And then a second later, “Er, Seth Rogen, I mean.” He realized that he said the wrong actor, but not that he said the wrong super hero.

Personally I think Rogen is a likable enough guy, most of his movies are funny, he’s a talented young pothead. But that little snippet brings up some issues with the world’s readiness for this movie. 1. there is kind of a super hero burnout where we even have more than one super hero movie in a year that has “Green” in his name, and B), people are sick of Seth Rogen and/or jealous that a regular dude like him gets to dress up as a super hero, even if he has been working out.

To me the second one seems like it could theoretically cancel out the first one. This is a weird casting for this character, he wrote it with his SUPERBAD writing partner, and the director is crazy Frenchman Michel Gondry, who’s never done a movie anything like this or this mainstream. So they oughta have a pretty interesting take on this type of movie, right?

Well, partly true I guess. This is an okay movie with some funny lines and good moments, but not enough to overcome the been-there-ness of many generic super hero plot elements. Although I liked it better it kind of reminded me of KICK ASS: a half-assed “real world” where “real” criminals face nerds who want to dress up in costumes for fun. If it was really well executed it might not matter how many times we’ve seen it before. But, you know, that’s a theory, it’s hard to know for sure without a movie to demonstrate it.

Not that it’s all bad. There’s some inspiration there, little touches that at least are different. Since the Green Hornet TV show is primarily remembered for Bruce Lee as the sidekick Kato, this version is based around Green Hornet Britt Reid coasting off the awesomeness of his partner, played by Jay Chou (the Taiwanese pop star who played “the God of Wushu” in TRUE LEGEND). This way it’s able to still be a Seth Rogen comedy – he’s a rich dumbass who becomes a masked vigilante as a way of making something of his lazy, entitled life. And he convinces Kato that using his great inventions and asskicking skills to fight criminals is a better use of his time than fixing rich people’s cars and coffee.

The tone is unusual. It’s not a parody, wants you to take it somewhat seriously, but is definitely a comedy. Maybe a little more serious than PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, but it still has a scene where they’re driving around and he starts rapping “Gangsta’s Paradise.” I guess Gondry was against that scene but Rogen convinced him it should be in there and would be a big laugh. Gotta side with Gondry on that one, but it’s funny when Kato sings the chorus.

The whole useless heir thing has already been done better in IRON MAN, but at least they make an effort to tweak it a little bit. I like that his super hero thing is not done to avenge his father’s death, it’s just what he decides to do instead of taking on the responsibility of running dad’s newspaper. He actually doesn’t realize that there was any foul play in his father’s death, and mostly remembers him as an asshole.

There’s not much noticeable Gondry here. I’m sure he wanted to try his hand at a more normal movie for once. The fight scenes are pretty cool though, with slo-mo Kato-POV shots that diagram just how he figures out which weapons and attackers to go after and in what order. There’s a nice friendship moment with the heroes floating over the city on a parachute listening to classical music on vinyl, and some enjoyably ridiculous mayhem (a whole scene with Kato driving only the front half of Black Beauty [the car not the horse. This would be a more positive review if it was a bisected horse] through a building shooting and running over people). But somehow they still made the characters feel down-to-earth enough that when Cameron Diaz was gonna do the ol’ bullet-removal-with-kitchen-utensils routine we’ve seen in so many movies it really made me think “Oh jesus, don’t do that! That’s a terrible idea!”

On the other hand the characters are also set up well enough that when Green Hornet decides he has to fight Kato it doesn’t make any sense that he’s able to get any shots in. I didn’t get that part.

Christoph Waltz plays the mafia leader, and he’s as good as you’d expect, but he goes from that all time classic villain in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS to a pretty limp one here. He’s got a couple funny lines and a cool gun, but mostly just works with a weak concept where he wants to have a nickname and gimmick like his nemesis. That shit again.

