BLACK SHEEP (1996) **1/2 I'm not going to claim that this is a brilliant film, but Chris Farley could carry a scene just by being there and smiling (or falling down, or doing cartwheels, or blubbering), and its heart is in the right place. The familiar premise (U.S. politics are saturated with slimy, amoral weasels) probably struck them as so good that they dispensed with any potentially disconcerting plot twists, which makes for mucho relaxation. Instead of the usual aesthetic devices they give us the legendary grunge band Mudhoney (who sadly don't play "Urban Guerilla," as they immediately did upon arrival in the UK), Gary Busey as a pleasantly deranged military enthusiast, and David Spade demonstrating how even the most anal retentive political drip can be humanized by a nitrous oxide leak. The heavy metal and casual drug references aren't contrived--they're part of what Farley was about, and the reality of his contemporaries. While some will point out that Farley is no longer with us, it bears consideration that he did not meet his premature demise as the result of smoking a joint behind a convenience store with teenagers (and perhaps dancing a bit, I'm not sure, it's a matter of interpretation). In any event, something less harmful than the daily function of government at this point. At the end of the day (see, you too can talk like a corporate weasel) the question is whether or not it's America--as Farley and Busey believe--or whether it's just something ripe for the picking. Dare I say it? I do: Chris Farley was a patriot for making this film, and his political stump speech is as substantive as anything that I've heard from the presidential candidates this past decade or so.
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