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Under discussion:

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle  (2004)

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo  (2008)

One of the things I love about Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle is the way it treats its two stars, John Cho (as Harold, or “Rold”) and Kal Penn (as Kumar). The plot could have been played with any hot young dudes in Hollywood in the roles – you’d maybe expect two white guys, one with blonde hair, one with brown – but instead the characters are a Korean-American and an Indian-American. And it isn’t a big deal. Aside from a few derogatory, stereotypical comments made by unfavorable guys the duo meets on their adventure to find a White Castle, race isn’t an issue and doesn’t really come into play story wise.

However, the sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, turns the color of their skin into the impetus of the story, which revolves around them being mistaken for terrorists (“North Korea and Al-Qaeda working together”). Almost disguised as a smarter, more politically satirical follow-up, Guantanamo Bay, which was directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote this movie and the original, is basically just an adaptation of a Truly Tasteless Jokes book — if every other page of that book were annotated with updates, apologies, corrections and clarifications. It’s a movie that wants to have its offensively stereotypical cake and eat it, too – using a kind of utensil we’re not accustomed to seeing used for such a meal. What I mean is that each joke is a play on a socially recognized stereotype. Easily stereotyped characters are set up as clichés (dumb white-trash hick from Alabama) only to be revealed as the opposite (he has a classy home with refined interior decorating and accoutrements), yet ultimately they’re also exposed as being a part of that stereotype (he’s married to his sister and they have an inbred cyclops child in the basement).

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Under discussion:

Hoop Dreams  (1994)

Stevie  (2003)

At the Death House Door  (2008)

The Reverend Carroll Pickett (whose interview I’ll post later) either fell in or was called to a ministry wherein he walked 95 death row inmates through their final hours and, ultimately, to the gurney where they were executed by lethal injection. He’s a stoic Texan and fascinating man explored in Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) and Peter Gilbert’s new documentary, At the Death House Door.

We talk about unwrapping this complicated minister and whether or not they planted a bottle of wine at the family dinner where Rev. Pickett’s children interrogate him about his job.

SXSW 2008 interview: Steve James and Peter Gilbert

At the Death House Door
SXSW news, reviews, interviews and discussions

Under discussion:

Little Caesar  (1930)

Reservoir Dogs  (1992)

Mean Girls  (2004)

21  (2008)

The true-story-based 21 comes off as an extremely interesting, though likely unintended concept: a gangster/crime film for nerds. In structure, it’s basically Little Caesar set in the world of card counting, which in fact isn’t illegal, yet in Vegas is viewed as being just as criminal as bootlegging was during Prohibition. There are a number of moments that exactly fit the mold of the crime genre and some moments that even seem specific to individual films (a short scenario involving new identities feels like a wink at a similar scene in Reservoir Dogs if you’re already thinking about gangster movies). But as interesting as the concept sounds, nerds just aren’t as entertaining as gangsters and blackjack and brains just isn’t as cool on screen as bank robberies and machine guns.

Coinciding with the crime genre structure are the conventions of the geek-gets-popular genre (I guess as social climbing stories, they’re basically the same thing). The story centers on an MIT student (Jim Sturges) who works on robotics in his spare time with his nerdy friends. He’s recruited into a group of mathletes, headed by a behind-the-scenes professor (Kevin Spacey), who spend their weekends in Las Vegas getting filthy rich by counting cards at blackjack tables and playing accordingly. Like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls or Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar, the popularity and power takes control over the new recruit. But it’s a weird twist, because here the popular kids are actually ubernerds, which is fitting in the world dominated by Bill Gateses and Steve Jobses.

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