So you are asking yourself, why is a silly Nascar film being reviewed on a liberal website? The answer is that it’s a very funny satire of all things Bushco and a very savvy analysis of life in much of America circa 2006.
Will Ferrell co-writes and stars in this story of a poor kid from North Carolina who runs to the altar of fame and success in the blink of an eye and what happens when he lands there. The film even manages to make good fun of product placement and branding when they are already a parody in our everyday life.
You know you are in for a treat right away when the first thing you see is a hilarious fake quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that kicks off the proceedings. From there we are taken on a tour of Bush’s way of not thinking through our times and the calamity that results.
I saw this film for the second time this weekend and have to say that it’s genius of Ferrell and his director/co-writer Adam McKay to take this journey through Bubba-land on one level while taking us on a very different trip just beneath it. There are a few overt clues that there is more going on than meets the eye, the French villian that turns to be anything but and the reference to Bush and Halliburton but they fly by so fast you have to catch them at the speed of the film which is edited like a Nascar race.
If you haven’t seen this already, rest assured you will be surrounded by laughter on both levels, whether it is a joke about male bonding on one hand or a shot of his rival reading “L’ Etranger” while driving 150 mph on the other. I’d love to give you a hundred examples of why this film is such brilliant satire but you need to experience them for yourself but the crowning moment is a prayer-laden dysfunctional dinner at his McMansion that is easily the best scene in any film so far this year.
I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to finally review a film here that is playing in everyone’s town instead of just the usual important films that play selected towns and then head to your Netflix queue. Congratulations to Ferrell, McKay and everyone involved in the smartest ‘stupid’ film of the year. I laughed my head off both times and walked out totally jazzed that Hollywood slid this one past the red states (it opened with a whopping 47 million gross last weekend and 23 more this one for a 70 milion total) and opened in that all important #1 place that is so satirized in this film.
