CANFIELD REVIEWS NACHO LIBRE

This was supposed to come out on my birthday. I had every intention of seeing it with a theater full of friends. Then they pushed back the release date. That's a lot to ask a critic to forgive. When you compound that with a meandering plot, inane dialogue and meh camera technique the critic may have grounds for issuing a restraining order to the director as per being within 500 feet of a camera again. But there's only one problem. Nacho Libre is the most fun I've had at the movies in a long time.

I like this movie a lot. It made me laugh long and hard and it was sweet natured. Now in no way am I saying it's good. It's a cinematic travesty that flails through it's motions of cinema like a spaghetti noodle sucked up the nostril of a fourth grader. But, and I ask you seriously, have you ever stopped to consider how funny that would be to watch? Such is the spectacle of Jared Hess' sophomoric outing. It is entertaining in precisely the way that will turn off critics, win him legions of fans and alienate audiences who just don't get it. He's been called the poor man's Wes Anderson. It's an apt comparison precisely because both are essentially filmmakers who shoot from the hip. They're instinctual in that they trust their audiences to find the same joy they do in watching what emerges. But where the comparison falls apart is in the way such phrasing encourages people to view Hess as a lesser creative force. The truth is Anderson isn't as smart as he's made out to be. The Life Aquatic proved that offering style over substance big time. Hess is much less self-conscious. I'm not saying he's a better storyteller but he is a good one, well worth watching.

I'm one of those people who loved Napoleon Dynamite first because it made me laugh. The affection I felt for the characters came in at a close second. The well told if improbable storyline came in a distant third but payed off handsomely by surprising me. The storyline of Nacho Libre did not surprise me. But I loved the characters, even though they seemed contrived and Nacho Libre made me laugh so hard I almost dropped a burrito, so hard in fact that I left the theater not realizing I had been tricked. It was only later when other unintentionally funny comedies came to mind. Death to Smoochy, UHF, Pootie Tang, and Ishtar are all perfectly awful films that will never leave my shelf and have survived repeat viewings. I call them unintentionally funny comedies. They could also be listed under the title of Guilty Pleasures. But again this seems to begrudge them the respect they are due.

Nacho Libre tells the story of a monk in transition. Be a priest or answer a higher calling?
He's always wanted to be wrestler, something that noone at the orphange understands except the orphans who sneek peaks at the local masked heroes any chance they get. After being mugged for a bag of day old chips by the local 30 year old street urchin he realizes that his dream could be realized if only the man would tag team with him. Soon they losing matches and making money anyway. But when the urge to win kicks in so do their troubles.

Nacho Libre is full of booger jokes, mangled syntax, bad teeth and obvious sight gags. It has Jack Black making up an accapella odes and his hilarious sidekick Esqualito getting hurt --a lot. Nacho Libre has chubby orphans, ridiculous authority figures and the most creative use of corn on a stick I have ever seen. Nacho Libre is a movie that will truly free the cheese in you.

Critics will tell you that this movie only shows that Jared Hess has very limited talent. I say that what he has a talent for he has in spades. Get some friends and go see what will probably be the funniest movie of the summer unless Will Farrell's NASCAR flick is as good as we all hope. It isn't high brow, it isn't well made, it isn't aesthetically pleasing. But it is Revenge of the Nerds with a side of Salsa.