It’s an achievement for Buscemi more than anyone else (aside from Iannucci with that writing)—he’s captivating here and one of the cinema’s great all-time swearers—it just sounds good- whether it’s reservoir or fargo or whatever he’s doing
Iannucci’s screenplay, mainly here mining historical truths (or half-truths/rumors) for laughs is difficult to pull off but it’s inspired—he mixes fast-paced comic grenades (almost fast like Howard Hawks’ screwball stuff) with death, murder, rape and an overall nihilistic- Kurosawa-like dog-eat-dog realism
The melding of that realism and absurdism is pretty fine—it won’t be compared to these films from an evaluation standpoint but it is in the vein of Kubrick’s Strangelove, Mel Brooks with The Producers or Lubitsch’s to be or not to be
Iannucci’s uses the grotesque to really hold your head in it— it’s effective
There are flaws- including gags that miss completely (like having the dog toy and barking to cover up what they saying the back of the car) and it’s like nails on a chalkboard bad
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