Eeeeew!

>> Tom Green continues to gross out in Freddy Got Fingered

by GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT

A lot of people are mad at Tom Green. Animal rights activists would like him to stop humping dead animals and fondling live ones; sexual abuse survivors and people who work with them aren't exactly thrilled about his use of molestation as comic fodder; and parents everywhere (including his own) think he's simply gone too far.

Not surprisingly, Freddy Got Fingered, Green's directorial debut, has most baby- boomer-controlled media (with the exception of the New York Times who called it "idiotic and brilliant") going ballistic, accusing the picture of sinking to the lowest possible, never-before-seen depths of bad taste. Indeed, the delicate balance of Green's charm has always been the juxtaposition of the extremely asinine (verging on lunatic) with the uncomfortably, sublimely hilarious.

And in Freddy, there certainly is no shortage of stupidity for its own sake. This comes mostly in the form of predictably bad Hollywood gags, like the increasingly injured friend who goes from leg cast to--Ha! Ha!--elaborate neck contraption; the little neighbour boy who keeps getting his face smashed in; or a crowd scene near the end where someone holds up a sign that reads--groan--"When the fuck is this movie going to end?" So cringe-ful it hurts.

Then, of course, there is the obviously disgustoid stuff: animals get jerked-off or cut open, a bloody newborn baby gets twirled around by its umbilical cord (cue the people walking out of the theatre). And the just plain weird: Green's paraplegic amateur rocket scientist girlfriend who gets off on having her shins caned; mom's affair with Shaquille O'Neal; Green and his dad (the delightfully distasteful Rip Torn) getting taken hostage in Pakistan.

There are the shining jewels of comedic twinklings where the absurdity of a certain set-up is as touching as it is genius. Like Green wearing raw-steak earrings, free-styling on an organ attached to an elaborate pulley system of floating sausages. Or the running "cheese sandwich industry" gag. Tack on a twisty, follow-your-dreams plot about Green's animator protagonist fighting for his abusive dad's approval and you've got a so-bad-it's-sometimes-good, very uneven comedy. Picture the over-the-top cheesiness of Showgirls meets John Waters, Mall Rats, South Park and Pee-wee's Playhouse, with some truly high-art moments and some truly terrible ones and you'll come close to imagining the spectacle of Freddy Got Fingered.

Freddy Got Fingered is now playing