In Albert Brooks’ last few movies (including “Mother” and “The Muse”), he’s turned away from the acerbic material that made him such a comic icon in the 1970s. His latest stuff has been sincere and smart and often funny, but soft.
| Sly: A sly and subversive film about Albert Brooks (who also wrote and directed) going to India and Pakistan to spread comedy good will for the U.S. government. Frequently funny, with a great showbiz idiot etched by Brooks.
Rated: PG-13 rating is for language, subject matter Now showing: tk |
For whatever reason, the Albert Brooks of “Real Life” and “Lost in America” is back. His newest film, “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World,” is knife-sharp, risky and has as many intentionally cringe-worthy moments as the TV shows “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Office.”
Brooks plays, well, Albert Brooks, or at least “Albert Brooks,” the famous comedian. He’s always on target when he’s presenting himself as a neurotic fathead, and this movie sets him up for many mortifying situations. (A hilarious opening scene – ineptly interviewing for a role with director Penny Marshall – gets just the right note of showbiz groveling.)
His career stalled, Brooks is abruptly called to Washington, D.C., to meet with Fred Dalton Thompson, the politician-actor (who plays himself). Seems the government, desperate to better understand the Islamic world, wants a comedian to travel to India and Pakistan and find out what makes Muslims laugh.
Thus begins Brooks’ adventure in New Delhi, where he sets up a small office with two government handlers (John Carroll Lynch and Jon Tenney) and a native secretary (delightful Sheetal Sheth). He’s expected to prepare a 500-page report on the experience, but just stopping people in the street and asking them what makes them laugh isn’t working very well.
Brooks’ brainstorm is to do a stand-up concert, first in India and then Pakistan, and note where the audience responds. This leads to a truly grisly sequence, as Brooks tries to make a New Delhi audience laugh with his old stand-up material (Brooks uses some of the anti-comedy weirdness he used to perform in the ’70s).
Like the other films Brooks has written and directed, “Looking for Comedy” isn’t always fall-down funny, but rather a consistently sly and subversive experience. Although there is some fall-down stuff, for sure: When Al-Jazeera calls Brooks in to talk about starring in a sitcom called “That Darn Jew,” well, he’s in his groove.
One of the amazing things about this film is that Brooks has a purpose beneath his goofing. By the time you reach the final scenes, you realize you’ve been chuckling at a film that was a parable about the post-Sept. 11 world and well-meaning missions abroad.
Along with that, Brooks has made another gem of a portrait of the showbiz idiot, perfectly insecure, paranoid and self-centered. Welcome back, Albert: We missed the worst parts of you.
Albert Brooks stars in “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.”
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