Movie of the Week: Look Who's Back

Alexa: I love a good political satire, but “Look Who’s Back” just didn’t click with me. I appreciate what it tried to achieve in its critique of media sensationalism and nationalist views, and its warnings that the demons of the past could easily resurface today. But ultimately the movie seemed more concerned with hitting viewers over the head with its key messages than in finding creative ways to convey them. The “Borat” trope of bouncing back and forth between scripted material and man-on-the-street interviews felt stale, and much of the latter was more frightening than funny. I think that’s the key disconnect for me - the context in which I viewed the movie. Given the current state of U.S. politics, I’m just not in the mood to find humor in a dangerous but “entertaining” man being propelled toward an actual position of power by ratings-hungry media and increasingly vocal and disgruntled followers.

Joel: I think if I had seen this movie when it came out in 2014 (or had read the book when it came out in 2011) I would have really enjoyed it. Part of the movie is your standard “man from the past doesn’t understand cell phones and the internet” with the added bonus of the idiot in this scenario being Hitler, but it turns out there’s more to the movie than this. What was probably meant to be a dire warning of a dangerous future instead now feels like a “You should have listened to me” message from the past. There are so many moments in this movie where I can see what the joke is and why the joke is supposed to be funny, but am too busy being reminded of real world events to enjoy said joke. There are several moments in the movie where they simply have Hitler, in character, on the street interacting with people similar to the way Borat worked. A few years ago it would have been easy to watch those scenes and assume they were able to find the handful of people who were willing to say the things they needed them to say for the movie. Watching those same scenes now, you have to wonder how hard it was to find the passersby for those scenes. There are countless examples of movies, or parts of movies that haven’t aged well as society has changed over the years, and I think it’s important to try and be aware of that when watching older movies. But the fact that a movie this new already feels like it’s from another era is part of the reason it feels so uncomfortable watching this movie. And I think that may be the best word for this movie. I think the filmmakers wanted to try and make you a little bit uncomfortable watching this movie but they may have ended up succeeding in doing that far beyond what they ever feared to be possible.

Chris: I’ll have to echo the sentiment that this hits a little too close to home to be humorous especially when it comes down to Hitler’s talking points as well as the apparent real life individuals who seemingly welcomed him with open arms. I’m all about believing in the redeeming qualities of most people but Hitler’s one of those figures that I’m okay with not humanizing because what he did was monstrous and that shouldn’t even be a bold statement. This movie went from dark comedy that maybe derivative of Borat and turned into something alarming. I’m not so sure that this movie was suppose go in the direction it did judging from the scripted slapstick nature of those particular scenes, the movie feels darker with every man-on-street unscripted segment.

If you’re looking for a moment that was actually funny, I did laugh at the part where Hitler used the dead dog as a puppet in the car. So there’s that.

When I saw this movie on the MotW schedule, I got confused and thought that it was the animated dinosaur movie “We’re Back!” but alas, it wasn’t and I wish that it was. It’s official, dinosaurs are cooler than Hitler.

Jason: This movie scared me. It was funny at first but as the tone shifted, so did my opinion. The fact is that much of what was said in the street interview segments (which apparently were genuine and not scripted) are real feelings toward the state of not only Germany, but the world. And the audience begins to empathize with Hitler and listen to him, just as they did in the 1930’s. It's difficult to see a movie like this without overlaying it on our own experience. Hitler’s message here bears striking similarities to the message of the current American political leadership. Take back what is ours! Protect us! Show the world what we can do! I believe he even says something like “Make Germany great again”. I don't want to get too political in my movie review but it hit a little too close.