I like how this poster follows the old tradition of emphasizing Kato over Green Hornet

I think Jay Chou is pretty good, he has a good presence, not like Bruce Lee but more like some James Dean-esque guy who drives a motorcycle and wins over women without even saying anything. And I like the surprise and delight Britt shows every time Kato casually reveals a new skill or weapon. Also it’s a funny idea that the Green Hornet’s trademark non-lethal gas gun was actually made because Kato doesn’t trust him with a real gun.

Also (small-to-medium-sized SPOILER) I gotta give it partial credit for attempting to subvert that “secretly record the crooked politician saying bad things” cliche I hate so much. They make you believe that’s what’s going on, but Green Hornet later realizes that he incompetently failed to record anything.

Oh yeah, and for giving Edward “John Connor” Furlong a cameo as a meth dealer.

So it’s a likable enough movie, but not a radical enough re-invention or a good enough retread to be very memorable. I’m afraid its place in history will be as the final proof that “post-conversion 3-D” (rejiggered in a computer instead of shot with 2-lensed 3-D cameras) is a waste of everybody’s time. I didn’t see CLASH OF THE TITANS – everybody said the 3-D was terrible, but they had an excuse that it was rushed to meet a release date. Here’s a case where they said it was planned for 3-D and they delayed its release to give it enough time, but still it just doesn’t have enough depth to add anything. I’m not one of these 3-D complainers, I’m an old timey 3-D buff and “yes it’s a gimmick and that’s the way I want it” true believer, and I’m against this. It’s jarring when the end credits come on and the words are flying around and you think “hey, why wasn’t the rest of the movie 3-D like that?” Only a few shots really look bad, but nothing looks impressive. If Gondry can’t figure out a way to do it then the technology ain’t there.

But that won’t stop them from releasing THOR in crappy half-3-D.

* * *

I know some people say that the comic book movie is such a big genre now it’s like what westerns used to be in the old days. I might’ve even said that before, although I also said it about DTV underground fight tournament movies. Anyway, the difference between a western and a comic book movie is that in a western you don’t gotta spend half the movie explaining why anybody would want to become a cowboy. They’re just a cowboy at the beginning, they already got the hat and the horse, and nobody’s surprised when they start shooting people. In the comic book movies almost always the guy starts out regular, you gotta see all the lead up to why he becomes super, how he decides on what to wear and what to call himself and all that shit. I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like I’ve seen that story at least three times, probly more.

Fortunately GREEN HORNET is not based on a comic book, it’s an old radio show, so none of that is relevant here.

The style of BE KIND REWIND is in the spirit of the subject matter. It’s real sloppy and cheap and mostly seems unscripted. But like Mia Farrow says of their crappy home-made remakes, this movie “has heart.”

I’ve enjoyed all of Michel Gondry’s movies including HUMAN NATURE. I don’t care if I was uncomfortable from laughing way more than everybody else in the theater, I still love that movie. The Charlie Kaufman-less Gondry is alot sweeter and more lighthearted, and BE KIND REWIND is his version of a cheesy lowbrow comedy. It’s not meticulously designed like his other ones, it’s more off the cuff. I think making DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY must’ve inspired him to do one that’s more spontaneous and is about creativity and community, and has Mos Def in it. (And I think he tried to get Chappelle for that role first.)

I would not recommend BE KIND REWIND to your more jaded talkbackers, or anybody who hates Jack Black, or who demands logic or realism in comedies. I’m not in those categories but I still think it’s Gondry’s weakest. The trailer already gave away most of the plot and the highlights of most of the movies they make. That’s not to say there’s not other good shit in there, though. Mos Def’s surprisingly successful tactic for imitating Chris Tucker in RUSH HOUR 2 is mostly to just say “Lee! Lee!” And I love when he timidly tries to explain that he doesn’t want to do DRIVING MISS DAISY because it’s “a little condescending.” And later when Danny Glover has to explain to Jack Black why he can’t wear black face.

