>>REVIEW
SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS
STARRING Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Heder and Jacinda Barrett
DIRECTED BY Todd Phillips
Opens Friday, September 29
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Todd Phillips’ unabashed love of the raunchy, junk-food comedies of the late ’70s and ’80s was daftly displayed in his first three features, Road Trip, Old School and Starsky and Hutch. Dutifully treading the path first carved by There’s Something About Mary and American Pie, these three films helped facilitate the long awaited revival of the R-rated comedy once so predominant in cinema. Phillips and his passion for vulgarity proved to studios once and for all a PG13 rating needn’t be a prerequisite for a comedy’s success at the box office.
Which brings me to his latest offering, School for Scoundrels, a mediocre comedy at best that also happens to be the first film by Phillips not to secure an R-rating. Now, I’m not saying a movie has to have explicit subject matter to be funny, I’m just saying that it helps. While his previous films might not have all been stellar comedies, they at least all guaranteed his target market (half-drunk males, aged 18 to 34) a few cheap thrills. Bottom line – if you’re going to sit through a sub-par film, there might as well be a few boobs and some potty humour to keep your attention, non? (Yes, I am the target market and yes I am that shallow).
The problem with Scoundrels going for the PG rating is two-fold because, not only are Phillips’ hands now bound creatively, he’s also suddenly forced to appeal to an entirely wider market – and such nuanced filmmaking is certainly not his forte. The result is a well intentioned, but nonetheless misguided plot-driven film that lacks identity.
This brings me at last to the plot. Roger (Jon Heder a.k.a. Napoleon Dynamite) is a lonely, severely insecure meter-maid who’s in love with the girl down the hall but is unable to act. Seeking the unorthodox teachings of a fringe confidence-building class led by the alpha male Dr. P (Billy Bob Thornton), Roger gains the confidence needed to ask out his dream girl, but not before usurping the machismo of his teacher. Thus begins a battle of bravado in which the integrity of both men remains entirely suspect.
The script is Phillips’ most ambitious to date, but his talent is spread too thin here and the film is crippled by plot holes and shoddy character development. If only he had distracted us with all the bells and whistles of his previous films, we might not have given a damn. |
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