IMAGE: John Estes
The best joke of Casa de Mi Padre is that it
exists at all. Nearly entirely in Spanish, with Will Ferrell playing a
Mexican ranching heir alongside Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, the
film is like an extended crank call from Mexico, so elaborately planned
you can’t bring yourself to hang up. It’s a parody of Mexican
telenovelas so artificial that it becomes a send-up of the absurdity of
making movies at all. Once you’re hip to the gag, it’s transfixing but
often boring—except when it gives voice to anti-American sentiments,
which are vituperative and fiercely funny. “We will kill each other
feeding the shit-eating crazy monster babies,” Ferrell warns. Yes, we
are the shit-eating crazy monster babies. Fair enough: Let’s eat some
shit.
- Showing at: Laurelhurst Theater.
- Best paired with: Ninkasi’s Helles Belles.
- Also showing: Jaws (Hollywood Theatre).
