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This film from
Gad Elmaleh, which inflates his Algerian transvestite character Chouchou
to movie size, is absolutely a big fat failure. It’s a shame too because
I really enjoyed watching this character in his stand-up comedy act,
but in the movie he almost totally ruined it for me.
Why does he fail ? Maybe bad directing or mis en scène or acting or
scenario. I couldn’t tell you because I’m not in "the industry." But
this film definitely is in "the industry" mass-produced on the assembly-line
for the prolo, and it’s not just Americans doing this apparently.
All characters in this film are stereotypes and unsurprising. If I laughed
often during his stand up act, I only laughed one time during
the whole movie Chouchou: when the portable telephone shook the table
in the restaurant…it was the only surprising thing that happened! Chouchou
was like a bad Bird Cage and I didn’t particularly care for that movie
either.
Is he making fun of Arabs and Drag Queens or does he mean to "celebrate
them" in some clever way ? We don’t know. Is he the stereotypical cité
immigrant (complete with Izod sweatsuit and a cocky saunter) or a ditzy,
flippant and sometimes very wise Drag Queen from across the sea? He
can’t make up his mind. So, what we so get, that is clear, is gay and
Arab-bashing for the " grand public " very grand, very populaire, very
stupid. His characters don’t hold together or interest us. The film
does not develop any character or story. It does not do much at all
except disappoint us. He stays within the lines of his own formulas
and we are completely disappointed that his imagination was so superficial.
The same bad joke is made for an hour and a half. And it is no longer
funny if it ever was. What a waste of time and money ! What a sell out
!
I am sorry Gad. I feel guilty being this hard on Gad because formerly
I kind of worshipped him and even cited him to impress and entertain
my friends at cocktail parties. Now I realize that I must have looked
like the guy with the lampshade on his head.
I can only console myself in imagining that your agent and the producers
of this film must have bulldozed this commercial, rude, gutless monster
over you, Gad, my former hero of contemporary French comedy, before
you could raise an index and peep : "but, uh…wait. No, stop, please."
Andrew
F.
version française
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