Saturday, April 4, 2009

The deep meaning of Freddy got fingered lol

I am only just beginning to see the effect that film class is having on me. Like Roberto stated in his posting, I feel im seeing movies through a more critical lens, looking for meaning in every shot rather than just staring at the screen. I’ve found it amazing that even the movies with the least depth, can have some very meaningful moments and in them. It is 1 in the morning on a saturday night and I am watching the much maligned movie Freddy got fingered. I am about halfway through however i have seen things that no man should ever see and I may be scarred for life. Right from the start of this movies you are hit with all sorts of disturbing scenes that take you to the edge of comedy all wrapped around the thinnest plot a movie has ever had (barring napoleon dynamite), which is pretty much the depiction of the life of a wannabe cartoonist. In the midst of this hectic movie that is on again off again funny and than vile and disgusting there was one scene that i found to shine above all the rest. In this scene Gord the main character is talking to a famous animator and trying to pitch him his cartoon about a cat who saves people with his x-ray vision that only works through wood. The animator looks at Gords cartoons and says that they are pretty good but they make no sense. The animator says "its f**ing stupid, theres something that has to actually happen for these cartoons to be funny". I just thought this scene was an amazing parrallel to the movie. Because in the movie we are barraged with these seemingly pointless scenes that could be funny, but why and what do they have to do with each other? You see Tom green spinning babies by umbilical chords, wearing dead animal, beating the handicapped, and worse, all for barely any reason and for some sick reason it is possible to laugh at some of this. I guess that is why comedy is one of the most subjective mediums of entertainment and whats funny to one person isn't necessarily funny to the next. Also, This scene reminded me a lot of fear and loathing in las vegas when raoul duke says " we're we really on an assignment or aimlessly roaming las vegas in some acid frenzy?". I think these two movies were very similar in that aspect, where there isn’t a clear cut point and everything can be seen as nonsense, however, nonsense seems to be the authors intention. Movies like this seem to be very hit or miss, i have friends who love and hate each of these movies. I personally find it great when movies question their own existence like this. I thought it was really amazing that even in a movie by Tom Green there could be scenes with deep meaning. What do you think?

3 comments:

  1. Very nice review, I didn't think comedies could be analyzed so deeply lol, I think it's pretty interesting what people find to be "funny", and I think a lot of it has to do with the times, and the target audience. I'm sure a teenage comedy from the 50's would certainly be no Superbad.

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  2. I'm not even sure there were teenage comedies in the 50s haha.

    This movie was an assault to all 5 senses. Any relevant filmmaking that was present was probably by sheer coincidence. Tom Green is a sad man.

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  3. Armadillo on Freddy, but your analysis is almost certainly correct. Whenever there's a depiction of any kind of art in a film you can usually bet that it is a reflection, in microcosm of the theme of the larger film.

    The most famous example of this, I suppose, is in Hamlet, where the eponymous protagonist inserts a few suggestive lines into a play so he can watch the reaction of his enemy. Says he, "the play's the thing wherein we'll catch the consience of the king" -- or something like that.

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