Sunday, July 22, 2012

Salma, if You're Out There: Call Me

202) As Luck Would Have It (2011) Dir: Alex de la Iglesia Not Yet Released Date Seen: June 29, 2012 Rating: 3.5/5

See what I mean about a lot of Bs?

Ahum. 

I think this seething melodrama is caught somewhere between being too sincere and too vicious, which just makes me think it's not vicious at all and is probably just too sincere. It's a modern-day Ace in the Hole about our complicit-ness in the creation of insta-celebrities and the media that can't resist covering junk pop culture and bleh bleh bloo bleh blah--what George Romero once called, "the media octopus." Ok? Ya with me? Ok.

De la Iglesia does a good job of making this stuffy story immediately absorbing but still, the film's script really doesn't have much bite to it. I guess I don't get the point: is de la Iglesia serious about all this? Even the scene where (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) the guy with the spike in his head is bleeding out and he starts singing the soda jingle he came up with for Pepsi--even that feels a little trite and on the nose. Where is the undiluted batshit irreverence I just saw ? Who directed this and does he know the Alex de la Iglesia I was expecting to direct this film?

Bottom line: wow, Salma Hayek looks great. I mean, wow, what a bo--rformance! Yes, what a performance. Exactly, ahum.

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