Picaresque

Per Wikipedia:

The picaresque novel (Spanish: "picaresca", from "pícaro", for "rogue" or "rascal") is a popular subgenre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts in realistic and often humorous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his or her wits in a corrupt society. This style of novel originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and continues to influence modern literature.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is an instant classic Early-21st Century picaresque tale made for the Jason Castro set. It takes two rather than one hero, one more roguish than the other, not born low of economic class but saddled with the distraction of physical ethnicity (Korean, Indian) in an upside-down society, early-21st Century U.S.A.

It's not Candide or Tom Jones, and it won't be known for it's brilliant visual design or Oscar-calibre performances, its defense as filmmaking relies solely on it's entertainment capability, in this case with a title making a rather bolder claim than the average Up in Smoke or Half-Baked, that there's a political edge as well.

Having seen it this past week, I have to say that while it's still (thankfully) a dumb stoner comedy at heart, it is funny, funny, funny.

Once the boys get on the plane for Amsterdam, the one that with confusion of "bong" and "bomb" will actually get them to Guantanamo, the movie gets more warped than gross (the opening flatulence joke may break the ice, but it's a drag). The set pieces build from moments to extended scenes of anarchic laughter-- the abuse in Guantanamo, the punchline at the end of the eye-opening party in Miami, the KKK rally, the three-way with the human-sized bag of weed, Neil Patrick Harris at the roadblock, and what is truly the gold that must be reached for a traditionally satiric picaresque with Guantanamo Bay in the title, the visit to Crawford, TX. Blowing out with the man.

It's Bob Hope and Bing Crosby updated with reefer and powered by an almost apolitical, anarchic sensibility. But taken as a series of tableaus and noting Daily Show alums Rob Courdry (big part) and Ed Helms (one very, very funny scene with Courdry), they get bonus points for targeting homeland security Bush style, how it fits into a mosaic of racism throughout America, and even Bush's motivations: things are so fucked up...this President just has to be high.

Here's the boring standard trailer that gives you barely a tiny taste of the outrageous flavor of the movie:



Click here for the not-for-childen R-rated "red band" trailer that almost gives you too much.

Here, here for freedom of speech.

Especially the kind you're still laughing about the following day.