uncontrollably hilarious, especially the scene in which he explains to Speedman that Simple Jack didn’t work because he went “full retard”. To keep such a straight face and stay in character so well for a scene like that no doubt Oscar worthy (ironic, for he’s making fun of Oscar winning performances).
The other career comeback in this movie is Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise. Mr. Scientology almost reaches the level of Downey Jr. as a fat, sadistic, obnoxious and stereotypical Jewish studio boss. As this character, Cruise says the f-word the most amount of times in a movie since his career first took off in ’83 with Risky Business when he says “fuck it”. Cruise seems like the last choice for a role like this which is what makes him perfect for it. I’d lost my respect for him the past few years. But, after seeing him do comedy this impressive I’m beginning to respect him again. Mr. Cruise, it looks like you’re career has taken a new direction. Stick with comedy. You’re fantastic at it.
Thunder has been enduring controversy over the past week, for it’s repeated use of the word “retard”. The controversy is ridiculous and makes me angry. The purpose of the film is not to make fun of mentally challenged people, but it is making fun of actors who play mentally challenged people to get awards. It is only used to prove how desperate some people are to get their hands on one of those golden boys.
I didn’t think there’d be a funnier film this year than Pineapple Express but Tropic Thunder has taken the title. It is even close up with The Dark Knight as the best movie so far this year. It is the satire this generation has needed. The Blazing Saddles of the new decade. It’s a spot on depiction of it’s own industry and the ridiculousness of the race to try to win an Oscar. Tropic Thunder bites the hand that feeds it and doesn’t let go. It’s not trying to incite any change but reflect on the time it was made in. Hopefully after seeing this, people won’t be asking for an actual movie of The Fatties and will instead be telling Cuba Gooding Jr. to never go “full retard” ever again.
For Your Consideration: Robert Downey Jr: Best Supporting Actor