VIDIOT’S BOX: Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam and Your Highness
by MALCOLM FRASER
August 18, 2011
Local production company EyeSteelFilm has a well-earned rep for turning out documentaries that compellingly engage social issues while maintaining a high level of cinematic quality. While it flew a bit under the radar relative to EyeSteel’s internationally acclaimed Up the Yangtze and Last Train Home, the 2009 doc Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam is another ace in the hole.
Directed by Montrealer (and onetime Mirror film critic) Omar Majeed, the film chronicles a disparate community of Islamic punk rockers who struggle to balance the sometimes conflicting, occasionally overlapping codes of their religion and their chosen lifestyle. Captivating and thought-provoking, it’s a film sure to open a few minds. The doc can be ordered on DVD through Amazon or downloaded from iTunes or taqwacore.com.
When I was in high school, my friends and I made a film parody of 80s sword-and-sorcery epics, full of deliberately cheesy dialogue and absurdist stoner humour. If we’d had a bit more craftsmanship and a few million dollars, it would have closely resembled Your Highness, out last week on DVD after a tragically brief theatrical run earlier this year.
Danny McBride stars as a pot-smoking knight overshadowed by his vainglorious brother (James Franco) until they go on a quest to rescue a princess (Zooey Deschanel) from an evil wizard (Justin Theroux). But the plot is a flimsy excuse for an avalanche of totally stupid, though mostly hilarious, gags.
Fans of director David Gordon Green may be surprised by his turn from quirky indie dramas to big-budget stoner comedies, but as the DVD’s charming making-of doc reveals, Your Highness is actually a longtime dream project for film-school chums Green and McBride. Helped along by surprisingly good effects and production design, the film both owns and surpasses its inherent silliness mainly thanks to the top-notch cast—including Natalie Portman, the only Oscar winner game enough to deliver lines like “It is my legacy to stop whoever wants to fuck to make dragons” with a (relatively) straight face.
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