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| Bad Santa |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 93 m |
| Public Rating: 7.55 (113 votes) |
Director: Terry Zwigoff |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy |
Year: 2003 |
| Writer(s): John Requa |
| Distributor: Dimension Films |
| Reviewed by: Oktay Ege Kozak |
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On the outside, “Bad Santa” may seem like a conflicted dark comedy. One that has layers of seriousness and comedy mixed in an uneasy fashion, making the audience feel like they have no idea what type of a movie they are watching. It has hilariously funny sequences followed by very harsh, somewhat poignant and always brutal scenes that don’t hold back on the punch. As an expert of dark comedies who grew up on the Coen brothers (who incidentally share credit as executive producers), I don’t believe the film to be uneven at all since I though even the most brutal and uneasy parts weren’t meant to be taken seriously anyway. Consider a scene where Billy Bob Thornton, who is playing a burned out, suicidal mall Santa tries to kill himself by hosing the exhaust to the front of the car and choke to death. He has forced himself into the house of the weirdest kid in the world who worships him and the kid shows up to bother him as he does, relentlessly, all throughout the film. The kid is in a pathetic situation and the man is slowly killing himself but they have probably the most menial and useless conversations in the world. Some might think of the scene as brutal and serious. I look at it as hilarious.
‘Cause let’s face it folks: Nothing in life can be taken that seriously, especially the stuff that’s supposed to be the most grueling. If you are a person who actually follows up on that philosophy, than it would mean the film is perfect for you and you will laugh out loud all through it. But if you’re not, it would be a hard task for me to recommend this. And also bear in mind that this is not a date movie. There are sentences uttered in this film you will not want to recite to your loved one on the way to the parking lot. “Bad Santa” is a hilarious movie but it is far from a perfect one. Some of the story elements seem tacky and doesn’t make sense and the events that surround it are very episodic and disconnected at best. But these shortcomings can be overstepped due to great execution, incredible performances and perfect dialogue.
Directing: After “Bad Santa”, Terry Zwigoff has proven to me that he will be one of the major players of modern cinema in the upcoming years. If this guy is careful, he can even take the crown from the Coen brothers if they keep making commercial crap like “Intolerable Cruelty”. This guy understands dark comedy inside out and is viable for all types of it. What surprised me the most was his artistic range in contemplating a series of filmic expressions. After watching the great “Ghost World”, I have tagged him as one of those directors who will lash on to one particular style of filmmaking like John Sayles and Hal Hartley and keep making damp and moody dark comedies with slow pace. One film later, he proved me horrendously wrong. Even if they are supposed to be members of the same genre, think of the huge gap between “Ghost World” and “Bad Santa”. “Ghost World” is a quirky but calm film about people outside of the popular circle while “Bad Santa” is a crude, mean but hilarious outing whose characters would rob and beat the crap out of the characters from “Ghost World” within milliseconds of meeting them. And that goes to prove Zwigoff’s talent.
Acting/Characters: Billy Bob Thornton gives the best performance of his career since “Sling Blade” and dives into the character of the rudest Santa in the world hook, line and sinker. His delivery of profanity is a wonder to behold. Speaking of dialogue deliveries, Tony Cox as Billy’s elf crime partner proves himself to be a great comedic actor he has promised to be in “Me, Myself and Irene” where he actually dominated the comedic tone in a scene with Jim Carrey, which doesn’t look like an easy task. This guy is talented and funny and needs more roles like this. On the other hand, Bernie Mac; a comedian who is “supposed to be” funny, fails to deliver as the mall security supervisor whose character doesn’t add anything to the story and looks like one of those glorified cameo last minute add-ins that some producers insist the writer to stick in one of the final drafts of the script. His character is very underwritten and Mac isn’t actually able to do much with it. Other than these three, John Ritter gives one of the funniest performances of his life in his last film and Brett Kelly shines and weird stalker kid.
The Movie: I would recommend you to watch this movie simply on the basis of the amount of hilarious scenes that dominate this simple story. If nothing else, “Bad Santa” goes to prove that writing is the king in a film that is dominated by excellent dialogue. Maybe not for everyone. But great nevertheless.
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Bernie Mac, John Ritter…
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