Letters to the Editor
Xrandadu Hutman
Published Letters: 2714 Editor's Choice: 52
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You Ben Stiller-haters are idiots -- yes, that includes YOU, Stephanie
[Read the article: "The Heartbreak Kid"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Here's a list of good and great Ben Stiller performances:
-- The Royal Tenenbaums: Good, if you like Wes Anderson's stuff (I'm hot and cold on it)
-- Zoolander: Great. I've seen this film probably 5 times (not intentionally, but when it's on I end up watching it) and it holds up very well. Stiller directed it too and he did a terrific job, bringing in Paris Hilton before she was world famous, giving Winona a funny cameo, making terrific use of David Bowie, letting Jon Voigt shine at comedy, and giving Will Ferrell a perfectly suited antagonist role. Stiller's faces and voices are inspired ("Mer-man....Mer-MAN!!!"). It also has cute roles for Ben's pal Owen Wilson and wife Christine Taylor (sp?).
-- Meet the Parents/Fockers: Sorry, but these movies are pretty funny. DeNiro vs. Stiller is excellent, especially if you're an old "Ben Stiller Show" fan like I am and remember Stiller's "Eddie Munster" parody of DeNiro's performance in "Cape Fear" (titled "Cape Munster"). Bringing in Hoffman and Streisand was a wonderful way to up the ante.
-- Mystery Men: Stiller was good as Mr. Furious in a movie that was only occasionally funny (but good enough to sit through once). This is his last little hurrah from his early days working opposite Jeaneane Garafalo.
-- Permanent Midnight: Ben Stiller is GREAT in one of his finest serious performances (not that there are many). He plays a heroin addict who writes for "Alf" (fictionalized as "Mr. Chompers") and essentially flushes his life down the toilet. Of the many addict-goes-down-a-spiral movies out there, this is one of the best. Especially chilling is a scene where stiller and Peter Green take turns running up against a plate-glass window in a skyscraper.
-- There's Something About Mary: The film that put the Farrelly Brothers in the big leagues of comedy money-makers. Stiller is hilarious in dorky braces, and a fine comic foil during goofy slapstick later on. He grounds the movie in embarrassment and makes a solid straight man for weirdos like Chris Eliot to play off of.
-- Zero Effect: This is a kick-ass unheralded gem also starring what's-his-face from "Independence Day" and "Space Balls." Ummm....you know, the handsome guy in "Lost Highway." Whatever, I'm too lazy to go to IMDB. But this is a fine, funny, interesting film you should add to your Netflix queue RIGHT NOW. Seriously. If you don't like it come back here and tell me I suck, but I think you will.
-- Flirting with Disaster: This is another UNHERALDED GEM from the director of "Spanking the Monkey." It has probably Teo Leoni's funniest and sexiest performance, and Patricia Arquette is first-rate too. You should see it, like, yesterday.
-- Reality Bites: Not my favorite and a little Gen-X trite at times, but I blame the script more than Stiller's direction or performance. His character is the corporate asshole who's earnest but has no taste, and his romantic rival for Winona Ryder's affections is the sensitive slacker Ethan Hawke. Kind of a time-capsule now, but worth seeing some time, because Stiller is quite good.
-- "The Ben Stiller Show": This is a must-rent for anybody who likes good sketch-comedy shows. Stiller grew up as an "SCTV" addict like I did, and he clearly relishes the opportunity to try to recreate the convoluted, media-saturated satire of that Canadian classic. Among my favorite bits is his parody of U2's Bono, a self-absorbed rock star who sings commercial jingles for "Lucky Clovers" cereal. ("One bowl....is not enough...") Stiller also does a laugh-out-loud impression of self-help guru Tony Robbins. ("My teeth rule you!")
-- "The Hustler of Money": This is a short comedy film that Stiller did for Saturday Night Live. He does a spot-on impersonation of Tom Cruise in "The Color of Money." It's great.
-- Hot Pursuit: You probably haven't heard of this but it's one of the 1980s John Cusack teen films that never really took off. I liked it a lot though, thanks to Robert Loggia's supporting performance mostly, but also due to Cusack and how incredibly CREEPY Ben Stiller is as the bad guy who seems very likely to rape Cusack's girlfriend. This is waaaaay back when, long before anybody had ever heard of Stiller.
So to all you who hate Ben Stiller, get your heads out of your asses and stop evaluating him based solely on his mainstream comedies. Go see some real movies sometime, you morons.
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Christian teenagers are the biggest arseholes
[Read the article: My Christian daughter says I'm going to hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I remember the Christians in high school well: The most arrogant, self-aggrandizing, and hypocritical people in school.
They'd profess to care about Jesus while they were sleeping around, smoking pot, abusing other non-Christian students and generally making twits out of themselves.
The best teenagers were the ones smart enough to know that you don't wear your supernatural belief system on your sleeve or segregate yourself on its basis. Those were the cool kids -- the ones who grew up to have successful, creative careers and actually turn out to be humans worth knowing.
So tell your brat to snap herself out of her idiotic phase and become a real human again. The teen years are NOT a time to close doors in one's mind. They're a time for opening them.
Take her to a Buddhist church to watch taiko drummers. Take her to an art museum. Take her to a science exhibit. A superb classical music concert. To thrift stores. To a kitschy roadside "folk art" display. To a jazz club. On a nature hike. Show her the real world. Show her the documentary "Jesus Camp" and see how she reacts. Show her articles about all the evangelists who turned out to be lying, thieving asswipes (Jim Bakker, Peter Popoff, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Robert Tilton, etc.).
Your teenager is projecting all of her mom's inane crap onto you. Tell her to piss off and grow up. Somebody needs to. (Of course, be nicer than I am.)