Stars and Bars


1988 comedy

Rating: 10/20

Plot: An art expert travels to the South to purchase a Renoir from some country folk.

Here's a movie for anybody who wants to see Daniel Day-Lewis not being very good. It's also for anybody who wants to see Daniel Day-Lewis a little naked. I've yet to see Lincoln, but I assume there's not a Lincoln nude scene in that. If there is, let me know so that I can start watching that immediately.

Day-Lewis--actually, he's sans hyphen in the credits for this one, so I guess he's Day Lewis--plays the straight man in what is pretty much a straight comedy. This isn't the shoulda-been cult classic I imagined it might be. The movie also has Steven Wright, Harry Dean Stanton, Spalding Gray, Rockets Redglare, Laurie Metcalf, and Joan Cusack, and a few of those are among my favorite people. So I thought this might be something. It has it's moments, and Day Lewis does have some comedic chops in this fish-out-of-water role, but this isn't the part for him and this isn't the type of movie that's going to develop a cult following. Despite some black slapstick comedy and this surreal redneck wonderland backdrop, the tone issues really get in the way.

It probably doesn't help that it starts with a Sting song. "Shut your ass, English shitbird!"

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