Most of the movies they remake are from the New Line Cinema library. There’s a reference to them doing JASON VS. FREDDY, but you don’t see any scenes from it. They come close to doing WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE, but decide on a different one. (I wonder who would’ve played Wes Craven?) And they don’t do BLADE. Or BONES. I would’ve liked to see them branch out to a couple smaller movies like GUMMO or BAD LIEUTENANT. I think Jack Black would do a good job on that scene where Harvey Keitel is waddling around naked in a Jesus pose and moaning like a sea lion that just got shot with an arrow. But obviously they gotta do mostly movies that a broad audience is gonna be familiar with. At least they threw me WHEN WE WERE KINGS.

Alot of the entertainment comes not just from the movie choices but from the inventive no-budget effects. I was especially impressed by their way of making video look like old film, which I assumed was done in a computer but turns out to be in-camera. That’s how you know it’s a Michel Gondry movie I guess.

Even though this stuff made me laugh, it didn’t exactly blow my socks off. I think it’s more amusing than hilarious. But the movie still won me over from the one aspect I didn’t get out of the trailer: Gondry’s obviously heartfelt glorification of independent neighborhood businesses, respect for history and the power of creativity and ridiculousness to bring people together. The store is trying to earn enough money to prevent their aging building being demolished and turned into condos. I know the “put on a show to save the community center” bit is an old cliche and a Mr. T favorite, but in this case it’s just so accurate and it feels more like a commentary on modern life than a plot device.

I don’t know about you, but for me it hit close to home. Here in Seattle it’s a heartbreaker how often local businesses or nice old buildings with character suddenly disappear and are replaced by generic million dollar condos. The message to rich people is: “Isn’t this city great? How ’bout we knock it over so you can live where it used to be?” We fear it so much here it has its own urban legends. There are constantly re-circulating rumors that it’s gonna happen to The Showbox, which is one of Seattle’s best venues for rock and hip hop shows, and happens to have been there since 1939. The story is they can’t get historical landmark status and it would be more profitable to wreck it and turn it into yet another god damn condo. For now it seems to be only a rumor, but the place was recently sold to an out-of-town entertainment conglomerate, and we don’t trust those. We just had our basketball team stolen. Can we trust some corporation to feel that contributing to the culture of the city and honoring its history is more important than making some extra money? Of course not. This city will be all condos and nothing else by 2015. I’m surprised the Space Needle is even still there. And Bruce Lee’s grave.

And everybody’s at fault. The people who want to turn it into a condo. The people who sell it to them. The people who buy the condo. They’re like the family in POLTERGEIST, they’re living on an Indian burial ground and if somebody ever does do that to the Showbox I hope they’re haunted by the ghosts of all the great musicians who have gone through there since the Jazz Age. Sadly, they won’t even know who the ghosts are because none of them are on the jazz compilation CD they got at Starbucks.

Anyway all that might seem like a tangent, but it’s exactly what this movie is about. Gondry is smart enough not to play the developers too broad. They aren’t the-crusty-dean-in-a-fraternity-movie bad guys. They’re basically nice people, but people who don’t get it. To them Danny Glover, as the owner of Be Kind Rewind, seems a little crazy. And he is. Gondry seems to realize that he’s an idealist and that the world he wants might not work, but fuck it, he wants it anyway.

Of course, Glover wants to save his business so he tries to adapt to the laws of the real world. He spies on a Blockbuster-like chain store and decides that what his store needs is uniforms, less knowledgeable staff, and for all of the movies to be divided between action or comedy. And it’s true – the pursuit of money and the pursuit of excellence usually don’t overlap. More often than not, selling a billion products to a billion people all across the world means your product must be dumbed-down, watered-down, homogenized, test-screened, focus-grouped. BE KIND REWIND is asking us not to let go of the hand made, the home-made, the local, the amateurish, the personal. Their business is pathetic and out of date, but their movies are inexpensive, and the customers know their names without them having to wear nametags. Everything from movie theaters to radio stations to stores and restaurants are moving in the opposite direction – instead of one great business that caters to its specific neighborhood and clientele, you get a thousand identical ones dropped into every city across the country. And you know those jerkoffs in the corporate office on the other side of the country have no idea what people in Seattle like. Be Kind Rewind not only cater to their neighborhood, they actually make their movies by request for specific customers. They know that people like to be involved and see their neighborhood and their neighbors in the movie. The condo developer is sincere when he says that his plan will make their lives better, but he’s wrong.

