Dear Dictator movie review & film summary (2018)
A good part of this film's success depends on how seriously Addario and Syracuse take the emotional rollercoaster that is high school. Teenage misfit Tatiana (Rush) is so bored with her life, defined as it is by thong-wearing, smartphone-addicted rivals, and lousy mentors like desperate-to-please social studies teacher Mr. Spines (Jason Biggs) and manic mom Darlene (Katie Holmes). Tatiana especially resents Daralene because of her pathetic romantic attachment to man-boy dentist Charles (Seth Green), a married man who refuses to leave his wife for Darlene. Charles's deadbeat nature is treated as a given truth since Tatiana's perspective is implicitly confirmed right throughout most of "Dear Dictator."
So the funniest thing about Tatiana's decision to strike up a pen-pal correspondence with brutal British-Carribbean dictator Anton Vincent (Caine) isn't Vincent's capacity for monstrous violence. I mean, Vincent is as bad as people say he is, as we see when he shrugs off the news that he ordered the execution of a group of innocent citizens without any firm evidence. But Tatiana is almost always right, even when it comes to befriending a mass-murdering, rights-suppressing fascist. This joke is skillfully related during a letter-writing montage: Caine poses with a machete for a propagandistic photo shoot while also telling Tatiana, through voiceover, that "my people are dying and cannot medical supplies. My favorite color is purple."
As in "Bill and Ted," the joke is never simply on Tatiana, not even when she's so self-absorbed that she offers to entertain Vincent by making his daughter a mix-tape of Tatiana's favorite music, like the Meatmen, the Circle Jerks, and the Butthole Surfers. The best part of the joke is Vincent's mild-mannered reply: "Thank you for your lively music. My daughter enjoyed it. The rebels have surrounded the capital."
Addario and Syracuse's tendency of confirming Tatiana's biases can sometimes make their hysterical depiction of Darlene seem a bit unkind. That's not unexpected since parents often don't fare well in these types of comedies. Still, Darlene throws herself at Charles's feet (which is funny, as he has a foot fetish), and even tries to hit on Vincent, despite Tatiana's understandable protests. Darlene's so delusional that she even asks Tatiana to help her spy on Charles's house after he fails to respond to Darlene's text messages. One can't help but laugh at (an effectively) mean-spirited visual gag at Darlene's expense: a box of Hostess Ho-Hos snack cakes is conspicuously positioned in the camera's foreground in a scene where Holmes's character lectures her daughter.
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