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There’s a moment in Tropic Thunder<\/i> when a tiny baby, probably 2 or 3 years old, is thrown off of a high bridge (like the one over the River Kwai) and you get a glimpse of the small body cartwheeling down through the air. I laughed so hard at that image that I almost didn’t recover. It’s near the end of the film, and so that was good – because I couldn’t settle down after it … and, judging from the ongoing guffaws around me, nobody else could either. Tears were streaming down my face. I can’t remember the last time I lost it like that at a current-day comedy.<\/p>\n
If you can make me laugh at a baby being thrown off a bridge, if you can create a comedic context where something like that is hilarious<\/i> – you done good.<\/p>\n
There’s so much else that is funny about this movie – Tom Cruise is brilliant … it’s not just a bald wig and makeup giving him pimples and a yukky beard … He is inhabiting<\/i> that horrible person. He’s doing so with a relish<\/i>. Brilliant. Love to see him like that, loose and nuts and powerful and MAD.<\/p>\n
But it’s the baby flying through the air that really nailed for me how funny this movie really is. Usually something like that is a “gag”, or – it’s there to push the envelope, to see how far everyone can go and still remain funny. That’s part of comedy … finding the line, and either walking that line or leaping over it. But you have to be really gifted (George Carlin, Lenny Bruce) to leap over that line. Otherwise, you end up seeming like an attention-whore … if it doesn’t have intelligence behind it, or a POINT … well, I just tune you out. But that baby flying off the bridge (and the scene that leads up to that moment – which is HILARIOUS) is not a “gag” – it ends up seeming like an inevitability … like there was only one way for Stiller’s character to get out of that jam, and that was by throwing that baby off the bridge. And yes, the image – of the small body cartwheeling through the air at top speed, is funny in and of itself – so we all burst out laughing – but at the same time, our laughter had that intensity where you know what you are laughing at is kind of awful … It’s my favorite kind of laugh, and Tropic Thunder<\/i> is all about that.<\/p>\n
Robert Downey Jr. has been around since I was a teenager. And to see him really have his moment now<\/i>, as a middle-aged man … I don’t know. It kind of brings tears to my eyes. I’m happy for him. I’ve always liked him but Two Girls and a Guy<\/i> – kind of a dumb movie – made me realize the depths unplumbed in this guy – and not just that, but the sheer acting chops<\/i>. Yes, in that stupid movie! The last shot of the film – with him (and, finally, Heather Graham) is, to me, what good acting<\/i> and real<\/i> acting is all about. I always knew he was talented and watch-able, but it was watching Two Girls and a Guy<\/i> when I thought: He’s not just talented. He is a fine actor. Not too many people out there would be capable of doing what he did in the last shot of Two Girls and a Guy<\/i> … It’s more like watching a PLAY, where things have to happen spontaneously, and also “on time” (as opposed to a film, where you go out of sequence – you do your crying scene before lunch, and then you do your happy scene after lunch) … but Downey Jr. is so in control of his instrument (actor-talk), and so deeply sensitive … that he is able to act in that film as THOUGH it is a play. That’s the requirement. There is no cutaway to give the actor time to “get ready” for that last moment, he has no private time to prepare. It all happens in one shot. And he modulates it perfectly<\/i>. The long shot starts out in one mood and then moves to another … with no music cues, no “tricks”, no closeups … Robert Downey Jr. is in charge. In the same way that an actor in a PLAY is in charge. Amazing moment in film acting. Like I said, I’ve always loved Robert Downey Jr., but it was watching that moment that made me realize I admire<\/i> him, he has a gift<\/i>.<\/p>\n
And as far as I’m concerned … starting with Zodiac<\/i> last year (he’s so amazing in it) … he is just really hitting his stride right now, and it looks FUN, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it seem like he’s having fun? Downey Jr. always seemed tortured to me … but now … the main thing I get from him now is a real enjoyment of the craft of acting, an enjoyment of his own talents, and being psyched that he’s in such good projects. I mean, what he does in Tropic Thunder is RIDICULOUS … and also hilarious. When he shouts out, in his honky-tonk blaxploitation accent: “Hell, EVERYBODY’S gay some of the time!” … I just lost it. Like: what? What are you TALKING about?<\/p>\n
More to say about the movie … but suffice it to say, I loved it.<\/p>\n
I love any movie that makes me cry with laughter. Especially if the tears of laughter come at the image of a small Burmese baby catapulting through the air off a bridge. That’s beyond the pale. I love it. You’ve earned<\/i> my laughs, by that point. It’s not there for shock value. It makes total sense within the plot, and it’s also horrifyingly inevitable (from the first minute I saw that baby I had a sense he was up to no good) … and so you did what you needed to do to make the payoff of that moment. So many comedies today don’t want to do the necessary work … they only want the payoff. They only value the “ching” and they ignore the “ba-dum”. Well, everyone knows that there can be no “ching” without the “ba-dum” set up. You NEED the “ba dum”!! Tropic Thunder<\/i> doesn’t race around trying to get points with unearned “chings”. The film has all the “ba dums” it needs. Also, you can’t have a “ba dum” and then not follow it up with the “ching”! Don’t skimp on the “chings”!! If you set it up with a “ba dum”, you had BEST have a “ching”, even if it’s two hours later.<\/p>\n
Nothing better than a movie that knows it owes<\/i> us something … in terms of intelligence, structure, smarts, surprise – and delivers.<\/p>\n
I loved it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s a moment in Tropic Thunder when a tiny baby, probably 2 or 3 years old, is thrown off of a high bridge (like the one over the River Kwai) and you get a glimpse of the small body cartwheeling … Continue reading