| THE PUPPET MASTERS : Trey Parker's Team America - World Police [8/10] |
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| Wednesday, 16 February 2005 | |
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You'd have thought that Being John Malkovich might - just might - have alerted critics to the fact that, just because a film is full of puppets and puppetry, it isn't automatically idiotic and thus unworthy of serious examination. The fact that Team America - World Police has so much surface ludicrousness and tastelessness also seems to have blinded many people (but not all) to its true merits. Don't be fooled, however - this is satire so savage, topical, transgressive, subversive and uncompromising that Jonathan Swift, Luis Bunuel, Chris Morris and Noam Chomsky would surely all approve. If you're in any doubt, check out the predictably dunderheaded reaction from America's Christian right, who share with 'Team America' an unerring ability to aim at precisely the wrong target. Director Parker and his co-writer Stone, however, couldn't be more different from their blundering "heroes" - whereas Team America arrive noisily in logo-emblazoned aircraft and unleash scattershot uber-firepower, the film flies nimbly under the radar to zero in on its numerous subjects with impressive precision. This enables Parker and Stone to avoid the "only as good as its last gag" trap which often befalls this kind of take-no-prisoners fare (and also overcome an especially unfortunate section involving a tsunami and its grim aftermath). As well as boasting arguably the highest percentage of quotable lines in any recent American film (the quip about Susan Sarandon's powers "fading with age" and her vicious retort are oddly indelible), Team America also happens to feature the catchiest, wittiest (and often most foul-mouthed) of soundtrack numbers, several of which deserve Oscar nomination for Best Original Song - which of course sadly isn't going to happen. That recognition would, in fact, be the very least this consistently original and audacious enterprise deserves. On the most basic level, the picture functions as an eerily accurate and relentlessly amusing Thunderbirds parody - never mind the (mysteriously prominent) likes of Janeane Garofalo, Helen Hunt, poor Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin: what must old Gerry Anderson make of it all? But Team America has much bigger game to hunt, ruthlessly lampooning the bombastically gung-ho Hollywood action-movie genre in expert style. If this wasn't enough, Parker and Stone also dare to tackle the contemporary geopolitical situation with an utterly disarming mix of the asinine and the sophisticated: with the world in its current disarray, this kind of extreme, f*ck-you-all reaction surely counts as a sane, valid and reasonable response. Neil Young 11th January, 2005 [seen 7th January : Vue, Leeds : press show] TEAM AMERICA - WORLD POLICE : 8/10 : USA 2004 : Trey PARKER : 97 mins |
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