Movie Review: Jack Black in Nacho Libre - Page 2

Though Nacho Libre didn't make me laugh as hard as Anchorman or Napoleon Dynamite, its star Jack Black does have some romantic assets that make his buffoonery striking in a different way from Will Ferrell's or Jon Heder's. The ungainly Ferrell and the gawky Heder use their characters' unawareness of their limitations as they enter arenas for which they're completely unsuited (think of Ferrell as Ron Burgundy doing bicep curls to show off his "guns") to create an inverted form of heroism. They bypass the old slapstick masochism of Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd as juveniles failing at sports and almost make you envy their obliviousness. The "magic" is to add insensitivity to the clumsiness and not get "cute" about it.

At 5' 7½", Jack Black is even dumpier than Ferrell but no less creative in defying his bulk. In addition, he has eyes that, at times, seem to be unscrewing themselves from their sockets and eyebrows so expressive he can practically spell his name with them. (I always remember Black's eyes as being bigger than they are.) Ferrell and Heder come across as total fools, but I have known a lot of women who would find Black attractive. So when he does similarly foolish stuff, such as emphatic rock 'n' roll gestures to show what a large, uncageable spirit he is, it inevitably has some of the spazzy but gentle drama of the Harold Lloyd juvenile doing his jig and handshake to make friends in The Freshman, because you expect he could grow out of being that kind of fool.

This might work straight if Black didn't push it; unfortunately, his previous starring roles have required him to do just that. The title of Shallow Hal indicates the problem with that movie: sniffy feminist piety undermines the very scurrility the movie exploits for entertainment. (The title clucks its tongue and the movie can be explained only as an act of penance by the Farrelly Brothers.) The School of Rock was marginally more sophisticated in that we were clearly meant to laugh at the rants of Black's grade school teacher – both because of the content in itself and the inappropriateness of directing them at grade-school children. Ultimately, however, his "radicalism" helps build his students' self-esteem and the movie becomes drearily uplifting.

Article Author: Alan Dale

Alan Dale earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He currently works as a corporate tax attorney in Portland, Oregon.

He is the author of What We Do Best: American Movie Comedies …

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