' ' Cinema Romantico: Three Shots of Bad Santa: Part 1

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Three Shots of Bad Santa: Part 1

As Bob Chipeska, mall manager, John Ritter’s facial expressions are unfailingly on point throughout “Bad Santa.” Still, none of his immaculate reaction shots are equal to the one below. This one occurs upon seeking out Gin, the head of mall security (Bernie Mac), in hopes of firing his establishment’s Santa Claus, played by the ingeniously misanthropic Billy Bob Thornton, for, as Bob puts it, “fornicating” in the women’s big & tall section. Alas, in the end, Gin explains this reason is no good.

“Man is a sexual being,” Gin declares so casually poor Bob can only cringe. “Fuckin’ Darwinian. You can’t do shit about that. Hell, I wouldn’t want to.” “No, of course not,” Bob agrees. “I’m not advocating celibacy.” “Hope not,” says Gin. “It’d be the end of the fucking human race.” And at this pronouncement, Bob looks away from Gin to his right, like this...


That? That’s a man who has, during endless days at the office, on strolls through the mall where he has grappled with unfairly incensed customers and screaming children run wild and mediated his fair share of parking spot disputes, contemplated the end of the fucking human race, and come away thinking that maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

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