Eccentric Gord (Tom Green) sets out for Hollywood with dreams of becoming an animator. But it's not going to be as easy as he had hoped...
Set up with the aim of making Canadian TV comedian Green a movie star, this was one of the worst-reviewed films of its year, and indeed, of all time. It's a relentless barrage of bad taste that should drive most people up the wall, with scenes such as Green whacking a disabled girl's legs with a large stick (for her sexual gratification) being played for laughs.
Most sequences follow a pattern of Green acting strangely in the face of a given situation, then proceeding to send things into mounting chaos, like running rampage in a restaurant, for example. In this "anything goes" comedy, is it significant that most of its humour comes from Green winding up and humiliating his screen parents, Rip Torn and Julie Hagerty? He's like the cheeky kid showing off in front of his friends and just going that little bit too far.
The flaw in all this is that, as with that cheeky kid, Green just wants to be loved. Even the scene where he pulls a baby from its mother's womb and swings it around his head by its umbilical chord ends up with him having a tender moment with the infant. It's too complacent to be really outrageous, more crass and wacky than ruthless. The only thing he's rebelling against is the boredom of everyday life.
Actually, never mind Green, the real star of this is Rip Torn, giving a performance of sustained fury as the father. How many other Oscar nominees would be willing to be filmed being ejaculated on by an elephant? That, ladies and gentlemen, is dedication. Or maybe he really needed the money.
So, in the end, is it funny? Well, it's funny peculiar... and Green does seem to have a thing about cheese... what the hell, I laughed a few times. It's worth seeing once to experience what all the quickly-forgotten fuss was all about. Unusual soundtrack includes the Sex Pistols, Sammy Davis jr, the Ramones, Eminem and the New Seekers.
