charlie wilson's war is funnier than walk hard

Yeah, that title isn't a joke. Of course, is it any surprise that I would find more humor and satisfaction in a historical, political film rather than one that relies too much on the sound of the guy's last name for laughs?

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story just isn't that funny. It's all in the trailer. The main problem with the film is that in its effort to make fun of the silly, trite, boring biopics of musicians, it becomes one with a wink and a nod. John C. Reilly turns in an excellent performance, but that's not enough to redeem the film overall. It's not bad, it just isn't as funny as the trailer would lead you to believe.

My biggest beef with Charlie Wilson's War is the needless use of that stupid framing technique (we start at the end and then immediately go back to the beginning for a linear narrative). Oh please. Can we just get on with it? Luckily, it doesn't dwell there, so it's not that big a deal. I just can't understand why filmmakers continue to use such a dopey technique. Anyway, it's very funny. But it helps if you know stuff about American government, politics, and history. I was, of course, the youngest person in the audience by perhaps a generation. And I think the film does a really good job of relating the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980s to the current situation, without being preachy or moralistic (it's pretty straightforward in its depiction of American imperial interests). I think it's rather fortunate that this film was released on the heels of The Kite Runner, though it's hard to say how much the films' audiences overlap (beyond myself). They actually, quite well, illustrate two perspectives of the same series of events. Events too many people probably don't think about, even though the strains of these conflicts are still ongoing.

So the final verdict: see Charlie Wilson's War and save Walk Hard for DVD.

By the way, I didn't make it to The Savages or Lars and the Real Girl this week. I may try for the former tomorrow.