Review
DICKIE ROBERTS: FORMER CHILD STAR
Starring David Spade
Directed by
Now playing
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Who would have thought it possible? David Spade is a comic genius.
He’s doesn’t just possess the pseudo-genius of lived-too-hard-died-too-young hacks like John Belushi and Chris Farley. No, he possesses the real genius that only our greatest comedians can lay claim to. His new film, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, will change the way we look at film forever.
Dare I compare David Spade to gods like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton? These were comedians whose work was steeped in social commentary and rich with pathos. But Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star takes its place beside Chaplin’s Gold Rush and Keaton’s The General with indelible comic images that will stick with us for all time. Dickie’s "tiger" hair style and leather hat rival the Chaplin moustache and bowler cap as an image for our time, making Dickie the new century’s Little Tramp. And one can easily imagine Keaton, the physical comedy genius, diving onto a dry Slip and Slide to express the pain and alienation of the Hollywood life.
These images alone would have been enough to make Dickie Roberts the finest film of 2003, but Spade doesn’t stop there.
He also embraces the manic genius of our-more-off the wall comedians – creating something new by mixing the old. Imagine Jerry Lewis crossed with Andy Kaufman and you begin to understand the levels to which Spade has risen. Spade’s Dickie shifts from wild physical comedy to frenetic vocal gymnastics, from smarmy innocence to heartbreaking experience and from dorky loser to suave leading man with an ease that makes his predecessors look like mere amateurs.
And, like all great stars, David Spade does not hoard the best moments for himself. Although we are riveted by every nuance of his expressive face, Spade shares the film’s groundbreaking potential with myriad stars whose best work once seemed behind them.
Child stars from Eight is Enough, Diff’rent Strokes, Welcome Back Kotter, Laverne and Shirley, Saved by the Bell and The Brady Bunch all make their obligatory appearances, but two former stars will certainly benefit more from Spade’s masterpiece than the rest: Leif Garrett and Jon Lovitz.
Garrett, former Teen Beat Hunk of the Month, plays himself as Dickie Roberts’s best friend and fellow out-of-work actor. Some may say that this role is not much of a stretch for Garrett, but don’t be misled. His performance evokes the pressure and pain of a former child star that can only have been achieved by Garrett’s masterful tapping of sense memory. It’s his finest performance since Coppola’s The Outsiders and it is bound to put him back on the star map.
Starring as Dickie’s friend Sydney, Lovitz, unlike Garrett, follows the same comic path he always has – the path of the torturously mundane schmuck – but his journey has brought him back to the top of his game. We believe in Sydney’s fierce loyalty to Dickie because Lovitz believes it – which makes Sydney’s sacrifice of a kidney for Dickie’s dream audition as touching as it is believable.
Only a star as giving and confident in his own talent as Spade could allow his co-stars the opportunity to shine in the midst of his own greatest achievement. Thus, Spade forces comparison to two other legendary comedians, Ernie Kovacs and Johnny Carson. Both men ushered in generations of great comedians because they were willing to stand aside and let others shine. It was a mark of their greatness then, just as it is a mark of Spade’s now.
Chaplin, Keaton, Lewis, Kaufman, Kovacs, Carson, all embodied in one 5’7" frame. Who would have thought it possible? Who would believe it’s true? |
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