Went out to see Bad Santa last night, not really knowing quite what to expect. I loved Terry Zwigoff's earlier films, Crumb and Ghost World, but I haven't liked Billy Bob in anything since Sling Blade. Well, I'm happy to report that Bad Santa is a small miracle. I'm giving the bulk of credit to director Zwigoff. In his hands, what could have been a crass, vulgar mess, turns out to be a very skillfully crafted (and hilarious) black comedy. Roger Ebert, in his review, makes a great point:
"Movies like this are a test of taste. If you understand why "Kill Bill" is a good movie and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)" is not, and "Bad Santa" is a good movie and "The Cat in the Hat" is not, then you have freed yourself from the belief that a movie's quality is determined by its subject matter. You instinctively understand that a movie is not about what it is about, but about how it is about it. You qualify for "Bad Santa."
So how did Zwigoff do it? Restraint. Yes, the characters are crass and vulgar, but they don't revel in it. They're miserable, and there's nothing funny about it (to them). As outragous as the story gets, I never had the sense that the actors were 'trying' to get laughs, or 'winking' to the camera in any way. And yet, the humor comes through. It's a remarkably delicate balancing act that produced some of the biggest laughs I've heard in a movie theatre in a long time. That being said, the movie is not perfect. The story took a couple of twists in the third act that struck me as being a bit out of tune, and there's an epilogue that was certainly tacked on by the studio to help soften Zwigoff's bleak vision. But those are minor quibbles. I will now cross my fingers and hope that this movie finds an audience.
