Thank You For Smoking

Just saw Thank You For Smoking in a packed theatre at the University 6 (which is no longer showing Sir! No Sir! (reviews). Nooooo, I missed it). Awesome movie. I usually skip on what actually happens in a movie when I write a review, because I find spoilers of any kind to be anathema (unless I hate it, because then, I don't care), but I'll try to run through the basics. It's about a guy who defends the smoking industry. Yep, that's about it. The basics. That should suffice. Go see it to find out more.

The movie itself tackles a relatively serious subject, while remaining light enough to keep the comedy upbeat. The reviewer at the Washington Post thought the movie needed more satire, but I thought it was at just the right level. Too much, and I think the movie would have lost its happy sunshine mood, which is so well balanced with the "death and destruction" topic.

Anyway, I felt it was far more successful than other satirical works from before, say, Office Space. I know there's a number of fans here of that movie, but I personally hated it. Being a prior fan of good Dilbert, OS felt like the watered down hillbilly version. So, maybe that's how the reviewer at the WP feels, having read the TYFS novel, which I haven't.

Other than the writing, Smoking in general was well-crafted. The acting was good, the cinematography was good, blah blah blah. I'll just end it with a quote from Ebert:

"Here is a satire both savage and elegant, a dagger instead of a shotgun. Thank You for Smoking targets the pro-smoking lobby with a dark appreciation of human nature."