Saturday, June 26, 2010

In the Shadow of Frank Bascombe

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
directed by Danny Leiner
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

Stoner flicks are gentle buddy comedies, where the action is inconsequential even when events get out of control. But a movie in which the protagonists’ goal is to eat a meal of fast food hamburgers should make said feast so appealing when it happens that, upon witnessing the act, the viewer reaches for the car keys to seek out his own post-screening satisfaction. Harold & Kumar - although no Pulp Fiction - was convincing enough to make me want to smoke pot, get a cheeseburger and fries to go, and watch Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle again. It is silly at times, stupid at times, but surprisingly wry, vigilant, and astute in its condemnation of the casual day-to-day racism that people like Kal Penn and John Cho encounter in real life. The physical gags the pair endures are slip-shod at best, but in a movie like this, a puppet raccoon is funnier than Neil Patrick Harris in an outdated cameo as a hyper-masculine addict. Frankly, too, it’s nice that no one has to make it to a wedding the next day, or that the work that Harold brings home doesn’t take long to finish. Knowing the happy fate of Harold & Kumar 3 thankfully makes the question rhetorical: why work in politics when you can make movies like this for a living?