This blog entry is part of my "movie year countdown round #2". Read more about that here.
Hi Diddle Diddle
There's really only one reason I decided to watch this movie. Quentin Tarantino included it on his top ten list for the 2002 Sight and Sound Director's poll. From a person who has sort of made it his goal to bring unusual lesser known and cult films to the attention of more mass audiences, I just had to see why he would include this film I had never heard of (or heard him talk about in any other context) on his list of favorite movies.
The film didn't seem like anything special at first. A little bit strange, but it started to grow on me and became a very enjoyable farce. I wonder if the reason that Tarantino liked it so much was that it is much more self-referential than many films I've seen of this type, especially made around this time. For instance there is a girl that keeps showing up in different locations and at one point one of the characters asks why that girl is everywhere, and the other character says that it's because the girl is a friend of the director of the movie. Another part of the film features people discussing the "double take" and keep trying to practice doing their own double takes the way they do in the movies. A waiter sees this table full of people doing double takes, and of course he does a double take!
Just keep in mind it's a silly farce, maybe even a bit of a comment on the farce as a genre and you should be able to enjoy it despite the fact (or because of the fact) that many of the scenarios and people's reactions are so completely absurd.
Rating: 8/10