Review of Club Dread (2004) by Rick _ — 25 Apr 2010

[b]Club Dread[/b] (Jay Chandrasekhar, 2004) [b]60[/b].

More good, dirty, fun in the vein of [b]Super Troopers[/b], although I prefer that effort on the whole. Broken Lizard?s brand of low-brow humor doesn?t aim high, but the group does know its range of effectiveness, and doesn?t stray. This one is a sardonic lampooning of an easy target that wins over on its general insanity and collection of occasionally inspired non-sequiturs.

[b]The Fog of War[/b] (Errol Morris, 2003) [b]80[/b].

It?s not a masterpiece of the form (like [b]The Thin Blue Line[/b]) or as weirdly ambitious as Morris?s last movie ([b]Fast, Cheap, and out of Control[/b]), but this film is a historian?s delight ? an important player in American foreign policy essentially narrating his participation in the most significant international events of the 1960s. Although McNamara is often evasive when the questioning edges into the realm of his personal feelings, his recollections are cogent and candid when it comes to statecraft and warfare, and sometimes surprisingly raw and emotional.

[b]The White Sheik[/b] (Federico Fellini, 1952) [b]68[/b].

In terms of style, this one feels a lot like the screwball comedies that were prevalent in America ten to fifteen years earlier, albeit with the lascivious sensibilities of a Fellini movie set in Rome. What sets it apart from those American cousins, however, is the movie?s far more cynical undercurrent - idealists are disillusioned, romantic heroes emasculated, convention is triumphant. While the conflict in the screwball plot is resolved in a fairly standard manner on the surface, there is resignation in the air. It's a minor accomplishment, but Fellini's combination of cutting cynicism and slapstick is deft, and a balancing act that something like [b]Bringing up Baby[/b] doesn't even try. [b]Sheik[/b] is a better movie.