I hope I never really get caught up in simplistic politcal correctness yet, on the other hand, I’m sure that humor derived from negative portrayals and comments is usually coming from a wrong place. That conflict surfaced as I was watching and enjoying Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa yesterday.
Skipping right over the questionable tactic of producing an adult movie that many kids will see advertised and want to watch themselves, and this is not a movie I’d recommend at all for the under-15 crowd, screenwriters John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (previous claim to fame: Cats & Dogs) use so many human attributes and characteristics as targets of mockery that it’s hard to know where to start: alcoholism, sexual abuse, race, height, a mentally-challenged child whose father is in prison and mother is dead, age-induced loss of contact with reality, wussiness, suicide and murder.
However, the movie is genuinely funny and only afterwards, when I began thinking about what I’d write, did the vast negativity of the picture came to me. The basic story came from the Coen Brothers and they’ve shown a definite lack of sensitivity in past movies such as Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Fargo yet have an ability to make the films work. The director here is Terry Zwigoff, who’s garnered some notice for a couple of offbeat movies based on comic books, especially Ghost World; this is Zwigoff’s first shot at a decent budget and a mainstream production.
Beyond the politcal correctness, though, this film is genuinely nasty and filthy. Santa rarely utters a sentence fragment that doesn’t include a curse word, even when talking to small children and drinks everywhere; he targets ‘hefty’ women for his favored backdoor sex except when he gets together (in a car, in a hot tub, whereever they can) with Santa sex-obsessed Lauren Graham. There’s a gratuitous subplot where the Kid keeps getting picked on and beat up by a slightly older neighborhood bully. And so on.
The actors are mainly TV types: Bernie Mac (who seems to be the ‘cool black dude’ these days), Graham (who isn’t really hot enough for her role but gives an okay performance), John Ritter (last movie role but not quite meebly enough here), Lauren Tom (convincing as a shrew but is that what her character is supposed to be?) and even minor roles such as Billy Gardell (the Roundtable Pizza guy) and Ethan Phillips (Neellix on Star Trek: Voyager).
Props to Thornton, though I wonder if–and I’m basing this solely on press reports of his behavior–he isn’t just more or less playing himself in a Santa suit. Tony Cox is pretty good as his accomplice, the real brains of the outfit or at least the partner able to stay sober for more than an hour at a time. Last props to Brett Kelly, playing the Kid, taking all the abuse that the bad Santa can give and then some.
(Barely) Recommended
BillSaysThis 