Deeper Than It Looks

Rating: 9/10 (22 August 2006)

This is basically the story of a pre-teen girl who is competing in a talent contest, and her dysfuntional family.
But like some simple films and books, this one runs pretty deep. It's a comedy that runs from hilarious to bittersweet to outright bitter. Some of it is very funny, some of it is just plain painful to watch, because this is really a film about losing and what that means in this country, the US of A, where winning is everything. It could have been a feel good movie, with whatever ending, and it is actually very close to a formula movie, but what sets it apart is that everyone in this film REALLY is a loser, and coming to terms with that is shown to be both a relief and upsetting. It's possible to make peace with losing on the one hand, because as Dwayne and Frank say of the pageant judges "We don't want those people judging Olive!" and on the other hand, there might not be a game out there that's worth winning.
As for the literal deeper philosophical implications, regarding Nietzche and Proust, having read neither, I have no idea, and the filmmakers don't give us much of a clue. It did prompt me to think of checking them out, and that's a real achievement for a movie. I haven't had a movie stimulate my curiosity like that since the Matrix trilogy.
So I highly recommend this flick if you want a new take on an old genre, and you like to think some about what you've seen. Everyone in the theatre enjoyed this film the day I saw it, and in fact it got a round of applause at the end. (I saw it in Berkeley, so actual results may vary.)