Idiocracy

Idiocracy (2006)

HBO On Demand, Seattle, WA

November 18, 2007

*** 1/2 / ****

“There was a time when reading wasn’t just for fags. And neither was writing. People wrote books and movies. Movies with stories that made you care about whose ass it was and why it was farting. And I believe that time has come again!”

For too long now, we the movie going public, have been force-fed the dregs of comedy. Shitty Saturday Night Live skits stretched to 80 minutes have multiplied in frequency and crumminess, dominating multiplexes nationwide. Meanwhile, the movie studios market this trash everywhere using every trick and torture one can imagine to get their lousy images blasted before our eyes. Eventually we get caught in the web, inevitably feasting our eyes on this cinematic drivel. And why, because we are weak, dopey, and desperate for a decent comedy? Indeed, and that leads to the ultimate question: how many Blades of Glory, Big Momma’s House 2, and License to Weds must we watch before we finally get some worthwhile yucks?

Enter Mike Judge’s latest cinematic triumph, Idiocracy, everything those lousy SNL comedies are not. Set 500 years in the future, Idiocracy tells the story of a very average military employee, Joe (Luke Wilson). Cryogenically frozen as part of a government experiment, Joe accidentally wakes 499 years after he is supposed to and in a world where he is the most intelligent person alive, by a long shot. The future Joe encounters is a dsytopia where popular culture sets the standard for all human living, slang is all they know, and nearly everyone is a moron. So screwed up is the modern world that Fuddruckers has become “Buttfuckers,” barren crops are watered with a sports drink, and rehabilitation means individuals are put in an arena and chased around by tanks named “The Ass Blaster” until shredded to pieces with a blood thirsty, attention deficit, mob mentality crowd cheering every moment. Things are far from hunky dory in America, 2500, and so long as the citizens remain as stupid and unaware as possible its business as usual. Like the missing link, Joe’s arrival represents the chance for de-evolution the society desperately needs to save itself.

The satire in Idiocracy arrives in the telling of how the future society devolved. Privatization, corporate expansion, pop culture obsession, gluttony, and our instant gratification mind set have flourished, says Judge, because the dumbest among us bred relentlessly while the intellectuals never found the time or the proper conditions. The result: low IQ humanoids run amok while the intelligent, the self-loathsome, and the average spend their time thinking, planning, and self-hating rather than ever having children, and hence, The United States of Uhhh-merica is born.

The above description may make Idiocracy seem like fairly heady stuff, and it is, to an extent, but presented in a Beavis and Butthead meets Office Space (Judge’s previous efforts) sort of way it carries a much lighter tone than your typical sci-fi dystopian experience. Jokes take the form of site gags and one-liners and they work because there is wit and intelligence behind them. That, more than anything is Mike Judge’s charm: high brow humour told in low brow terms. Sure, the movie eventually dips into the typical action scene climactic sequence/happy romance coupling, but even then there is enough tongue in cheek and clever insight for us to thoroughly enjoy it. Because Judge is so good at knowing who we are and calling us out on it, when he holds the distorting mirror up and we see our goofy forms right before our eyes we can’t help but laugh and nod. It is easy to see that the ridiculous caricatures Judge creates are hilariously yet pathetically who we could easily become, especially if we continue down the slippery slope that has already begun.

Sadly, many will kick sand in the face of Idiocracy before it even begins, failing to give it a fair shake. Others will likely dismiss the film as juvenile humour unworthy of praise or even consideration. For certain, much of that criticism has merit, but for those willing to see beyond the dick and fart jokes and understand why they are being told and where they are coming from, there is much to admire in Idiocracy.

Whether or not intelligence and wit in this form will ever find its day, we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I suppose we’ll have to continue hiding our eyes from the dick and fart joke films without the underlying wit and cleverness and hope they eventually go the way of the dodo. If Judge’s film is any indication of which to expect, I won’t hold my breath.