Not much going on this week. Obviously The Hurt Locker demands attention, but not sure about the rest.
Blood: The Last Vampire
Director: Chris Nahon (Kiss of the Dragon)
I know … it looks like it should be direct-to-DVD, but here it is in theaters. I don’t get it either.
Metacritic: 28
Brüno (trailer)
Director: Larry Charles (Masked and Anonymous, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Religulous)
I was only OK with Borat, but I do think he’s a cleverly conceived character. This one, on the other hand, has felt like a cynical, pointless fraud from the first moment I saw the wholly unfunny trailer. For example, naming the baby OJ … how many things are wrong with this? For one thing, it’s 2009, and not 1994, so OJ jokes are beyond dated. Secondly, the same critique applies to exploiting the Springer-style talk show for cheap laughs. It was old in 1999 when Austin Powers did it! And third, the “African baby” jokes were played out after the first wiseass crack about Angelina Jolie. I haven’t decided whether or not to see it yet, but at this point I’m leaning towards “no.”
Metacritic: 55
The Hurt Locker (trailer)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Point Break, Strange Days, K-19: The Widowmaker)
It occurs to me just this moment that the only one of Bigelow’s films I’ve seen is Strange Days. Anyhow, Jackrabbit Slim has already reviewed this, and calls it “probably the best narrative film that uses the conflict in Iraq as its subject matter.” In other words, he’s in line with the critical consensus, which is as overwhelmingly positive as any film that I can remember from the last few years.
Metacritic: 93
I Love You, Beth Cooper (trailer)
Director: Chris Columbus (Rent, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Bicentennial Man, Stepmom)
I’m not a fan of Columbus in general, but this seems beneath even him.
Metacritic: 34
Il divo (trailer)
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Italian film about the life and times of former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Been wanting to see this for a while; it was one of the films that I meant to see during the EU Film Festival here in March but missed out on.
Metacritic: 81
Made in U.S.A.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
The Gene Siskel Film Center is showing both films as a double feature this week. From what I understand, Godard shot both films simultaneously and meant them to be shown together. I haven’t seen Made in U.S.A., but I saw 2 or 3 Things last year and was frankly bored. I don’t like admitting these things but honesty compels me.
Metacritic: neither listed
Somehow I Love You, Beth Cooper got a B+ from EW. Looks dreadful.
I’m going to skip Bruno. I hate it when people who haven’t seen films blast them for some reason, but I’ve seen enough of the character (he did a top-ten on Letterman the other night) to come to the conclusion that it’s a gay minstrel show. The film may be trying to shine a light on the ugliness that is homophobia, but at the same time it’s appealing to the very people it’s mocking (“Let’s go laugh at the faggot”). Bruno is like a homosexual Stepin Fetchit, the difference being that at least Fetchit was an actual black man who was making money for himself.
I’m in agreeance with Brian about Borat and his followup. Like seems to happen with at least a couple of comedies every year, it was moderately amusing but absurdly overhyped and overrated as one of the one all time great comedies. And yeah, the only thing that would make that trailer feel more 1990s dated would be a confrontation with Monica Lewinsky.
I loved Borat (and enjoyed Bruno a great deal, although it’s an exceptionally sloppy film) but I’m having trouble coming up with a defense against the “gay minstrel show” accusations.
Well, in the specific case of Borat, I think people radically overrated the concept of “making unsuspecting people look like assholes” as a source of comedy. It’s not that this can’t be funny, it’s just that it isn’t inherently funny.
The other thing is, it doesn’t matter how ballsy a stunt may be if it isn’t funny on its own terms. In other words, ballsy is ballsy and funny is funny; these terms are not interchangeable.