It is full of sly references to current events, jokes, and double entendres that fly right over the heads of the younger set but land unerringly on grownup funny bones. Its not sophisticated, highbrow theater, but rowdy, raucous entertainment filled with silly slapstick, frequent pratfalls, and madcap chase scenes. The traditional British family entertainment is more like vaudeville meets melodrama meets commedia dellarte: a zany, wacky mash-up of sketch comedy, music, and stock characterslike the cross-dressing Panto Dameplus bits of audience participation. An IFC release.Though panto is short for pantomime, it has nothing to do with silent mimes wearing white makeup, berets, and striped shirts. MPAA Rating: Unrated, with graphic violence, nudity and profanityĬast: Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, Carolina Bang, Macarena Gómez, Carmen MauraĬredits: Directed by Álex de la Iglesia, written by Jorge Guerricaechevarría and Álex de la Iglesia. “Witching” is a trifle on the long side, but de la Iglesias builds the action to a fine climax, and then tops it with his epic finale, which seems to employ every extra in Spain and every special effects artist, too.īut whatever the film’s horror chops, cinematic battles of the sexes are rarely this much fun. He gives Jose a sexy, irresponsible, making-it-up-as-he-goes edge, traits that rear their head whenever Jose’s incompetent parenting skills are questioned. Silva, star of Almodovar’s “I’m So Excited!” is an agreeably scruffy, nonchalant leading man. Maura, a veteran of many an Almodovar comedy, is her mother, the queen. Carolina Bang plays a ravenous and sexy daughter witch with an eye for Jose. These guys want to gripe about how awful their womenfolk are, what “brujas” (witches) they can be? They’re confronted with the real thing, a matriarchal culture which might have use for what those wedding bands represent and have a taste for “pure” little boys.ĭe la Iglesia (“The Oxford Murders”) keeps the patter manic and testy and adds just enough lulls in the action to make his big special effects/action set pieces stand out. The freaks that surround them, the cauldron, the bizarre dishes on the menu at the diner - the troll that seems to live in the toilet. Manuel’s heard of it, but the rest soon catch on to what it is. Sergio is tickled at all the shooting and screeching tires, especially when Manual takes off through the woods.Īnd then they stumble into Zugarramurdi, an infamous village on the French border. “Thousands of broken promises…broken dreams…lies.cheating…” Their haul? A sack full of pawned wedding bands. There are heated debates in the taxi they hijack as a getaway car, with the cabbie, Manuel (Jaime Ordóñez) throwing in his lot with the surviving members of the gang. That happens a lot in “Witching and Bitching,” that second half of the title. That leads to a rant about alimony and custody and judges prejudiced against fathers and next thing you know, security guards and customers - all hostages in the store - are bickering, taking sides and generally wigging out. “I get him Tuesdays and alternate weekends,” Jose, whom Tony keeps calling “Jesus,” explains. There’s an Uzi-packing Sponge Bob, an Invisible Man.īut a little boy (Gabriel Delgado) is their lookout. Tony (Mario Casas) is painted up like a plastic green toy soldier. Jose (Hugo Silva) is the leader, painted up as silver-coated Jesus, pulling a shotgun out of the cross he totes on his back. It begins with a sell-your-gold shop robbery on Madrid’s popular square, the Puerto del Sol, with robbers dressed as street mimes staging a heist that goes comically, bloodily wrong. It’s the best Almodovar movie Almodovar never made, a riotous, gory farce that might be the funniest movie of the summer, and surely is the coolest. “Witching and Bitching” is a madcap Spanish farce by Alex de la Iglesia. There’d be violence and cross-dressing, graphic discussion of exotic sexual practices and homo-eroticism.
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