Another bad guy that shows up, of course, is a representative of a movie studio that (in one of the more ridiculous scenes in the movie) enforces their copyright claims. I think it’s obvious from his movies that Gondry is a pure artist – he just wants to do what he wants to do, and he wishes these systems didn’t get in the way. If it was 2008 and you were a kid trying to do a remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, or a DJ trying to combine the Beatle’s White Album with Jay-Z’s black album, or if you were Public Enemy trying to sculpt a thousand samples into It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, you might run into some of these people. Art and culture and quality of life is fun and all, but let me run it by the corporation to make sure it does not interfere with their money. Money is more important. Excuse me sir, I’m going to have to ask you to move, this seat is reserved for money.

Gondry ties these themes together into a perfect ending. He warms my idealist heart but doesn’t patronize it. Everybody comes together and shares a moment of joy and there is hope about what this could mean, but then the movie ends. If he took it further and had everything work out it would seem phony. Instead he ends on that perfect moment of people coming together, so regardless of what happens next it’s a happy ending, because we can just stop and appreciate that moment while it lasts.

Alot of times when you say a movie is flawed it means it starts out great and fizzles out. It’s nice to see it the other way around this time, a movie that kind of flounders around for a while but then sticks the landing so god damn perfect it almost tricks you into thinking it’s a great movie.

Other movies they should’ve done:
THEY LIVE, OUT FOR JUSTICE, DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY, CRASH (either one), PREDATOR, HELL IN THE PACIFIC. And throw in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET since it’s New Line and I’m sure these jokers would do better than Platinum Dunes.

Originally published at Aint-It-Cool-News: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35654

[ratings]

I saw THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP which is the new Michel Gondry picture that comes out in September. It was the closing movie at the Seattle International Film Festival here. Michel Gondry was there to briefly introduce the movie, but didn’t do a question and answer session. Which is good because the first question probaly would’ve been, “what was that all about?”

Here’s the “where I’m coming from” paragraph, I’ll keep it brief. If you’re not into Michel Gondry then throw a grain of salt on this one, because I like every movie the guy has made. Yes, including HUMAN NATURE. I was the guy in the theater who was embarrassed because he couldn’t stop laughing and nobody else could start. To this day I think people didn’t give it a fair shake because they only had BEING JOHN MALKOVICH to compare it to. I honestly believe there will soon be a mass re-evaluation around the world where people decide they like HUMAN NATURE after all, now that they like Michel Gondry. If this does indeed happen then everybody has to buy me a Pepsi or something.

DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY is probaly my favorite movie so far this year so it’s impressive that Gondry has another one already done. And sure enough, it’s a good one.

SCIENCE OF SLEEP is sort of a surreal romantic comedy about Stphane (Gael Garca Bernal), a Gondry type who falls for his neighbor and tries to start a relationship with her. They have alot in common because they’re both very creative and goofy, but it’s awkward because he’s more of a weirdo than she is. Although he passes as a normal adult human with a boring job, he has some Pee Wee Herman in him. He keeps bringing her inventions such as a time machine that can go only one second into the future or past, or glasses that make reality 3-D, even though it already is. The movie depicts these devices as if they actually work so it’s sort of up to the audience whether to take it literally or not.

But also the movie is about dreams. According to his mom, Stphane doesn’t know how to tell the difference between dreams and reality. We see alot of the dreams and they’re based on old amateur super-8 shorts, so the world is made out of cardboard and intentionally fake looking stop motion animation. But these things also appear in his “real” life sometimes, so his mom must be right. In his dreams he has his own TV show, on a set made out of cardboard and foam, and he does a cooking demonstration to explain how dreams are made. This is not something I’ve seen in a movie before, although there’s a couple out there I haven’t seen yet. They definitely didn’t do it in any of the Nightmare On Elm Streets.

