Given the amount of simple-minded sludge that clogs multiplexes, it’s a bitter irony that Idiocracy – a movie about the dumbing down of America - was denied a global cinema release because US test audiences didn’t get it.
So now the only place you’ll find this sharp, outrageously funny satire about human evolution shaped by survival of the dumbest is in the DVD store.
Writer director Mike Judge gave the world Beavis & Butthead and Office Space and his fan base will no doubt turn Idiocracy into a cult hit, quoting it for years to come.
The movie has the US military’s most average soldier, a slacker named Joe, cryogenically frozen for a year.
Of course, the experiment goes wrong and he awakes 500 years from now into a world where the airheads have gone forth and multiplied while intellectuals have procrastinated themselves into extinction.
Joe, played to droll perfection by Luke Wilson, is now the Smartest dude on Earth – initially feared, then promoted to saviour. He staggers through a world where language has devolved. The conversations that still take place are sponsored by corporations.
The President is a former porn star wrestler. TV entertainment has followed the Jackass route to pain as spectacle.
I don’t want to give too much away but Idiocracy is utterly hysterical. Although it’s often in tremendously bad taste and often very silly, the film – originally titled The United States of Uhhh-merica - also has more relevant to say about the world in any given 5 minutes than Babel did in over two hours. It’s perfect for those of us who ask 'Who’s dumber, Paris Hilton or the billions who follow her every move?" – only to realise we’re part of the problem precisely because we’re even asking this question.
Idiocracy is a 21st century version of Woody Allen’s Sleeper. It’s one of the funniest satires I’ve seen in ages. 4 1/2 stars.
