Pauly Shore is Dead

Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003)

January 21, 2005

Coolidge Corner Theater Midnight Showing, Brookline, MA

Pauly Shore introduced the film in person.

** / ****

Tell me this isn’t what the cinematic experience has degenerated into? I suppose if ever there was a time where a former personality who had attained a brief flirtation with fame could concoct a self-indulgent film all about his faking his own death and built around the gimmick of stuffing as many celebrity cameo appearances into it as cinematically possible, well, then 2005 would be the year to do it. So it was at a midnight screening in Brookline, MA where I found Pauly Shore, early ‘90s MTV refugee and star of such critically panned films as Encino Man, Son in Law, In the Army Now, Jury Duty, and Bio-Dome, standing before a nearly filled to capacity crowd of a few hundred, taking questions from the rowdy rubber neckers, mocking his past successes (and failures), and somewhat earnestly holding his heart on his sleeve desperately yearning to be accepted not as The Weasel persona that he formerly lived and died as, but merely Pauly Shore, comic, actor, and all-around regular guy. Honestly, you had to be there to believe it.

As for the experience of actually watching the surreal celebfest Pauly Shore is Dead, written, directed, and starring Mr. Shore, I suppose I can best describe it as something like a Gallagher concert minus the watermelon. In other words, it was like being beat over the head with concepts and cameos and well, Pauly, himself, with our own brains serving as said watermelon and at the end of it all not even being quite sure what the heck I just witnessed. The film opens with clips of Pauly’s best and, I suppose, more prosperous days manning the beaches of MTV’s spring break, dominating the goofy guy teen pictures a couple years before Adam Sandler really got the dick and fart jokes rolling (I still prefer Pauly, truth be told), detours to his inevitable crash out of the limelight and return to his Mom’s house as he attempts to figure out Pauly Version 2.0, flounders as he gets visited by Sam Kinison’s ghost and fakes his own death, and attempts to resuscitate itself as he gets hauled off to jail, finds scorn and eventual lethargy from the media and general public, and nose dives when an attempt is made on his life catapulting to a sort of redemptive ending.

The tone of the film is basically as expected of ironic mocking movies with this film’s big difference being that the man who wrote, directed, and starred in it was mocking most feverishly himself and all that he was and did before his fall rather than just all the people who revolved around him at the time. In that sense, I must stand and applaud (as I did at the show) such a bold move by the unflappable Mr. Paul Montgomery Shore. I’m sure the alternative path (degrading one’s self on lousy reality shows) might have seemed at least somewhat appealing at this point in his career, so I am pleased to find Pauly bold enough to take chances and believe in his own talent rather than succumb to the call of the almighty dollar and the backhanded stab of VH1 Celebreality.

The themes in Pauly Shore is Dead come from its method of satirizing the media, fame, and celebrity, and much like the films of John Waters (minus the miraculously bizarre dialogue and even more slanted world view), the public’s obsession with elevating those who die “before their time” to something much more grand than they in all likelihood deserved. These attributes were part of the movie’s strengths, and Shore was quite effective at making a mockery of celebrity disposability with his own staged death and the public’s yearning and perhaps need to have heroes and icons no matter how contrived, unjustified, and devoid of talent they may be. The film as a whole, unfortunately, fell short because as a real average guy visiting the cinema it is impossible to relate to the whole “has been” world of celebrity when the closest even the most fortunate of us average guys might get is a four second sound bite on the news about a deranged neighbor who kicked his family dog. Sorry Paulie, having a rich Beverly Hills upbringing, hanging with porno stars, and dissing Fred Durst (now there’s a guy who doesn’t deserve anymore time in the spotlight) isn’t what we pencil pushers at your standard nine to fiver might call “an average day.” But alas, that Pauly was in Boston promoting his self-made movie with middle fingers raised to Hollywood definitely gives him more common man cred than your average pampered fallen celebrity (even if he did walk out on his own film’s showing before it ended. For shame, Pauly!)

On the whole though, Pauly Shore is Dead is a pretty average film with a few interesting elements. The film’s most impressive attribute is the way it is built around finding funny and bizarre ways to involve celebrity cameos. Using celebrity cameos is usually hit or miss when dealing with only one celebrity, so it is that much more incredible that Pauly Shore is Dead works almost flawlessly in this area with literally dozens of famous faces popping up almost everywhere. Equally amazing is how many famous individuals cared enough about Pauly Shore to appear, and Pauly’s ingenuity to tackle the film from such an angle and succeed is a definite tribute to his comic sensibility as a writer and director. Sure, while the story, itself is pretty lame and kind of boring, the fact that this is a story of the Pauly, by the Pauly, and for, well, I’m not quite sure but I guess for his fans who really did exist (and you can include me in that club), this is a movie best enjoyed with fellow Weasel fans preferably in the wee hours of the morning and definitely under the influence of your favorite stimulant. And in that sense, mine was the perfect experience and Pauly Shore Is Dead was easily palatable.

So to you, Mr. Pauly Montgomery Shore, I wish you good luck in the future and I look forward to your next pursuit, whatever it may be. For all your coddled upbringing and celebrity pals lingering about, you always manage to come off as an easygoing, likable fellow and for that I will no doubt support your endeavors in the future, as I believe many others will as well. And finally, yes, I stand by my words to you the other night that the only two times I have ever witnessed my father laughing out loud during a movie were for your Son in Law and Robin William’s Mrs. Doubtfire. And in my honest opinion, Son in Law is the funnier of the two, no question about it. That scene with the chaps, oh, mere words are unfit to describe it.