Klown
Directed by Mikkel Norgaard
Starring Casper Christensen, Frank Hvam, Marcuz Jess Petersen
Rate R (graphic sexuality and nudity, strong offensive humor, pervasive language, drug use)
I recently heard about a newly-released
Danish comedy called Klown about a hapless 30-something who brings his nephew
on a crazy cross-country trip filled with drugs and sex. My local arthouse
theater loved it when it played in August, but they tend to love a lot of
really shitty movies sometimes, so I knew it could be one or the other. It was
most certainly NOT good.
The film is loosely based off the
Danish TV series of the same name, and follows Frank (Frank Hvam) in a moment
of existential crisis- he’s a looser, a pansy, and if he doesn’t prove to his
girlfriend he can be a good father, she’ll have an abortion. His friend Casper
(Casper Christensen) is a totally unlikable letch, like if you took every
negative aspect of Glenn Quagmire and Patrick Bateman and only subtracted the possible
murder. The two decide they’ll go on a canoeing trip to their boss’s
super-fancy brothel and go to a music/pot festival, but Frank brings his
13-year-old nephew along to prove he can be a good father.
What follows is an unfortunately
unfunny and stupid trek through the stereotypical Apatow-esque bromance and
Hangover-style flopping dicks (lots and lots of dicks) and homophobic and
pedophile jokes. I actually liked the way Apatow clearly matured over time and
began to experiment with exploring getting older, and equally as distressed to
see Todd Phillips fall into horridly gross shock humor for the sake of being
gross. There’s nothing that separates the latter from Klown- for all of its
supposed edginess, it’s just like bullshit like Hangover Part II, Good Luck
Chuck, and The Change Up, devoid of subtlety, wit, or charm, existing only to
try to push boundaries for the sake of it.
That’s not to say that kind of
humor can’t be funny. It can. George Carlin did it very well. The problem is
that Carlin did stand-up and didn’t have to build a story or well-drawn-out
characters. Klown utterly fails because nobody is likable. The entire film is
just a parade of douchebags telling poor Frank to do obviously problematic
things like jerk off on his wife’s face while she sleeps or take a picture of
his nephew’s tiny penis. Yeah, that kind of shit. Of course, he’s too fucking
spineless and stupid to know any better. The setup is…well, nonexistent. It
would be better without a story and simply be a series of vignettes like the
(probably fucking terrible) upcoming “Movie 43” will be. For something that is
supposedly so edgy and critically acclaimed and uniquely “Danish,” it really
isn’t anything different than, say, Curb Your Enthusiasm minus the charm. It’s
just so goddamn derivative and the setups are 100 percent obvious.
It’s also totally offensive and
rotten, in spirit and in character. I hate every simpering fool in this movie
outside of poor victimized Frank. Maybe that’s the intent, but like so many
other recent comedies, I hung my head in shame and put my hand over my brow
until a scene was over. I’ve been told shock humor relies on nothing but how
many taboos it breaks and the reactions of the characters compared to how
people would act in a real situation. The problem is that if I was in this
movie I’d be tempted to murder every putrid soul festering in it. I mean, frank
is the only thing keeping me from giving this dung a total F- he has some real
emotional scenes on occasion.
I’m just tired of people thinking
flashing cocks and talking about “faggots” and pulling little boys pants down
(twice) and jazzing on your mother-in-law on accident is fucking funny. It
isn’t. It’s classless if you aren’t going to attempt some level of constraint.
I KNOW that defeats the purpose of the film, but the purpose of the film is something
I find completely unfunny. Its part of the reason The Hangover is so overrated.
People would rather throw wieners at the screen than be witty. Fuck it. Insert
“decline of civilization” cliché here.
D
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