Idiocracy a k a 3001

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IDIOCRACY (2006) 4.5/5.0

 

Sep 6, 2006

 

Idiocracy

A film review by David Bezanson - Copyright C 2006

filmcritic.com

 

 

Political correctness is an annoying term, and an even

more annoying

concept. At first it was supposedly bad to be

" politically incorrect, " then

it was supposed to be good, then Bill Maher used it as

the name of his lame,

pseudo-political celebrity talk show, and it became

meaningless.

 

But every once in a while. something that really is

politically incorrect

comes along, like Mike Judge's new comedy, Idiocracy.

And instead of the

self-congratulatory smugness of Maher's show (and

other so-called satirists

who pretend to be daring but are actually mainstream),

there is only

embarrassed silence, except for the sounds of

corporate sponsors bailing and

studio executives caving in.

 

At first, the studio (Fox) put the release of

Idiocracy on hold, then

allowed a limited release on a slow weekend with zero

publicity. If it

wasn't Mike Judge's project, it would probably never

have made it to any

theaters (or gotten made in the first place).

 

Idiocracy is uneven, even mediocre at times, but the

concept is brilliant,

and here it is (since almost no one will see it in

theaters, I'm not going

to worry about spoiling the plot). The film begins

with a narrator

explaining: " Evolution does not necessarily reward

intelligence. " Instead,

it rewards " those who reproduce the most. " To

illustrate this, we meet an

over-educated, attractive couple who want to have

kids, but they're still

getting settled in their jobs, the stock market's bad,

his sperm count's

low. and it doesn't happen. Then we cut to Clevon,

Jr., a white trash

Lothario who sleeps with every woman in the trailer

park and who (thanks

also to a stem cell research breakthrough) is the

ancestor of dozens, then

hundreds of children. As this nationwide phenomenon

progresses over time,

the Bell curve of the U.S. population inexorably

slides over to the dumb and

trashy side.

 

Fortunately, the military has been experimenting with

human hibernation, and

they freeze an ordinary, average-Joe private, Joe

Bowers (Luke Wilson) to

test the process. Unable to find a suitable female

soldier for the

experiment, they also freeze a prostitute named Rita

(SNL's Maya Rudolph).

Then the program is defunded and Joe and Rita

hibernate for 500 years. When

they wake up, they find that America still exists, but

everyone in America

has become completely stupid, and Joe is now by far

the smartest man in the

world.

 

This premise is reminiscent of an old Brendan Fraser

comedy, Blast from the Past; but

Idiocracy is much broader and cruder (it's a Mike

Judge project) and also

more serious satire, sort of. It goes for the jugular.

For instance: in the

future the English language has deteriorated into a

" hybrid of hillbilly,

Valley girl, and inner-city slang " (actually, this may

already be happening

today); when Joe talks, he sounds " pompous and faggy "

and becomes a pariah.

Corporate logos and surveillance cameras cover every

surface; mountains of

garbage tower over neglected cities. The economy is

humming (literally.

Starbucks offers hand jobs to men with every latte)

but inefficient, because

nothing works. A single Costco store now covers tens

of square miles, the

greeter mindlessly mumbles to everyone " Welcome to

Costco, I love you. " to

millions of sheep-like consumers who wander through

the mountains of cheap

crap merchandise while police cruise the aisles in

electric cars with

gang-style logos. In short, this future is like

Bush-era, gangsta rap,

reality-TV, white trash America, only more so.

 

Predictably, Joe is soon running from the police (like

every dystopic hero)

because he doesn't have a bar-code tattoo on his arm.

But when the

authorities discover that Joe is the world's smartest

human, he is taken to

the president of the United States, a former wrestler

and porn star who

appoints him interior secretary (he is quickly

confirmed by the House of

Representin') because " he's gonna solve all our

problems and shit. "

 

An uneasy combination of Gattaca and, well,Beavis and

Butt-head, Idiocracy

is funny but it doesn't always work, unless you take

the message seriously.

in which case maybe it's not that funny.

 

In fact, Judge seems to be poking

fun at what he sees as the real deterioration of

American culture.[sic]

 

Many people - at least, a few people - have noted the

dumbing-down of

America, but no one until Judge has blamed it on

genetics. Now that's

politically incorrect. Most sociologists foolishly

assert that natural

selection favors the beautiful and smart. But Judge is

correct: natural

selection favors only one thing, the willingness to

have lots of children,

and people who let their careers or the costs of

college deter them from

parenthood end up on the wrong side of the fertility

gap. His future

scenario is a warning; in a way, it's an update of

H.G. Wells' classic The Time Machine, the first

pessimistic dystopia written a century ago.

 

No one can predict what the

future holds - probably not gangsta rap - but Judge

has a point. If we don't

want the future to be hellish, we all need to do our

part. and raise some

decent kids.