“I know what you want me to do…” Sean “Poopies” McInerney quivers in trepidation when confronted with the latest ball-busting stunt in “Jackass: Best and Last.” But then, of course, he finishes the sentence with an unexpected chutzpah that defines the ethos of the show’s nearly three-decade run across screens small and big: “…and I’ll do it.”
The “Jackass” crew swears they mean it this time when they say “Best and Last” will be their final movie. The nature of the new pranks and bits for the film gives a good indication of why. The core group members from day one, like Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and Chris Pontius, are all on the other side of fifty. They’ve got to gamify aging to rob it of power.
An early gag involves a robot administering a prostate exam with a crunchy peanut butter-covered finger. Another charts the sickening fallout from a trio of aging daredevils playing Twister while colonoscopy prep liquid moving through their innards makes their bowels erupt. Their bodies might not bounce back as quickly as they once did, but the performers are by no means done testing how far they can stretch themselves for a laugh.
There’s a borderline elegiac quality to the way longtime “Jackass” wrangler Jeff Tremaine assembles this big clip reel, which culls highlights from their nearly 30 years of archival material from both TV and movies. It begins with an early proof of concept for the show involving Knoxville shooting himself with a bunch of Playboys stuck underneath the bulletproof vest – a gamble so risky that MTV’s legal team only just authorized its airing. That smug ringleader’s shit-eating grin feels both like a dispatch from another life and somehow still present, though Knoxville now sports a snow-white tuft of spiked hair.
It’s easier than ever to watch an endless stream of content preying on viewers’ basest instincts to enjoy what early scholars of the medium dubbed the “cinema of attractions.” With camera phones and social networks, anyone can capture and consume the spectacle in the mundanity of everyday life. But “Jackass: Best and Last” makes a strong case for why design still matters in an age of amateurism.
The evolution of their camerawork’s sophistication is evident when comparing their primitive first footage to their multicamera marvels in the present. An early video of Knoxville letting a car hit him focuses solely on the impact of man and metal. It possesses no foresight that capturing what comes after the collision will be just as interesting.
Now, it’s clear that the “Jackass” team knows what really makes their silly stunt work stand out in a crowded marketplace of people posting their Ls for all to see. The build-up and the comedown are where the real magic happens. Whether vulnerably vomiting in revulsion at what occurred or running over to tackle a buck-naked bestie, the cameras now capture the fullness of a moment. In these moments, the real appeal of the series becomes apparent: these forms of ritual humiliation form lasting bonds of group cohesion.
At some point in the last decade or so, the conventional wisdom shifted around “Jackass.” Discerning viewers now widely recognize what was once nothing more than a lowbrow sideshow of foolishness as being “about” male friendship in all its absurd physical dimensions. Men used to go to war; now, they need to draw up dangerous stunts to feel comfortable around each other’s genitalia. “Jackass: Best and Last” seems to have absorbed some of the cultural chatter, taking itself ever-so-slightly more seriously as a result. But all it takes is a quick cutaway of guys jumping on rakes to recalibrate the film in a state of jubilant juvenility.
If there’s any knock on the film, it’s the lack of new material showing their late-stage enlightenment. This “Jackass” is vastly more “best” than “last,” padding the 92-minute runtime with a lot of the greatest hits replayed in full. (Which, to be clear, still hit – especially in a packed room.) But even if the film consists primarily of reheated material, the cast and crew still know how to make it feel warm and welcoming. No other franchise film could list both an Academy Award-winning screenwriter (Spike Jonze) and a butthole consultant in its closing credits, and that’s art. [B]
“Jackass: Best and Last” opens in theaters on Friday, June 25.
