By Request: Nacho Libre

Thursday, June 29, 2006 7:01 PM Heidi wrote to Dave:
I can't believe I'm emailing this but... We're going to Nacho Libre tonight. Would you like to see it again? We saw Superman last night. I think I'd call it Mediocre Man or Okay Man or Maybe We Should Have Gone To Nacho Libre Instead Man. We're going to the 9:40 one at the mall if you'd like to join us. H

On 6/29/06 7:37 PM, Dave wrote:
Are you sure you're ready for Nacho? Be warned: there are numerous, completely unnecessary fart noises, and a whole lot of utter stupidity. I learned something about myself when I watched it: when it comes to movies, I am an aficionado of both the high brow and the low brow. It's the middle ones I hate. And I must say, though the music is fabulous, that Nacho Libre is about the lowest brow you can get (like neanderthal brow, or gorilla brow). Personally, I loved it, but please don't take that as a recommendation! D

Thursday, June 29, 2006 8:44 PM, Heidi wrote:
> Are you sure you're ready for Nacho?

No... No, I am not. After the roofing, siding, plumbers and baseball games, I'm starting to feel like a Resident Alien in Guy-ville so maybe it won't be so bad. Moreover, we have free passes that will expire tonight and what else is there? Garfield? In the domestic battle of rhetoricians, Dale had "But Dave said Nacho Libre was great!" All I could muster was "But The Lake House has Keanu Reeves." Even I wasn't convinced so Nacho Libre it is. Have fun at Johnny's. See ya, H

On 6/29/06 7:37 PM, Dave wrote:

> PS. (All that said, if you go see it, I think you should publish your review on your blog).

Hmm... OK. I'm ok with taking blog requests so here it is.

Last night, Dale and I had movie passes that expired at midnight so thought we'd go see a film. It was slim pickins at the various theatres and so we ended up going to see "Nacho Libre," in part upon Dave's recommendation. At first, the fun part of going to see Nacho Libre was listening to Dale say "Naaaaaaaaachoooo Leeeeeeeeeee-brraayyyyyy" over and over again in a monster-truck-rally announcer voice. We even roped Tamsin and Danny into coming with us. We gathered nervously at the theatre where we all said "what exactly are we going to see?" but within a few minutes of the movie, we were all laughing and we never stopped. It was an unlikely kind of funny-- not over the top humour but really subtle silly things that built up over the movie. Tamsin admitted her stomach hurt after Nacho's song and I really liked Nacho's wardrobe (especially his ill-fitting powder blue civilian wear). All in all, it was a fun little film but I think the secret of it is to expect very little and then be open to its quirky weirdness. As Dave's email notes, it doesn't try to be high brow or even middle brow and that's ok. It does what it does well.
The night before we had gone to see Superman Returns which had some nice moments but was sadly a bit of a yawner. About half way through Nacho Libre, I began thinking about how chance pairings of films can happen and how odd it is to see two films about men in capes in less than 24 hours. Being a recovering English scholar, I started thinking about the potentials for conference papers in this pairing. You have to know that some how, somewhere, someone's going to get up at a conference to read a paper called "Superman versus Nacho Libre: (Re)(De)Constructing American Manhood in Post 9-11 America Superhero Narratives." Because I have witnessed such things I can see it in painful clarity: conference goers will shift in their uncomfortable seats, furrow their brows in mock concentration and politely listen. Perhaps, if they're friendly, they'll nod once or twice. After the conference, this paper will go on a CV for eternity and make the departmental newsletter; a full article will be developed in the next academic year and might even make the rounds of journals until the author grows weary of reading reviews that say "who is this Nacho Libre?" or "I take issue with your simplistic revisionist comparison of Nacho Libre with Che Guevara." Thus, it's probably best that this film not become the core of someone's scholarly outpourings but you know that somewhere someone will attempt it.
I have no idea what "Nacho Libre" has to contribute to American culture except for 90 minutes of well-crafted silliness and that's perfectly fine. I think America needs more silliness lately. If you don't go see it, at least say "Naaaaaaaaachoooo Leeeeeeeeeee-brraayyyyyy" out loud a few times; that's fun too.