A buddy of mine was frustrated because he wasn’t sure what was supposed to be real and what was supposed to be fantasy, but I don’t think you can really look at the movie that literally. It doesn’t really matter. The point is when he and his girl turn on the sink they both see animated cellophane coming out instead of real water. And he can call her on the phone from a dream and describe it to her. So they’re on the same wavelength.

If you can’t accept that (and I know some of you can’t, because I saw the talkback about the upcoming Gondry movie where Jack Black’s magnetized brain erases all the videos and he has to star in a remake of RUSH HOUR) then I urge you to sit this one out. It’s not worth the stress. On the other hand, my buddy really liked the movie, despite it sometimes infuriating him.

As you can probaly guess by this description, SCIENCE OF SLEEP is the first movie Gondry has written on his own. When you see it you will realize yeah, when you subtract Charlie Kaufman from the Gondry movies, this is what you get. It reminds me more of his music videos than his other movies. It’s even weirder than the Kaufman movies, but more whimsical. If you thought AMELIE was too whimsical, this one will make you cough up blood. But somehow it wasn’t too cute for me. It works. Be sure to wear two belts if you don’t want your pants charmed off. I don’t know if your socks are necessarily gonna be knocked off on this particular one, but the pants are certainly in danger. I guess to be safe you should watch for the socks also. It’s definitely a movie like you haven’t seen before.

The tone is more upbeat than the Kaufman movies, and it doesn’t depict humanity as being as ugly as Kaufman seems to see it as. But there is definitely some anger and hurt at times. I guess Gondry did make up the concept for ETERNAL SUNSHINE after all so he’s not all, uh, sunshine.

The movie is alot more about gimmicks and clever ideas than his other ones are. I mentioned AMELIE and it’s really not the same kind of movie, but it does give you the same idea that he must’ve written down ideas in a journal for years before he put them all into this script. It’s obviously a very personal film to Gondry and also a showcase of his talents and obsessions. If you enjoy his work you’re probaly gonna love it, but I don’t think as many people will have a personal attachment to it as they did to ETERNAL SUNSHINE. That had pretty universally relatable business about break ups, this one is a little more geared toward people who see the world like Gondry does.

I should probaly warn, if you are a scientist and you are hoping that this will contain information about the latest sleep studies, you will probaly be disappointed. Other than that it’s real solid though, I’m glad I was able to see it.

thanks,

Vern

Originally published at Aint-It-Cool-News: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23639

[ratings]

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I saw this movie in what I consider a JASON X set up: the same big auditorium where I saw JASON X, mostly empty with only a few people peppered throughout, but sharing their love for the movie across the empty rows. At the end of the movie people clapped, like it was a live performance. I can’t remember the last time I saw that at a regular multiplex showing like this.

I won’t be condescending and pretend to explain to you who Dave Chappelle is, why he’s great, etc. But let me make 3 points before we get to it.

1. After the untimely demise of CHAPPELLE’S SHOW, cast member Charlie Murphy put a positive spin on it saying it had burned bright and ended before it got old and compromised, calling it “The Tupac of Shows.” I thought that was a good description but I’m hoping this movie is a new beginning and not just another posthumous album.
2. At some point before he died Richard Pryor apparently said that he considered Chappelle to be his heir apparent, or whatever Richard would’ve called it.
3. In this movie, Chappelle is wearing a Richard Pryor t-shirt.

