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Daren in Brief - OVERLOOKED MOVIES III
by Daren Foster

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OVERLOOKED MOVIES PART III PODCAST

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Daren in Brief
Overlooked Movies III

by Daren Foster

You’d think I’d know better than to spew effusively over a DVD I was returning to my local, non-Blockbuster rental shop. Invariably my heaping praise is met with a-just-this-short-of-dismissive shrug and a grunted, it was alright by some badly bearded, retro hat wearing twerp behind the counter. Yeah, well fuck you and the falafel you’re eating too, buddy. I was scorning other people’s taste in movies years long before you could even spell the word ‘pretentious’. What? I’m supposed to be impressed you’re as old as my dad? Darn tootin’ I could be you dad, bucko, because I fucked your mother.

Forgive me the rather crude segue as it’s an exchange lifted almost verbatim from the movie in question, JCVD. Forget said video clerk’s lukewarm response to it, JCVD is a fantastic movie. In fact, off the top of my head without putting much thought into the calculation, I posit that it may be my favourite film of 2008. I was so transfixed that I watched it on both nights of the 2 night rental.

Admittedly, much of my fascination had to do with the fact I was mesmerized by Jean-Claude Van Damme ripping through his performance of, well, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Damn (sorry I won’t do it again) can the dude act. Forget all the talk last year about Mickey Rourke’s comeback performance in The Wrestler. If only one Academy Award nomination slot could be filled by a washed up former star trying to make good, it should’ve been Van Damme. In JCVD he was funny, vulnerable, moving. The monologue he delivers directly into the camera near the end of the film was nothing short of heart-wrenching. I am not ashamed to say it brought a tear to this heart-hardened cynic’s eye.

Not that the rest of the movie paled in comparison to Van Damme. JCVD’s fractured narrative structure re-infused the heist flick genre with new life. The film moved effortlessly back and forth in time, giving varying perspectives and slipping viewer expectations repeatedly. In casting the Gallic doppelgänger of John Cazale’s Sal in Dog Day Afternoon, JCVD won me over completely.

In short, it’s great. I don’t say that very often so when I do, take note and see this movie. If you’ve already seen it and don’t agree with my assessment, too bad. I probably slept with your mother too.