Nachoooooooooooo!

There's a ton of bad news piling down, from El Presidente Bush's apparatchiks saying they basically won't follow the Supreme Court ruling against them earlier this week (el fascista Gonzales!) to the nightmare between Israel and Hamas-led Palestine. However, in keeping with the theme begun last night on Nettertainment this holiday weekend, I'm just going to recommend a movie.

The sweet and original comedy Nacho Libre seems to be getting the same weak or mixed reviews that Napoleon Dynamite suffered upon its release.

Look where Napoleon ended up: over $40 million box office on a $400,000 budget and a spot in so many family DVD collections. The big shock of Nappy D was that it was both an outrageous comedy and, imagine this, family entertainment.

I took my two boys, ages 6 and 3, and while the 3 year-old was indeed the youngest in the theater, it was all fine. Jack Black, in his best role since School of Rock, is hilarious in a sort of transformation for him, the luchador aspect provides action, and some absurd moments -- a crazy tunnel in the rich man's house -- provide smiles in recollection two weeks later.

Director Jared Hess may not have caught zeitgeist lightning in the bottle as he did with his independent feature, but with Nacho he enters the studio system with his voice fully intact, and one that should continue to deliver for audiences as his career grows.

Here's my favorite Manohla Dargis review of all time, wherein she writes:

Here, then, is a true rarity: a Hollywood comedy in which a man with a thing for the ladies (O.K., nuns) makes nice, sometimes in tights, and no one even thinks to call him a sissy because no one in the film thinks in such stupid terms. As Nacho explains matter of factly, "When you are a man sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It's for fun." Well, of course.

I agree with everything in the whole review. After all, who couldn't love a hero who looks like this?