Like anybody, I think Chappelle is a funny and likable guy. But for me personally, his leaving for South Africa episode brought him to the next level. I don’t know what kind of troubles he was having but no matter what it was, there’s not alot of people who would’ve said, “Oh well, it’s just a multi-million dollar contract for a hugely successful TV show at the height of its popularity. I have bigger fish to fry.” It’s the same thing I always say about Chris Tucker. We live in a culture where The American Dream has come to mean making alot of money, even if it means serving up a bunch of disposable crap for your idiot fans to waste money on. Chris Tucker and Dave Chappelle are two guys who got themselves in a position where they could’ve made millions just by signing on to Martin Lawrence type crap or throwing out some catch-phrases and half-assed Soul Plane type business. And instead, they just took a break. Chappelle actually had it in his hands and decided he would be happier if he let it go. Hell, even Richard Pryor didn’t do that.

He seems like a genuine guy to me. I don’t know if you watched that episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, but that was a great fucking interview. The guy is still hilarious but also alot more thoughtful than you’d think from all these dumb kids running around saying “H-WHUT? H-WHUT? I’m RICK JAMES BITCH! H-WHUT?” I didn’t see him on Oprah (and it just now occurred to me that he did a whole skit about impregnating Oprah to get to her money – I wonder what she said about that?) but apparently he said he would consider doing his show again but would give all the money to charity. Apparently he has this complex that he feels guilty for being funny because what he considers funny he also considers socially irresponsible. That’s a cool guy right there.

Well, DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY is chapter 1 in the cool-guy-gets-lots-of-money saga, where Dave has recently signed his big contract with Comedy Central and decides to use his money to put together the concert of his dreams on a block in Bed-Stuy. So it’s a concert movie showing performances by Kanye West, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dead Prez, The Roots, Eryka Badu, Common, Jill Scott, Cody Chesnutt, The Fugees, others, hosted by Dave Chappelle. In between performances you see Dave in a small town in Ohio where he lives, trying to find a few people to bus to New York to watch the show. So you see him being funny talking to all these people and in rehearsals and backstage with the performers.

Like all my favorite documentaries, this is a movie with some interesting characters. There’s the two guys from Ohio who are humorously excited to go to the show and tell some funny stories. There’s the weirdo acid-head couple who own a strange, mostly destroyed house next to the block party stage. There’s the nice old lady from the convenience store who Dave wants to reward for not bothering him when he comes to buy his cigarettes in the morning. And the mohawked guy who Dave calls “Mr. T” and pulls out of the crowd for a freestyle battle.

The interviews with the musicians aren’t very in-depth because that’s not really what it’s about, but there’s some good stuff there too. There’s a couple really moving moments in the movie for me. One is the prayer that the rapper Common gives backstage before the show, because it’s a damn good prayer. It will probaly make a few atheists think praying is cool. I’m not all that into this guy’s rapping but he is very good at picking out hats and at praying.

The other touching moment is when the Fugees (whose surprise reunion for the block party was a huge deal) talk about getting over their disagreements to be together again. This guy Pras says that when he hears Lauryn Hill sing it almost makes him cry, and then you see how much it obviously means to the people in the crowd, and it makes you almost cry too. Unless you’re tough like me, I wouldn’t almost cry at something like that, obviously.

The scene that completely amazed me though is when Chappelle is joking around in a Salvation Army and he sits down at the piano. You’re expecting him to make some joke like when he fucks around on the bongos, but instead he sits and plays Thelonious Monk’s beautiful, off-kilter anthem “Round Midnight.” We learn that Chappelle is not a trained musician, but over his life has managed to learn how to play two songs, one of them being Round Midnight. And then he tells the camera how much he loves Monk’s “ill timing” and that all comedians and musicians should study it.

Pretty deep for the “H-WHUT?” guy. And he clearly has a deep love for music, whether it’s an influence for his comedy or not. The performances are infectious, you definitely don’t have to be a fan of these people to be moved by it. In the introduction to his new book THE DEAD EMCEE SCROLLS: THE LOST TEACHINGS OF HIP-HOP, the brilliant poet (and star of the movie SLAM) Saul Williams writes:

“There is no music more powerful than hip-hop. No other music so purely demands an instant affirmative on such a global scale. When the beat drops, people nod their heads, ‘yes,’ in the same way that they would in conversation with a loved one, a parent, professor, or minister. Instantaneously, the same mechanical gesture that occurs in moments of dialogue as a sign of agreement which subsequently, releases increased oxygen to the brain and, thus, broadens one’s ability to understand, becomes the symbolic and actual gesture that connects you to the beat.”

