Posts Tagged ‘Nacho Libre’
3 items.
I always liked the idea of Mexican wrestlers – luchadore, if you will. They’re cultural icons and folklore heroes. I’m not a big wrestling fan. I just like the mythology, especially when it comes to the masks. I like the commitment to the tradition and to never breaking the illusion of their profession. It’s very respectable.
That’s part of the reason I can’t decide if Nacho Libre is a far-out, whack-job-but-ultimately-inspired parody of Mexico and this facet of it’s culture or if it’s borderline racist to have Jack Black play this character and the filmmakers are having a big laugh at the expense at an entire country. Then again, maybe Napoleon Dynamite was a big laugh at the expense of Idaho and Jon Heder’s performance was offensive to nerds everywhere. I don’t mean to politicize things. You’ll have to ask Jared Hess, the director of both movies.
Reviews for Nacho Libre have been skewing negative, which is odd considering it looked the movie to beat when it came to screwball laughs this summer. Analystis have cited The World Cup as the big reason you’re not seeing any tentpole films in June until the global contest. Hence, both Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest not showing up until nearly July. The road should have been clear for Nacho Libre. What happened?
I wonder if it’s because critics are looking for an out-of-the-box cult phenomenon on par with Napoleon Dynamite. I don’t think it’s going to happen. Even though MTV crammed commercials for Hess’s first film down the throats of the teen set for months, it’s cult status developed somewhat organically. People really started to adopt it as their own. I think the Hot Topicization of the film has since corrupted it, but that’s a post for another time.
My point is that I don’t think lightning is going to strike twice in that regard.
I still want to see the movie. If for no other reason than to watch Jack Black do his manic genious thing. One of the screenwriters on the movie was Mike White and he and Black seemed to get along pretty well the last time they collaborated on The School of Rock.
Even though the reviews for Nacho Libre aren’t setting the world en el fuego, I think my expectations have been appropriately lowered and I actually think that will help me to appreciate the movie more. Or at least for what it is… instead of what I want it to be.
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Cami and I didn’t see Nacho Libre this weekend mostly because we were busy doing errands and getting things ready for Father’s Day. We had both my folks and Cami’s folks over to the house for a bar-b-que. It was a good time. I hope you and yours had a great weekend celebrating the old man as well.
I don’t really know if I have much to say about Jack Black playing a Mexican in Nacho Libre. Some people recognize it as very poltically incorrect, but not culturally insensitive. Other people find it kind of offensive. Much like Charlie, since I haven’t seen the movie, I can’t put the performance into context. But if you want to see a truly offensive caucasian portrayal of a Mexican, rent Orson Welle’s Touch of Evil with Charlton Heston playing the latino in question. Don’t blame Welles, though. The studio pressured him into casting Heston in the role. Still a good pot-boiler mystery, though. Check it out. Just ignore Heston if you can. Amazing what they thought they could get away with in 1958.
Charlie hasn’t made an appearance in a while and I thought this was kind of a good opportunity to indirectly address the race question in Nacho Libre. Often I dangle the carrot of Charlie’s true ethnenticity, but I intentionally do not reveal it. I’ve had some people say that she’s latina, some people say that she’s Native American or even from the South Pacific. I enjoy the guessing game. It makes me think I created something more clever than I actually did and didn’t just stumble into things like I normally do.
I should mention that I received the June issue of Zoinks Magazine on my doorstep this weekend and it features my interview with the publication. I don’t know if it’s too late to grab one from them or not – although I’m sure you can backorder – but you should really check out Zoinks Magazine online and then get a subscription. I’ve been really impressed as to how they’ve been able to improve the quality of the publication in such a short amount of time!
Anyway, that’s it for me today. Talk to you soon!
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There was a point that I really wanted to see Balls of Fury. I think mostly because it has Christopher Walken in a Foo-Manchu get up and he’s hilarious in nearly everything he’s in – even when he’s playing it straight.
But as the television commercials played and the dismal reviews started pouring in, I began to lose faith. I was thinking this film was going to be more of a showcase for the talents of Thomas Lennon and Ben Garrant – two members of the MTV comedy troupe The State. Admittedly, their track record on scrips has been a little uneven (A Night At The Museum, Let’s Go To Prison and Herbie: Fully Loaded are among their credits). But this one seemed so deeply entrenched in their oddball roots, it had to be good, right?
Then when I understood that the focus would be on Dan Fogler’s character (a poor man’s Jack Black if there ever was one) I was pretty much turned off completely. Don’t ask me why – I just don’t like the look of the guy.
Things really began to crystalize after I bought Blades of Glory on DVD last Tuesday and realized that there has been A LOT of obscure sports comedies in the last few years and I really started to resent it. As a matter of fact, can we just call an End To The Trend right here? Hollywood, you’ve reached your saturation point. No more wacky comedies about obscure sports. What’s left? Underwater basket weaving?
Gimme points, though – I really like the idea of Little People, Big Hurl just on the title alone.
That’s about all I have for today. In America, it’s Labor Day – a holiday where we celebrate our effort in the jobs we hate by getting a day off.
That doesn’t mean there will be a day off from The Triple Feature talkcast, though! Tonight we’ll be talking about Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake and the status of the horror movie in today’s climate. If you have questions you’d like us to answer in tonight’s show, feel free to send them to me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com and we’ll do our best to answer them on-air!
Be sure to participate tonight at Talkshoe at 9:00 PM CST. We’ll see you there!
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