I'm thinking, Tim Roth's performance has the rubber limbs of Jerry Lewis and the nervous particularity of Peter Sellers, and it's way over the top and giddy-funny. And then Tarantino shows up onscreen and actually makes a speech about Jerry Lewis. !? Perhaps there are limits to what Tarantino's Midas Touch can turn to cool.
[Quietly inserts Jerry Lewis movies into queue]
Roth alone holds together the first two shabby vignettes. The third, directed by Robert Rodriguez, is a perfect and uproarious short film worthy of comparison to a tightly-scripted Chuck Jones classic. I want to excise that segment and put it alongside A Christmas Story and A Charlie Brown Christmas as mandatory family holiday viewing. Except it's totally unsuitable for children.
Tarantino directs the final vignette, and his trademark storytelling (his best strength) is on display: Circle and meander a bit, speechifying about some pet bit of pop culture, then grab you by the brain stem and start steadily piling on the delicious intrigue, speechify some more, and sure as hell pay off big time.
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I have to say that I enjoy "the Misbehavers" the most, it was the most fun and most mischievous of all 4 ! You are spot on for putting that up right next to "A christmas story" type. I would say though that this is very suitable for children (honestly, I think children don't need us to tell them what they should see/hear) since this will make sure all kids behave proper when parents leave them alone, unless they want corpses turning up in their beds...
ReplyDeleteIf I was a kid, what happens in The Misbehavers is exactly what I would want to happen all the time.
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