In the theater, if you are not too self conscious, you will probaly find yourself nodding your head “yes” to this music, or tapping your feet or some other type of activity that seems kind of goofy when you’re sitting in a chair watching a movie. Like Williams, Chappelle is trying to glorify the “positive” movements in hip hop and soul that have been mostly buried or forgotten, at least in the commercial world. I don’t think there’s one song performed in this movie that talks about jewelry or cars or bitches or guns. These are people who are talking about love or revolution. They’re more interested in the Black Panthers than Donald Trump.

By the way did you notice up there how I quoted an unrelated poet and drew parallels between the substance of his work and what I see as the themes of this movie? And I was totally casual about it. You’d think I quote poets every day. I might be reviewing a straight to video Van Damme movie pretty soon, if somebody knows a good greek philosophy quote or something, let me know. Man, that was awesome if I do say so myself. Eat a dick, Rex Reed.

Speaking of Rex Reed, I love how when a movie like this comes out they gotta review it in all the newspapers and everything so you got these 50 year old white dudes in a situation where they gotta pretend they know who Dead Prez is or that the Fugees broke up, or that there actually is somebody called the Fugees. It kind of shows how dumb it is that one person is supposed to be the judge of all movies. All you gotta do though is find a crack research team to explain all the shit to you. Then you can drop a few pearls here and there and people will think you’re an encyclopedia.

For example there are some great moments for fans of The Roots. On the song “BOOM!” Black Thought shows off his dead-on impersonations of old school legends Big Daddy Kane and Kool G Rap. But for BLOCK PARTY Kane and Kool G pop up to perform those verses themselves. Another great moment comes during the Grammy winning “You Got Me” from the album Things Fall Apart. The song was written by Jill Scott before her success as a solo artist, but the label insisted on a more famous guest star so she was replaced by Eryka Badu. You might wonder if Scott is bitter about that, and the answer seems to be no since the two get to perform the song together in BLOCK PARTY.

See, if you get help you can make it seem like you’ve heard of all these guys before. But it’s important to point out that you don’t have to have heard of them to enjoy the movie. And it’s not geared to this exact moment in pop music – in fact, it was filmed in 2004. Kanye West is definitely the biggest of the performers right now, but he goes on first and there’s not that much emphasis on him. There is a brilliant moment though where he gets to watch a marching band perform his song “Jesus Walks” (aka “Theme from JARHEAD Trailer”).

As a documentary it’s very straightforward, not alot of show off business. It’s got a beautiful, timeless look because it’s shot on film. The director is genius Frenchman Michel Gondry who everybody loves now because he did ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF A SPOTLESS MIND. If I could just say one thing here – “I TOLD YOU SO.” Please refer to this phrase whenever the national re-evaluation of Gondry’s first movie HUMAN NATURE begins.

I think WOODSTOCK won the best documentary Oscar, but these days it’s hard to imagine a concert documentary even getting nominated. In order to help BLOCK PARTY’s chances I should probaly just come out and say, this should win best documentary but there’s no way in hell it would even get nominated, because they are a bunch of fuckin pansies who don’t have the balls to do it, they don’t care about black people, etc. etc. Anyway I hope they give it some serious consideration next year. Consider this, mothefuckers: this is a must-see movie. If you are the type of person who likes to laugh and have fun, then I think you would like it.

I’ve seen people say this about other movies but I’m gonna use it here. AN INSTANT CLASSIC. DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY IS THE FIRST GREAT MOVIE OF 2006.

[ratings]

Sounds completely silly and random, right? But what surprised me, a film expert, was the amount of Substance in there. If this were just a regular, make you laugh kind of comedy it would still be the most original, and funniest, in a long time. There were less than ten people at the showing I went to and I was embarassed because I was laughing harder than anyone else. But believe me, I’m the one that’s right. This movie is fuckin hilarious.

