First up, MISS LANDMINE. This is truly a weird project, and I don't quite know how I feel about it. It's the brainchild of Morten Traavik, who creates beauty pageants of victims of land mines. It draws attention to their plight, and empowers women who are often marginalized. Particularly in Laos--where the Miss Landmine pageant was held the year this movie was made, and where some Buddhists ostracize victims of tragedies because they must have bad karma.
But all the good that Miss Landmine does is undermined (no pun intended) by Traavik's somewhat abrasive, self-aggrandizing, douche-baggy personality. Opponents (including those in the government) try to shut him down, and he has to sneak into Laos in order to crown the winner (who receives a state of the art artificial leg and a golden prosthesis trophy) and deliver prize money to all contestants. But I can kind of see his opponent's point. It's like he's trying to do a good thing in the most annoying, provocative way possible.
And speaking of annoying douchebag provocateurs, BIKER FOX. Frank P. DeLarzelere III is Biker Fox. He hails from Tulsa Oklahoma, where he's a motivational bicyclist (in that he bikes a lot while yelling at people). He makes his living selling muscle car parts, and he calls himself a nature conservationist--because he feeds the raccoons that are all around his property. And he's a giant pile of bipolar disorder (note: this is not said in the movie, and I'm not qualified to diagnose him. It just seems pretty freakin' obvious). It is so amazingly appropriate that his best friend is deaf. Although I'll always remember him for his obnoxiousness, I'm afraid this is a movie (and a character) I'll always remember.
Total Running Time: 160 minutes
My Total Minutes: 211,844
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