Movie Review #12 - The Castle
Dec. 22nd, 2006 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2The Castle is great movie that captures, in an extreme (maybe even absurdist) way, a surprisingly realistic slice of life. For me though, I can't decide whether that realism is good or bad.
First check of the watch - NEVER.
See, Darryl Kerrigan's less congenial and more antisocial brother lives next door to me, I swear. For every bit of charm and consideration that Darryl shows, The Unnamed One next door shows bitterness and selfishness. Where Darryl uses potentially racist terms with no hint of malice, TUO uses exactly the same words to cut and hurt. Where Darryl wants to hold onto his own patch of earth because he loves it, TUO next door just wants to do the same to fuck everyone else off!
But then that's the issue here isn't it - in these painfully PC times everyone knows a Darryl Kerrigan don't they? That's his beauty, of course - he is The (non-PC) Everyman who uses every "offensive" term known and yet has not an ounce of malice in him. We're not quite sure what to do with him. Here, of course, he gets the vicarious victory over bureaucracy that we enjoy and his good faith emerges still unshaken.
The movie is funny, even if you cringe at times, and every vignette is a beauty. Some of Darryl's catchphrases are priceless:
"Tell him he's dreaming!"
"This is going straight to the pool room!"
First check of the watch - NEVER.
See, Darryl Kerrigan's less congenial and more antisocial brother lives next door to me, I swear. For every bit of charm and consideration that Darryl shows, The Unnamed One next door shows bitterness and selfishness. Where Darryl uses potentially racist terms with no hint of malice, TUO uses exactly the same words to cut and hurt. Where Darryl wants to hold onto his own patch of earth because he loves it, TUO next door just wants to do the same to fuck everyone else off!
But then that's the issue here isn't it - in these painfully PC times everyone knows a Darryl Kerrigan don't they? That's his beauty, of course - he is The (non-PC) Everyman who uses every "offensive" term known and yet has not an ounce of malice in him. We're not quite sure what to do with him. Here, of course, he gets the vicarious victory over bureaucracy that we enjoy and his good faith emerges still unshaken.
The movie is funny, even if you cringe at times, and every vignette is a beauty. Some of Darryl's catchphrases are priceless:
"Tell him he's dreaming!"
"This is going straight to the pool room!"
