Existo Reviews

Existo's political satire is as subtle as a flying mallet and watching the film is almost as painful as getting hit in the head by one. The movie skewers obvious targets on both the political right and left in an incredibly ham-fisted manner; the humor is so broad and over the top, the narrative is so disjointed, the pacing is so slack, and the characters are so irritating that it's hard to care what's happening on the screen. It's also hard to tell if the actors seem so smarmy and self-congratulatory because they are accurately portraying their characters or because they believe that they are daringly profane artists making a grand statement about the religious right. In either case, the movie seems more confusing than fun, which is bad for a film regardless of its political message. Some of the production numbers are reasonably entertaining -- you might even remember some of the songs such as "White Bred Poodle" -- and sometimes the film's self-conscious tastelesness is enough to tickle the funnybone. But Existo just doesn't have enough high points to compensate for its weaknesses.