Friday, April 20, 2001
Confronting Tom Green - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Tom Green is a unique comedian. He doesn’t merely stand up in front of a stage at Yuk Yuk’s or something telling people to take his wife or what happened to him walking up Broadway the other day. (By the way, Green took his wife to the set of Freddy Got Fingered, as Drew Barrymore, has a tiny part in the picture.)
Tom Green is also Canadian; he’s gross, yet grossly talented. Tom Green, co-wrote, starred in and directed Freddy Got Fingered. It’s a highly anticipated film, not only in Green fan circles, but also the general movie going public. The MTV comic (which technically he hasn’t been in a while,) is unorthodox in his ways for earning laughs. It’s a way that’s endeared him to the MTV crowd or high school and college kids that no longer know how to applaud. Tom Green elicits weird reaction in public and the occasional, loud, "Yeah!!!!"
Green, who’s now admitted to marrying Drew Barrymore (which is a marriage I think will last), was on the Jay Leno Tonight Show on Wednesday night and said that after the taping he’d be off to the première for his picture. He said it’d be the first time they’ve screened the picture in public. Well, I wasn’t in Westwood but I did attend a raucous screening at the same time in Downtown Vancouver, about a block away from an actual set used in the movie.
The room was filled to capacity with those so said teens and post-teens who hollered and yelled as Green skateboards through familiar local malls. They cheered at jokes that were tawdry and vaguely humorous in the conventional sense. One laughs at it’s childishness, because it’s a kind of humour that’s sort of comforting. It restores ones faith that Tom Green is making tons of dough making a tremendous ass of himself. A funny ass nonetheless.
The film is not a masterpiece in a technical sense. It made me laugh loads, nearly as many times as There’s Something About Mary, which I regard as probably the funniest movie in the last ten years. This movie is in that league. The film has no inventive cinematography or extraordinary editing that would put this film on any ten best lists at the end of the year.
What it is, is a solid performance from Green. Often retarded and childish, one laughs because frankly there’s nothing else to do. I will admit that his humour is an acquired taste, but knowing some of those that subscribe to my ranting and raving, it should bode well among peers and former peers alike.
The miracle of Tom Green is that he makes us laugh at the absurdity of life. He doesn’t insult, per se, but skits and scenes in this picture make us look at ourselves and those around us less seriously. Rip Torn, who won an Emmy for The Larry Sanders Show, plays the abrasive father. I found his character somewhat disjointed as he doesn’t appear to be the man we see first that develops to the character we see at the end. If there’s anything wrong with this movie, it’s the fact that rather than going all out with the outrageous and unorthodox, "Tom Green" (the persona and comic) has been sanitised by Hollywood. Portions of this film stand out as relying on formulas of bad becoming good, by plots end. There are also parts where pure "Tom Green" is featured, but in the context of the story, the authenticity is rather out of context.
Mel Brooks, the genius that he is, had made a minor career poking fun at Hitler. A Jew himself, the jokes are a catalyst for us (the consumer) belittling the heinousness of Adolf Hitler. That’s what one would call humour with purpose. Robin Williams and to a far stretch Andy Kaufman, had that in their kind of schtick. Tom Green doesn’t follow that formula. Comedy, itself tougher than drama as any thespian will tell you, is an art. Green approaches it like a Picasso or Pollock, he busts up the myths and traditions for something new. What comes may be gross or simply terrifying, but that’s what art is all about -- shattering commonly held beliefs and making your own way; a new kind of art.
Freddy Got Fingered isn’t a film for everyone. But it’s a film most of civilised taste will like. It isn’t civilised, but one needs a hell of a lot of maturity to enjoy it or throw that first stone.
Some general observation from the advance screening last Wednesday: The group’s demographic was generally young, say 16-35ish. Watching the movie, they did what I said -- the hooting and cat calling, but at times the room would drown in hushes that soaked up the collisions of out-there humour with minor pathos. Also, one could sense the group was made up of people who were real Tom Green addicts. Some were doing Greenesque skits in the line-up going in. One dense kid was wandering into the path of walking people on Granville. No humour intended, simply it was an example of the unadulterated stupidity as espoused by Green.
I was most impressed by the people. The general feeling was that the movie was good and from a cabal of over-hyper or over-medicated fickles, they evolved into mature (well as mature as one gets, who find Tom Green humorous,) applauding politely during portions of the film and clogging the aisle at ‘The End’ to stare at the credits peppered with out-takes and the sort. Also, the score was rather eclectic. There was a Bacharach tune spotted, as the score moved flowing from Sammy Davis Jr. to Green Day to Eminem.
The audience matured and with this movie Tom Green does in Hollywood standards. Thankfully, his humour hasn’t all that much. Freddy Got Fingered, a good, funny romp that confronts North America today.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .