2006 ROUNDUP: IDIOCRACY (Judge)
I saw Mike Judge's first film, OFFICE SPACE, in theatres with two of my girlfriends. (That sounds awkward, doesn't it? They were girls who were my friends, not like I was fucking both of them. I wanted to fuck one of them. All through middle school, actually. And high school. Ah, young lust.) We couldn't get into RUSHMORE because it was rated R, but we got into OFFICE SPACE. I was sort of disappointed. A couple of years later, all my friends "discovered" it on DVD and soon they were saying, "Heeeey, Peter" and "I'm gonna show you my O face." I still never got the hype, but watching it again recently, it struck chords with me, office drone that I currently am, which were previously only hinted at.
IDIOCRACY is a bit of a letdown, as well, or at least it is upon first viewing. What is so maddening is that it has the feel of a film taken from its creator too quickly and left inthe care of a butcher. IDIOCRACY hints at brilliance, and even achieves it in the dialogue, but the editing and pacing is convoluted and pulls the rest of the work down. Nonetheless, it is an ambitious, viotrolic work, penned by Judge and Ethan Coen, set in the year 2505, when American society has reached previously-unheard-of levels of stupidity. Luke Wilson plays Joe, a private in the Army who is frozen (alongside a prostitute played by Maya Rudolph) as part of a cryogenics experiment. Joe is exceedingly average in every regard, making him the perfect person to test the technology out on. But he's forgotten about due to a series of misadventures, and instead of being frozen for one year, he's left on ice for 500.
2505 is populated by dunces, cretins, and trash, who speak a mix of redneck slang, ebonics, and varying grunts. IDIOCRACY gives us devolution, the process of man unmaking himself by his own stupidity and inability to adapt. The film makes the conceit that man rules the world simply because he is too dumb to know when he should not be breeding. Overpopulation and a general numbing of the masses, by way of TV, fast food, and the ineptitude of America's leaders, gives us the world that IDIOCRACY creates. There is a Violence Channel, which features a show called "Aw, My Balls". Someone named Dr. Lexus states, "your shit's all retarded, and you talk like a fag". Joe is eventually placed on trial for failing to pay a hospital bill and because he does not have a UCP tattoo which are mandatory for the 2505 citizens of the country. He is sentenced to jail, and easily escapes, because the guards are idiots. Later, he is found to be the smartest man alive, despite the fact that at the beginning of the film, in 2005, we are told he is of merely average intelligence.
How do we end up here? Water is replaced by sports drinks ("It's got Electrolytes!"), which are used to feed the nation's crops. A character exists named Judge Hank "the Hangman" BMW. Dialogue consists of nearly incoherent strings of expletives and neanderthal taunts. There are no museums, no books, and Starbuck's sells HJs. What is probably scariest of all is that IDIOCRACY's America does not seem all that different from our own, just greatly exaggerated and blown out of proportion. The number one movie in 2505 is called ASS, and it's exactly what you think it is. The number one movie this week in 2007 is STOMP THE YARD, a movie where the world's problems are seemingly solved with dancing. The pieces are all in place for America to turn into the idiocracy. You can see it in AMERICAN IDOL, in THE DA VINCI CODE, in George W. Bush.
A friend told a story about how after the World Trade Towers were knocked down, they found all of these rats that were eating asbestos, and everyone figured they would die. But somehow, the rats managed to adapt to the asbestos and process it as food. Now, this particular friend has a tendency to embellish (OK, to lie), but his point was clear: consider what we consume on a daily basis, and how this affects us. Consider how many people don't even think about this, and the idiocracy does not seem so absurd after all. It is, after all, simply taking a time machine to our current situation. It is America c. 2007 taken to its extreme end.
