Sure, it may be a bit much to review an Owen Wilson comedy movie and tie it to real life bullying but I know one guy who could accomplish something that grand and that guy is me.
Owen Wilson is a lovable kinda guy. He's always kinda goofy in his movies, always a troublemaking little smirk on his face, always getting into some sort of negligible and humorous little bit of trouble. He's the comedic younger brother with the busted nose who just wants to make people laugh even if he isn't laughing inside. And so it makes perfect sense that a man who plays this role on the screen and plays the role he does in real life would choose a part like Drillbit Taylor.
A terrifically unsuccessful movie, Drillbit Taylor came out to just about no acclaim in the movie theatre and even less when it was recently released on DVD - and it makes sense.
The story of two (and quickly three) teenage boys entering high school destined to be uncool but wanting so badly to not be - DT appeals to a small demographic - the bullies victim. Oddly enough, most folks can completely ignore serious bullying and as they grow older write off other people's experiences with bullying since they have no idea what the long term effects of it really are. And so you get parents like in the movie who tell stories of when they were a kid and bullying was harmless fun. And you get principals who chuckle at the ingenuity of bullies instead of taking their threats seriously. And then you get kids in real life who make terrible choices and harm people around them or, much more often, just turn into adults who aren't as happy as they deserve to be.
The movie is funny - that is a fact. Wade and Ryan (Nate Hartley and Troy Gentile) are as lovable as any awkward movie stereotype of an uncool kid is - one skinny and tall and dying for a girlfriend and the other short and fat dying for rap stardom. Their antics are clever and the antics of Drillbit's homeless buddies (including a delightful Cedric Yarbrough and a hilarious Don McBride) are probably the funniest parts of the movie. The movie is also frighteningly realistic.
As a result of standing up to two senior bullies to save someone who is "probably not a hobbit" Wade and Ryan become the target of the increasingly vicious Filkins and Ronnie. The movie makes little light of the mindless cruelty these two are involved with (occasionally it does fall into that trap though) and what's more, writers Kristofor Brown and Seth Rogen (what don't you write these days - who are you trying to be, John Hughes? Oh wait...the third writer IS John Hughes....) show just how simple it is for bullies to get away with torturing other students without anyone ever taking them seriously.
Although it's no documentary and clearly is meant more for laughs than education Drillbit Taylor is an important movie. Bullying is one of the least necessary and most stoppable aspects of American education and if everyone just stood up for everyone else it wouldn't happen - unfortunately there is a sheepish mentality (and HARDLY just with children - adults are even worse) and as a result this sort of thing keeps happening.
For the comedy, Drillbit Taylor is just one more in the long list of movies that proves that Owen Wilson is one of the funniest men alive. For the message, this movie proves that maybe John Hughes isn't the only writer who believes in putting real messages into his writing - let's just hope people are listening.