Rated R - Running Time: 1:27 - Released 4/20/01
FREDDY GOT FINGERED
Rated R - Running Time: 1:27 - Released 4/20/01
Tom Green, the outrageous Canadian who rose to stardom on his
self-named MTV show and has since achieved added fame as the new
husband of Drew Barrymore, is, in his way, a talented comic. His
style, which could perhaps most aptly be compared to Jim Carrey
or the late Andy Kaufman (whom Carrey played in Man
On The Moon), is a mix of high-energy physical schtick
and off-the-wall, surrealistic concept art. Or perhaps he's just
criminally insane. At any rate, his self-indulgent writing/directing
debut, Freddy Got Fingered, shows that while he's got the
energy (and perhaps the mentality) of a 5-year-old, he has not
yet achieved the judicious sensibilities required of a director.
With a script that borders between the idiotic and the indecipherable,
and a performance to match, Freddy Got Fingered is pure
masturbation, and I'm sorry to say I mean that both literally
and figuratively. Anyone familiar with Green's TV show knows that
he will do anything in front of the camera, but there comes
a point when covering oneself in some disgusting substance, or
saying the same inane word over and over again, or simply standing
and screaming, just isn't funny anymore.
Green plays Gord Brody, a 28-year-old aspiring cartoon animator
whose drawings, while colorful and cleverly drawn, don't make
the slightest bit of sense. Undaunted by this, he decides to leave
his parents' home in Portland and move to Hollywood to try to
make it in the big time. His parents (Rip Torn, Julie Hagerty)
are proud that he's striking out on his own, but mainly they're
just happy he's leaving. His first job is at a cheese sandwich
factory, where he dances around on the conveyor belts and yells
at his co-workers, played by a bunch of old ladies who pretend
not to notice him. Then he goes to an animation studio where we
are treated to a cameo by bride Barrymore, spending the scene
trying desperately not to laugh at his every move. Soon he's back
home engaging in an infantile behavior contest with his dad, but
eventually he meets his romantic interest (Marisa Coughlan), a
pretty but physically disabled rocket scientist/masochist who
wants only to be whipped on the shins, break the sound barrier
in her wheelchair, and perform fellatio.
Had enough yet?
When taken in small amounts, Green can add spice to an otherwise
conventional film (see Road Trip),
but as the central character and director, he has been allowed
too much free reign. His film wallows in pretentious self-absorption
as if he thinks that anything he does is funny. Every time a scene
seems to be making headway toward furthering the plot, it devolves
into idiocy when he bursts into incomprehensible behavior or starts
chanting some kind of irrelevant nonsense phrase.
It's truly sad when someone who is mentally unstable gets into drugs. But the real tragedy is when he's given $20 mil to make a movie about it. *