Review
BAD SANTA
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox and Brett Kelly
Co-written and directed by Terry Zwigoff
Opens Friday, November 28
Uptown Screen
God bless us, every one, and especially Tiny Terry Zwigoff, who has just filled the stocking of every Christmas lover with a massive and deeply offensive lump of coal-black comedy.
With Bad Santa, Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World) proves that, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he’s one unkempt, self-destructive, trash-talking, booze-soaked, incontinent motherfucker of a Christmas icon. As a mall Santa with a severely bad (read "cripplingly misanthropic") attitude and several days’ growth of facial hair (under his fake beard, natch), Billy Bob Thornton sinks his entire being into a role that could demolish his career like an eight-reindeer pile-up. If this is Father Christmas, then everybody’s favourite annual celebration of unbridled consumerism is one illegitimate bastard of a holiday, indeed.
Which, of course, it is, for all but the most devoutly Christian among us – and who wants to associate with those people? Once Bad Santa leaves them with nary a cheek left to turn, they’ll undoubtedly be out picketing the film in a cliché of vengeful outrage. At least if there’s any divine justice in this world they will be – Zwigoff and producers the Coen Brothers could probably use the extra publicity.
After all, Bad Santa hasn’t a single reverential bone in its rotten, disgusting corpus. Even though the film ultimately falls back on "true meaning of Christmas" bromides – as Thornton’s despicable character is redeemed somewhat by his friendship with a young, bullied loser of a child – it’s tough to imagine that Zwigoff really means it. After an hour-and-a-half of sodomy, drunkenness, criminal high jinks and even dwarfsploitation, it’s just proof that Hollywood comedies can, too, be viciously antisocial as long as there’s a happy enough ending tacked on for the gullible suckers in the moral majority.
Sure, it’s vulgar, but isn’t it more vulgar to pretend that giving the economy a boost every fall is an appropriate way to honour the birthday of a 2000-year-old spiritual martyr? Or, as Thornton’s bedraggled Santa remarks at one point, "Do you really need all that shit?"
As this year’s irreverent comedies go, Bad Santa trumps even School of Rock – that was a nice movie you could take the kids to, but this is the naughty one they truly want, and need, to see. Thankfully, it’s been rated 18A in Alberta, meaning that this is one present the whole family will have to enjoy together. |
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