At the same time it’s pretty fuckin sad. Like in BEING JOHN MALKOVICH the characters all think they know what they want, and where they belong, but when they get it it doesn’t make them happy, or it turns around to bite them on the ass. And they all play a sort of relationship musical chairs, switching partners in repeated acts of betrayal that never turn out well for anyone involved. And they all try to get what they want by pretending to be what they think the other person wants them to be, and then they get stuck pretending. Holy jesus this Charlie Kaufman dude must be fucked up, but I’m glad he is able to Write about it. Hey Charlie if you need somebody to talk to about it, I would talk for a little while a guess, if you tell me a couple jokes or something.

But it was actually the civilization vs. living in the woods crap that impressed me the most in this movie. Mr. Kaufman and his accomplice, the video director Michel Gondry, show the preposterousness of both. You have to laugh at hairy Patricia Arquette, living in the woods, singing about squirrels, getting pelted by rain storms at night and Writing bestselling books about it. But it’s a much better life than Tim Robbins’ character Dr. Bronfman lives, obsessing over senseless human rules about salad forks, substituting references to canonical type works (Moby Dick, Monet) for real life or appreciation of culture. In his simple mindset, you either read Moby Dick once and you’re cultured or you haven’t, and you’re a savage. No grey area there.

More than anything this movie reminds me of the works of Mr. Bunuel, who we last discussed in my review of Van Damme & Rodman’s DOUBLE TEAM. But I think Kaufman and Gondry’s target is bigger than just the bourgiouse – it’s humanity itself. (That’s us, boys.) There are parts in this movie where you feel like you’re laughing at other people, but to be frankly honest some of it made me very uncomfortable. The sight of Patricia Arquette’s body covered in hair is repulsive, but it has to occur to you at some point in the movie that shaving it all every day is completely unnatural and tragic. I mean honestly I don’t like to look at a woman with hairy legs or a gigantic bush, but why they fuck should they be shaving that much hair anyway? Isn’t it a waste of time and effort, a daily failed attempt to thwart nature? What is wrong with us people?

Well maybe it’s human nature to try, and fail, to defy human nature. Once he’s completely “civilized”, the feral man Puff spends his days in a tuxedo, making presentations and receiving honorary degrees, and his evenings drinking, compulsively buying porn and screwing whores. Dr. Bronfman uses shock therapy to teach Puff to control his sexual urges (so he won’t masturbate in public or dry hump a stranger’s ass) but he himself can’t stop from having an affair with his assistant.

But I must reiterate that all this is real fuckin funny. There are so many stupid little details that make you laugh. Like the solitary, pathetic tree inside Puff’s plexiglass cage that apparently is supposed to represent his natural habitat. Or the artificial fireplace that’s added to his cage to represent a more civilized lifestyle. There’s also alot of playing with movie conventions. A childhood flashback shows how Dr. Bronfman got his obsession with proper fork etiquette, but when his psychiatrist points out the connection, the doctor completely denies it. A character narrates from beyond the grave, but has very little insight to offer. Other characters tell their story to police interrogators and the United States Congress, but none of them seem at all interested. Rosie Perez plays that standard supportive friend character for Patricia Arquette, but she spends most of her scenes pulling hairs out of Patricia’s back or feet.

If you can’t stand movies where the main characters aren’t completely sympathetic, you might want to sit this one out. Also if you are pretty stupid, I mean not to put too fine a point on it or whatever, but this one ain’t for you either. There is masturbating and what not but this is definitely a smart people comedy. It’s a movie that not so much pushes the envelope of standard comedy as just tears open the envelope, spits in it, reseals the envelope and marks it return to sender. Kind of like FREDDY GOT FINGERED, but way smarter, funnier and with better filmatism. The point is, HUMAN NATURE is the best comedy I’ve seen in a real long time. It is destined to make no money and be discussed and dissected for years to come.

[ratings]

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