Despite its satirical elements, IDIOCRACY is ultimately a failure in the technical sense (aside from the performances, which require little of the actors, but are essentially serviceable). The entire thing feels ripped up and glued together, perhaps by a citizen of the idiocracy. It is clear why Fox did not want this to play in theatres. It, of course, hilariously spoofs Fox News, but it also has the damning feel of a rushjob. As to whether this is Judge's fault, the editor's fault, or Fox's fault, I cannot say, but the end result is that of a flawed masterpiece. Which, of course, makes it endlessly interesting and worthy of debate. But it doesn't make it one of the best of 2006. Sadly.
IDIOCRACY is a bit of a letdown, as well, or at least it is upon first viewing. What is so maddening is that it has the feel of a film taken from its creator too quickly and left inthe care of a butcher. IDIOCRACY hints at brilliance, and even achieves it in the dialogue, but the editing and pacing is convoluted and pulls the rest of the work down. Nonetheless, it is an ambitious, viotrolic work, penned by Judge and Ethan Coen, set in the year 2505, when American society has reached previously-unheard-of levels of stupidity. Luke Wilson plays Joe, a private in the Army who is frozen (alongside a prostitute played by Maya Rudolph) as part of a cryogenics experiment. Joe is exceedingly average in every regard, making him the perfect person to test the technology out on. But he's forgotten about due to a series of misadventures, and instead of being frozen for one year, he's left on ice for 500.
2505 is populated by dunces, cretins, and trash, who speak a mix of redneck slang, ebonics, and varying grunts. IDIOCRACY gives us devolution, the process of man unmaking himself by his own stupidity and inability to adapt. The film makes the conceit that man rules the world simply because he is too dumb to know when he should not be breeding. Overpopulation and a general numbing of the masses, by way of TV, fast food, and the ineptitude of America's leaders, gives us the world that IDIOCRACY creates. There is a Violence Channel, which features a show called "Aw, My Balls". Someone named Dr. Lexus states, "your shit's all retarded, and you talk like a fag". Joe is eventually placed on trial for failing to pay a hospital bill and because he does not have a UCP tattoo which are mandatory for the 2505 citizens of the country. He is sentenced to jail, and easily escapes, because the guards are idiots. Later, he is found to be the smartest man alive, despite the fact that at the beginning of the film, in 2005, we are told he is of merely average intelligence.
How do we end up here? Water is replaced by sports drinks ("It's got Electrolytes!"), which are used to feed the nation's crops. A character exists named Judge Hank "the Hangman" BMW. Dialogue consists of nearly incoherent strings of expletives and neanderthal taunts. There are no museums, no books, and Starbuck's sells HJs. What is probably scariest of all is that IDIOCRACY's America does not seem all that different from our own, just greatly exaggerated and blown out of proportion. The number one movie in 2505 is called ASS, and it's exactly what you think it is. The number one movie this week in 2007 is STOMP THE YARD, a movie where the world's problems are seemingly solved with dancing. The pieces are all in place for America to turn into the idiocracy. You can see it in AMERICAN IDOL, in THE DA VINCI CODE, in George W. Bush.
A friend told a story about how after the World Trade Towers were knocked down, they found all of these rats that were eating asbestos, and everyone figured they would die. But somehow, the rats managed to adapt to the asbestos and process it as food. Now, this particular friend has a tendency to embellish (OK, to lie), but his point was clear: consider what we consume on a daily basis, and how this affects us. Consider how many people don't even think about this, and the idiocracy does not seem so absurd after all. It is, after all, simply taking a time machine to our current situation. It is America c. 2007 taken to its extreme end.
Despite its satirical elements, IDIOCRACY is ultimately a failure in the technical sense (aside from the performances, which require little of the actors, but are essentially serviceable). The entire thing feels ripped up and glued together, perhaps by a citizen of the idiocracy. It is clear why Fox did not want this to play in theatres. It, of course, hilariously spoofs Fox News, but it also has the damning feel of a rushjob. As to whether this is Judge's fault, the editor's fault, or Fox's fault, I cannot say, but the end result is that of a flawed masterpiece. Which, of course, makes it endlessly interesting and worthy of debate. But it doesn't make it one of the best of 2006. Sadly.
Labels: 2006
posted by travis at 7:45 PM
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