Man on Film: The Dictator

Obviously, venturing away from the construct that made Brüno and Borat as successful as they were is a risky gambit for Sacha Baron Cohen, especially considering how poorly (as co-writer/star) his first foray into the realm of scripted comedy went in the form of Ali G Indahouse. While The Dictator is certainly uneven at times, it is certainly a more successful film than his first scripted flick. Some of the film's success could likely be owing to the extra creative talent that was brought in on this project. Larry Charles, director of Cohen's last two star-vehicles, uses his connections to Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld to enlist the talents of Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer, all of whose curricula vitae include writing and/or producer credits on both programs (Schaffer is also the co-creator of The League). While The Dictator is far from a tautly told story, the comedic chops of those writers--and obviously Cohen's as well--shine brightly.

Complaints of The Dictator's unevenness are certainly not without merit. Despite its brief 83-minute run time, there are plenty of plot points that hardly seem vital. There are many aspects of the story pertaining to Admiral General Hafiz Aladeen's relationship with activist and co-op manager Zoey (Anna Faris) that aren't especially effective. Obviously the element of the love interest needs to be present to give Aladeen cause to change, but it certainly isn't where the film thrives, despite the comedic talents of Mrs. Chris Pratt. If anything, the film is most successful when the wonderfully funny Jason Mantzoukas is on screen. As anyone who is familiar with his work is fully aware, Mantzoukas is a comic genius, and his presence as the sensible foil to Aladeen's pervasive idiocy is a large part of what makes the film work. Obviously, Sacha Baron Cohen is the star of the show, and as one would expect, he fully commits to the part of hateful ignoramus dictator, but Aladeen doesn't come off nearly as funny without Nadal. His Crocs rant alone is worth the price of admission, at least if you hate Crocs as much as I do.

More importantly, the film is quite funny. There is plenty of incisive satire to accompany the absurd and offensive (I mean this in a positive way) brand of humor on display. While the scenes at the co-op might not all work, the setting does certainly provide an environment rife with opportunities to poke fun at the over-sensitive and impractical left. Every time Aladeen crosses paths with any ethnic group, the offensive and ignorant comments that come out of his mouth are shocking and hilarious. And that is exactly what one with any familiarity with Cohen's past works should expect. The Dictator gives the viewer mostly what is expected. This is neither exceedingly good nor bad. It delivers what one would hope it would while never exactly surprising at any turn.

It is what it is, but at least The Dictator doesn't pull any punches.

Man On Film: Ketchup

I know, it's been a while. I've been busy.

That doesn't mean I've not been going to movies.

Rather, I've been unable to write about them.

What is to follow could be a bit lengthy. Sure, I could split these up, but this backlog has been piling up. Some of these may receive more time than others for varying reasons but not always related to my like/dislike of the film. Given the ground I'll be trying to cover here, these individual write-ups will surely be lacking, especially in relation to, say, what I did when I wrote about The Dark Knight in two tomes last year.

Here goes:

Brüno

Pretty damn funny. Unlike Borat, it didn't feel like 85% of the movie was recycled bits from "Da Ali G Show". The urethral "Brüno" shout in his pilot was truly shocking.

I am curious as to what Sacha Baron Cohen is going to do now that his three characters have been given the full-length feature treatment.

Funny People

I had a film professor who specialized in screenwriting. He had written F/X but did not end up being the credited screenwriter. In the sci-fi class I took from him, his analysis was limited to breaking down this film into its three-act structure while giving a cursory look at other narrative elements. His hard-on for the three-act structure ruled his life.

While that seemed a little ridiculous during the class, Judd Apatow's latest seems like it could have more closely adhered to the pacing inherent in that Aristotelian construct.

Now I should say that I didn't have any major issues with the film. Of Apatow's three directorial efforts, Funny People is probably his most complete film. It is certainly his most adult. That doesn't mean it is the most enjoyable. It probably has the least re-watch value of the three. Sandler gives his best performance since Punch-Drunk Love. Jonah Hill manages to avoid being irritating, an issue I had upon repeat viewings of Superbad. Rogen is fine as well. The problem when it comes to re-watching is that the two male lead characters are largely unlikeable.

Oh, and there's the fact that despite being entirely watchable, the pacing leaves a bit to be desired.

But, again, the film is good. The stand-up is really damn funny. The interplay between the roommates is great. Schwartzmann is his best in ages (although it all looks to be topped by "Bored to Death"). The horribleness of the show-within-the-movie is hilarious as well. Aside from the pacing issues, the film doesn't have a lot of weaknesses.

(500) Days of Summer

I actually thought I had written about this one and was surprised to find out that I hadn't.

I tend to like the film work of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Zooey Deschanel wasn't exactly stretching her wings and flying to new territory in terms of playing a new role. That being said, she does it fairly well. The music talk in the film was a little grating, but at the same time the characters in the film were supposed to be my peers, and that is sadly most of what we talk about. The one point I will make is that it seems like a leap to state that someone has good taste in music based on the one song you overhear them listening to. For all she knew in the elevator, he listened to Nickleback, Mariah Carey, and Liberace and that was the one song by The Smiths on his iPod (We are assuming that he wasn't listening to a CD, right? Does anyone (other than me)?).

I did like this movie, though. It was funny, sad, and not necessarily typical of the rom-com genre. Its soundtrack, while littered with tracks by indie darlings like Feist, Regina Spektor, Wolfmother, and Spoon, is entirely appropriate for the demographic that the film is about.

Thirst

The newest Chan-Wook Park movie was pretty solid. It didn't approach the meteoric heights that Oldboy reached, but it was good. It was, however, cursed by what seemed like a ending about 45 minutes before the actual ending.

Harry Potter and the (Whatever Thing is in the Title)

The sixth movie in the series had virtually nothing happen. It's not like it sucked (but holy shit did the first two in the series), but from what the special lady friend says the next movie cannot really have much of anything happen, so that means we're getting like six hours of nothing leading up to what might be a cool conclusion.

I cannot believe that this series has even gotten this good after those abysmal first two movies. We all have Alfonso Cuaron to thank for that. His direction steered this enterprise in the right direction.

The Hurt Locker

So I fell asleep for about 20 minutes at the beginning of this film. As the second-to-last trailer was concluding, I thought to myself, "Fuck. I am tired."

That being said, what I saw was great. Jeremy Renner, who was the star of the underwhelming Dahmer, was phenomenal. The tension was great throughout. I wanted to say more and intended to see it again before doing so. I have not had the chance. This will have to do.

As I'm sure Weibel is glad to hear, The Hurt Locker put me in the hurt locker.