ARIZONA (R)
Review by Jeff Sanders
In ARIZONA, Danny McBride plays Sonny, a character played something between the psyche of Ellis’ Patrick Bateman, and Chuck Conners from TOURIST TRAP and then wrapped into the physique of Guy Fieri. The Setting: Los Compos del Oro—A gated subdivision in a fictional abandoned Arizona town named Harding during the apex of the 2009 housing crisis. Although this was to be a lavish private community, fit with spacious floor plans, granite countertops, backyard pools and a 9-hole golf course, the economic downturn has transformed this would-be utopia into hell on earth, overtaken by weeds, graffiti, and sun-scorch.
There are only a few inhabitants left in this community on the fringe. Unemployed, most stay indoors waiting for their home loans to expire before they are forced from the premises. A few have diminishing jobs, like Cassie (Rosemarie DeWitt), our protagonist. She’s a realtor, although she hasn’t sold a house in months. She reluctantly works for the office that sold her home, which is about to be foreclosed on. After dropping her daughter off at school and being berated over the phone by her boss from hell (Seth Rogen) for being late, Cassie pulls into work and his verbally assaulted again by Rogen, this time for not dressing sexy enough. Enter Sonny, angry as hell and wanting to scream at the management over a real estate deal gone six feet under, which perpetrates events evolving into kidnap and a body count.
For those who purchased homes during this troubling time, you may find yourself rooting for Sonny. For those who got out early or didn’t buy in, thank God, because fire, brimstone and a pile of dead bodies have been left in the wake of a madman who thinks himself a cool, easy going guy, unjustly being crushed by the scorching heat, financial ruin and two failed marriages that this world has laid upon him.
Heavy on satire and misanthropy, this film is definitely going to divide audiences. This is violent and mean, but underneath does have a purpose, like a mad dog attacking in blind fury, this about revenge over things we cannot control, an economy that has led us to the fiery gates of hell.
DeWitt’s Cassie is the best part of this film that works in the satire and horror, but less in the humor from the leading men. Played with pathos and subtle humor, she is the only character to get behind. She may survive these trying times due to staying positive in a situation that has no good outcome, and more importantly, accepting defeat. She is in the same boat as Sonny, only she knows that she may have to start at zero again. She is willing to move on. Sonny is not.
McBride is on and off again in his portrayal of Sonny. When the humor is organic to the character, like a scene where he accidentally tweaks an inflamed disc in his back, causing him to limp and cry for the rest of the film while trying to maintain his menace, the humor works. What doesn’t work is McBride’s usual Apatow-ish banter of profanity and obscenity that seems to follow him from film to film, never letting him fully inhabit a character that should be distanced from the man himself. Seth Rogen is another actor that falls into this category, and that is on display here as well. This is what hurts the film. This is what also hurts box office return, so we know why they choose to do so.
That is a shame here. ARIZONA had a potential that could have resonated deeply in the aftermath of an economy that the world is still recovering from. The devolved transformation of a private Southwest community into an uninhabited House of Wax, minus the mannequins, is effectively unsettling. The comedic satire works pretty well, as a gold old boy at a gas station observes, “All the subdivisions have Mexican names, only there aren’t any Mexicans in them!” in a scene that comments on the humor, irony, and sadness that plagues the American Middle-Class. We are left with a film that has good bones, but some misguided direction. Don’t let that scare you off completely, this is still worth checking out for those who don’t mind the cynicism and violence mixed with some jet-black humor in a mostly horror film.
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