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Dysfunktional Family

2003, Movie, R, 83 mins

Dysfunktional Family: Review

DYSFUNKTIONAL FAMILY
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An awkward hybrid of concert film and soft-ball documentary, in which stand-up sequences alternate with footage of Kansas City, Missouri-born comic Eddie Griffin's family, who figure prominently in his act. There's a visit to Griffin's old neighborhood, a stop at his old school, some man on the street schtick, and lots of footage of his no-nonsense mama, Uncle Bucky the junkie jailbird and neat-as-a-pin Uncle Curtis, connoisseur of pornography; in between, it's back to the show. Griffin openly idolizes Richard Pryor, and faint echoes of Pryor's bitterly autobiographical legacy inform sequences like his fluid imitation of the die-hard heroin addict's eerie equilibrium. The world could be coming to an end, Griffin asserts, dipping and swaying like a limbo dancer at sea in a storm, and that old dope-fiend on the corner would be maintaining his balance. Griffin's tour de force starts as an anecdote about tough love — his mother, fed up with trying to whup the waywardness out of young Eddie, once tried to run him down in her car — into a riff on Michael Jackson's complaints about his abusive father, Joe Jackson. More parents ought to do their kids wrong like Joe Jackson, chortles Griffin, whose attention-getting childhood antics included an accomplished imitation of Michael's trademark moves. Griffin's mama whupped him out of the penitentiary; Joe Jackson whupped his kids into super stardom. Not in good taste, to be sure, but cruelly funny. Ironically, this record of Griffin's foul-mouthed comedy stylings reveals that he gets some of his biggest laughs when he's channeling his inner Seinfeld: cats vs. dogs, what women say/what men hear, and "take my crazy Uncle Curtis — please!" But far too much of Griffin's routine is just that — routine. It takes more than a few "white people are so uptight" gags to make a fearless commentator on contemporary racial stereotypes. And his nasty, hate-filled bits about Middle Easterners, the mentally retarded, gay men and straight women aren't half as clever as they'd need to be to ameliorate their reactionary viciousness. If Griffin were a jowly Southern redneck, his mean-spirited rants would make him a pariah. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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