Monday, July 03, 2006

Nacho Libre


We took the kids to drive in movies to see Cars and Nacho Libre. Short review of Cars, a decent if middling Pixar effort, NASCAR fans would probably appreciate it more than I did, Paul Newman is always a plus.
Nacho Libre is an interesting film to me because it is not the overly funny, overly vulgar laugh fest I expected. Rather it seems to me to be a charming, gentle, outsider exposition of what is best to pursue in life. Fame, vanity and fortune or humility, service and love. Nacho is man out of place who must decide what he wants. I know this seems a reach for a Jack Black Mexican wrasslin' movie, but in essence that's what it's about.
One thing about Jack Black, he’s one of a kind. No one else could have played Nacho, except maybe Christopher Walken, but that would be an entirely different movie. You either find Black’s antics funny or you don’t and in this movie I think he brings the right mix of stupid/funny and schmaltzy warmth. Who else can get away with the line “They are just ninos trying to release their wiggles” in a fake Mexican accent?
Ana de la Reguera plays Sister EncarnaciĆ³n, the object of Nacho's affection. Having been educated by Nuns for a good part of my life, I can honestly say I never seen one as beautiful as her. I would describe fully the relationship between Nacho and Sister EncarnaciĆ³n, but that is more or less the point of the film. Briefly, on one hand he would clearly love to be with her and have a family. On the other there are their vows and the ninos he's already responsible for. I like how he resolved these conflicting desires.

4 comments:

CultMan said...

You took the kids to see these?!? Drive-in?!? Southington?!? Where?!? Are You Crazy?!?!

El Duderino said...

Mansfield Drive In, where rt 31 hits rt 32 in Mansfield. Yes I am Crazy.

CultMan said...

Yeah, I know the place well, as Iused to pick up my Great-Tasting 7-11 coffee (no Starbucks, pro-fag coffee) across the road when I lived down the road -- but father to father, are you taking your kids to movies and the drive-in for anything other than rerums of the Little Rascals and worthless (of late) Walt Disney flicks? Are your nuts? Cars? Nacho Libre?

El Duderino said...

At first we planned on having the children hermetically sealed in plastic or keeping them in the womb until they were old enough to experience less than perfect things, but it turns out that they can’t breathe so well in plastic and my wife is rather small. I try to avoid all forms of Puritanism; I think I got that idea from you at some point.