Culturebox: These Bombs Go to 11

Now playing: Slate V, a video-only site from the world's leading online magazine. Visit Slate V at www.slatev.com.
movies These Bombs Go to 11 Waging jihad against the West gets parodied in Four Lions. By Dana Stevens Posted Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010, at 4:39 PM ET Four Lions (Drafthouse Films) is a jihadi comedy. The cognitive dissonance produced by that sentence drives the whole movie forward; if you're offended by the very concept of a terrorist cell as a laugh riot, you probably shouldn't see the movie. Or maybe you should. It will certainly be the only movie this year in which one Muslim terrorist begs another's forgiveness via online puffin avatar, or whose closing credits include the disclaimer that "One sheep was blown up in the making of this film." (Ovine activists can breathe easy: A later credit makes clear that the disclaimer is itself a joke.) The very existence of Four Lions is an act of audacity; the fact that it's also smart, humane, and frequently hilarious is nothing short of a miracle. Four Lions, directed by the British comedian Chris Morris, is being described as a terrorism-themed This Is Spinal Tap. But the movie it reminded me of was last year's In The Loop, a political satire whose central joke was that wars get started when the people in power are too vain and stupid to recognize or admit when they're wrong. Here, the protagonists operate under the fierce conviction that scheming to blow stuff up makes them radical, world-changing martyrs. Never mind that their grasp of reality is so remedial that they believe the Jews invented sparkplugs to control global traffic, or that the best way to construct a top-secret bomb stash is to order the ingredients on Amazon. To continue reading, click here. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Shafer: Why Obama Hates the Press Will Retailers Finally Have a Good Christmas? The Appalling Rule That Would Ban Nurses From Giving You Pain Medication	Advertisement
Manage your newsletters on Slate Unsubscribe | Newsletter Center | Advertising Information Please do not reply to this message since this is an unmonitored e-mail address. If you have questions about newsletters, please go here.
Ideas on how to make something better? Send an e-mail to newsletters@slate.com. Copyright 2010 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC | Privacy Policy Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive | c/o E-mail Customer Care | 1150 15th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20071