Hamlet 2 ★★★★

If the idea of asking a bunch of high-schoolers to stage the sequel to Hamlet as written by their washed-up drama teacher strikes you as ill-advised, you're not alone. No one in the Tucson metro area wants anything to do with Hamlet 2, largely because they've heard it's full of indecent sexual acts and blatant anti-Christian sentiment. But if the eponymous show within Steve Coogan's new film is flailing, the film itself soars high on wings of ridiculous comedy and rampant hysteria. 

Yes, I'll say it: Hamlet 2 is a work of psychotic genius.

Really, we should expect no less from Coogan, the mind behind  Alan Partridge, Tristram Shandy (the brilliant movie version of an "unfilmable" novel), 24-Hour Party People, and countless other creations sprung from a late-night rendezvous between genius and mania. Here the British actor plays Dana Marschz, an American actor (of sorts) who's had a pretty rough time of it.  He's working as the drama teacher in a Tuscon high school, but when his class and his job face extinction, Dana takes action. He writes a play that comes straight out of his experiences with an abusive father, and he names it Hamlet 2. Oh, and it's a musical.

A handful of trials and tribulations befall the cast of the play (and the film), with no one abused more than Dana himself, but the plot of this film is hardly where its brilliance lies. Instead, it comes in glints of spot-on satire of the strange and wonderful world of drama and high-school and magically comedic turns of phrase.  The film also makes ample use of rarely-utilized characters and locales: red-neck principal, wealthy Latino parents, a fertility clinic, the school's "Snackatorium", to name but a few.

These bold strokes are surprising enough to distract the viewer from the occasional hokey stereotype or unbelievable plot twist; at times, the film almost convinces us that any misstep made in script or plot device is really just an inside joke, an homage to the misguided playwright and train-wreck production it depicts. I found myself writing off a handful of bad one-liners and prat falls the moment I laid eyes on Sexy Jesus and his time machine.

If any of this makes any sense at all to you, please do yourself a favor and check this odd little movie out. And whatever you do, do not leave before the big finale. No matter what you think of Hamlet 2 the movie, Hamlet 2 the play (horrible idea though it may be) is sure to leave you speechless.

Comments

[John]

awesome. totally agree.