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Chafed Elbows 1966
“Tell the director that Gregory Miraculous and Jesus Mekas discovered you in the toilet.”
Goodnight, sweet (prince).
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Bad Trip 2021
The anti-Borat.
Where Cohen deploys his hidden-camera pranks to goad his targets into exposing their most extravagantly boorish, hateful selves, Andre et al use theirs to bring out the best in people. And it’s not that each film’s pranks elicit wildly different reactions from their respective targets so much as it’s a matter of how each film chooses to frame those reactions; where Cohen’s film views people as oafishly credulous, Andre’s film instead chooses to see them as open-hearted and good-humored.
Also this features the most structurally justified, emotionally satisfying blooper reel in movie history.
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Despiser 2003
With the distinct feel of an FMV light gun shooter whose narrative ambitions refuse to be contained by the puny confines of a bowling alley arcade cabinet, it’s impossible not to love this movie for its aesthetic gumption alone. I don’t even mind the narcissistic Misunderstood Artist Messiah shtick because unlike the Breens and Wiseaus of the world Cook actually puts his money where his mouth is. There are no cut corners or half measures here, this is a fully…
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Quiet Please, Murder 1942
I think it’s safe to say this is the greatest wartime propaganda/espionage/slice-of-life comedy detective noir Freudian library heist thriller ever made.
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