I’ve tried to write this post on Old School about twenty times. Each time it comes off like a bad freshman film student trying to impress his teacher (who invariably wears black, smokes cloves, and has an office filled with posters for 1950’s French films). They were trash. I’ll keep this simple: Old School is a great movie for three main reasons:
1. Frank the Tank – Still the single greatest role that Will Farrell has had. Frank is base, crude, and only one drink away from becoming a human Barney Gumble. Hell, his Trans Am was called the Red Dragon. His mournful adieu to Blue should be the only version of “Dust in the Wind” allowed to be broadcast in the United States.
2. Supporting Cast: Juliet Lewis, Vince Vaughn, Andy Dick, and Craig Kilborn: all fantastic. This might be the only role that Lewis has ever been good at: a dirty, sleazy sex-addict. The pledges and the Mitch’s co-workers were all perfectly cast as well.
3. Smart Script: Don’t mistake the ridiculous plot and genre for stupidity. The writing is clever and quick. Many of the jokes are played broadly, but that does not detract from the humor of the film. As Spinal Tap taught us, there is a fine line between stupid and clever and Old School walks that line expertly.
In the spirit of simplicity, I'll close by saying, Old School isn’t a classic slice of cinema, but it is a great damn movie.
3 comments:
Freshman film students don't even bother trying to impress their professors, because, as they all know, they're far more informed on All Things Film than those old farts could ever hope to be.
This goes for lit majors, art majors, and really anything in the college of humanities. They might as well call it the College of Douchebaggery. (I should know)
P.S. I call Old School semi-watchable, but viewings would probably be limited to a perfect storm of chance, boredom, and a bizarre situation in which our copies of Talledega Nights AND Elf were both unavailable.
Only a fool will quibble with Elf, but Talledega Nights? Meh. The only reason I give Old School the nod over Elf is that there is a dark side of Farrell that he keeps suppressed, but you know that it took Favreau holding a gun to his head to do it.
Talledega Nights is America's crowning cinematic achievement. Period.
Post a Comment