Non-Fiction Week At the Movies

October 28, 2002

First off, Bowling for Columbine, the new documentary from Michael Moore. Moore’s documentary on the Columbine shooting and America’s gun culture is all a bit hit or miss. Moore has a lot of good material, but doesn’t seem to have the right narrative push to put it all together. The individual bits stand up well: Moore signing up to a bank that gives away guns as their promotion, a comparison of Canadians and Americans, an interview with NRA leader Charlton Heston. Moore provides no answers, but I guess I should just be happy that someone’s still asking the questions.

Next up was Jackass: The Movie, which really defies any categorization whatsoever. Anyone that likes the TV show will love the movie, anyone that doesn’t care probably won’t be convinced. That said, Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera’s crews push the outer limits of pain tolerance and good taste for those willing to stomach it. It can be very hard to watch at times (I really couldn’t watch as Knoxville voluntarily paper cut the webbing of his feet and hands), but it is wholly entertaining. It’s a good thing that the Jackass crew has poisoned the minds of a whole generation, because they surely are not providing a next generation of Jackasses from their demolished genitals. Intellectuals need not apply.

I personally found it painfully funny, even as I felt my brain cells degenerate into slush. Curiously, they still run the warning slides, as if I needed them to tell me not to box with Butterbean or shove a toy car up my ass.

Posted in Moving Pictures