FDR: American Badass!

"FDR: American Badass!" is a very frustrating movie. While I loved the audacity of the plot and loved some of the VERY low humor, the film, overall, is pretty bad. It looks like a film that really needed a rewrite here and there and the low humor was sometimes so low that it made me feel ashamed to watch it. In fact, eventually I just turned the thing off--it was that bad.

The film starts off wonderfully....really wonderfully. In fact, it was so good I was expecting to love the film. In this bizarre alternate reality, it's 1931 and Franklin Roosevelt CAN walk. However, he and his friends are attacked by a Nazi werewolf and FDR kills it--but only after it bites him and gives him polio!! These scenes and those in the hospital, though crude, made me laugh out loud several times. I was ashamed of myself...but it WAS very funny.

Unfortunately, what follows proved that although they had a great idea, the writers didn't have any more. The film was filled with too much scatological humor (I am talking about REALLY scatological--literally) and the repeated sexual references become boring and boorish. In fact, it starts to look like a movie written by a group of 7th graders--really, really crude ones at that. In fact, the film degenerated quickly to a totally unfunny mess. I turned it off when you see Roosevelt Jr. Taking a dumb in a pitcher (and they showed it). Why?! What's funny about this? Who would give them money to make this? Were they drunk or on acid when they made this?! I dunno--all I know is that after initially loving the film, I quickly tired of it and couldn't take any more.

My brother told me of a movie once about a Vietnam vet turned poolboy who has to take on a rival Mexican gang of pool-cleaners, and I thought, "genius". Quite frankly, it was. From the same team that brought you "Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury", comes an equally outrageous concept of a story. Franklin Delano Roosevelt gets polio from a werewolf attack and becomes determined to stop the Nazi werewolves and end the second world war for good.

FDR, played by a hysterical Barry Bostwick, gets polio from a werewolf. First off, the introduction of werewolves automatically tells you this movie will be very profound and dramatic. From a biographically standpoint, the events in the movie are very true to source. The story is a highly accurate telling of his rise to power, presidency, and war politics, but the real impressive aspect of this film is its attention to detail. The characters can seamlessly spout off lines of cocky socky comic genius and exploit themselves endlessly until the movie really just *ends* abruptly, with a climax so unforgettable, you wont be able to remember what happens in it.

The humor is crass, politically incorrect, and inversely subversive, so fans of bad movies should definitely hear it hitting the right notes. The narrative flows awkwardly steady, and the payoff is unimaginable, but what helps this movie entirely is the production design. John Waters once said his favorite movie idea "is to do a movie where everything's fake; the trees, the grass, even the sun", and that always described how I felt my life would be like if I were in a TV show from the heyday of America. It just seems funny to me, so in comes a movie that looks like it was shot entirely in a studio, and everything from the story to the characters to the dialogue and effects, just seems so consumingly fake, that it's incredible. Nothing in this movie can be taken seriously, and they just flat-out don't care. They had a funny idea and ran with it, exploiting FD Roosevelt for all his worth, and how he's a true American hero, regardless of anything he's ever done in "real life".

Now this may not be the "best" movie in the world, but by all means, it *is*, and to have a movie where FDR freestyles, men whore out their wives, black people play slaves, Nazi werewolves gossip anti- climactically, Japan continually gets made fun of, and Kevin Sorbo manifests as a cannabinoidally-induced Abraham Lincoln adviser... then you really can't go wrong with a movie that took an under-appreciated ex-president and turns him into a new-found American B.A.

The man. They myth. The Delano'saurus. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And his jiggly polio legs that look like, and *are*, a complete joke. After all, isn't that what America is?

At first I thought this would be funny. The premise gave the clear impression that it would be a great spoof. Then I started to watch it. I laughed a bit admittedly as much because seeing FDR drop "F" bombs caught me off guard, but didn't find myself in hysterics over it. I was tired, I went to bed. This morning I went back just a bit before I left off. I looked at this movie in a whole new way. I turned my brain off and found myself really getting a kick out of this. I didn't look at it as a cheap low budget movie that was trying too hard, but instead saw it for what I believe it is, a brilliantly acted and written movie that isn't trying too hard, but trying just enough to LOOK like a cheap low budget "B" movie. Now and then I forget that if a movie is made to LOOK like a cheap BAD movie, it's accomplishing the goal so well, you believe that's exactly what you're watching and you don't see the tongue planted firmly in the cheek. I missed that last night but saw it plain as day this morning. This movie is FUNNY if you just pay attention without really thinking it through too much. Yeah, I just confused myself, but I stand by all that.

Barry Bostwick does a bang up job as does his supporting cast, all of whom are some of the best character actors out there. Anyone who watches this and finds themselves disappointed should do as I did, watch it again with a different outlook and odds are, you'll appreciate this insane masterpiece as many of us have. Now I think I may have to go back and watch this from the beginning again!

From the outset this film looks cheap and you might consider not bothering to watch it based on that but if you stick with it the great cast suck you into it's unbelievably ridiculous world. Barry Bostwick's performance Carry's the film. There's a lot of modern street talk that he manages to pull off, even though some of it is borderline to silly but at the same time he turns in some great speeches that would be worthy of a far more serious film.

There's not much point in explaining the film, it's far to daft to attempt an explanation but it works, that's mostly down to the cast, the production, direction is excellent too, given the low budget nature of the film they made the most of what they had.

I saw a screening of this in Portland and it is seriously one of the funniest films ever made. It reminded me of Airplane or Naked Gun. Partly because Barry Bostwick turns in a Leslie Nielson-esque performance, and more importantly, you believe him in the role of FDR. Don't get me wrong the dialogue is out of control and everything is played over the top, including the effects and werewolf costumes, but the cast seems to revel in it and act it out as if the words were Shakespeare. The surrounding cast around Bostwick really rose to level that he was playing his character, especially Ray Wise, Bruce McGill, and Ross Patterson. The filmmakers manage to pull off the low budget aspect and use it to bolster the film, so much so, that it seems like it was specifically written for that type of vibe. The film itself is extremely crass and involves blatant racism, but no one is safe from it. I for one LOVED this film and think it has the potential to be an instant cult classic, but I'm sure some people will be offended.