Bad Santa - B
Now Playing: (2003, Terry Zwigoff) [seen in theatre]
Not sure why I didn't love this more, since all the elements seem to be in place for a bitter little classic. First and foremost, Billy Bob Thornton's performance is a marvel of non-pandering- at no point does he soften the edges of his drinking, smoking, vulgar safecracker/mall Santa so that we might see the nice guy hiding inside. If it's a heart of gold you seek, look someplace else. Also, this film takes the bad-guy-gets-redeemed story and knocks it on its ear, not just because he's never really redeemed but also because the kid (Brett Kelly) who would in another story be the source of his redemption is kind of annoying and relentlessly un-cute (the scenes where Thornton teaches the kid to stand up for himself seem motivated more by exasperation than altruism). Plus it's really damn funny in spots, particularly his verbal jousting with dwarf sidekick Tony Cox, and the non-sequitur-riddled conversations with the kid. So why did the film feel kind of empty to me? I've seen some cynical stuff (hello, Billy Wilder, anyone?) but while Wilder's films were always strangely edifying, I really didn't get that much out of this one. The only filmic reason I could think of was that some of the directorial touches Zwigoff used in Ghost World- scenes that linger a bit longer than they should, slow fadeouts- don't work as well here. While such touches helped give the previous film a kind of delicacy, they feel out of place in a story that's essentially a nasty cartoon. Still, for better or worse this is certainly more Coen-esque than Intolerable Cruelty (understandably so, the brothers produced), so take that however you will. If you love the Coens unconditionally, you should have a ball with this; if like me you're iffy about a few of their movies, you should still laugh pretty hard.