I agree it was a terrible movie. It was sloppy and lazy. At the same time, I can understand (just a bit) where Kelley is coming from. FGF did break some ground in an artistic sense, when you consider the venue and distribution, but Tom Green did a terrible job framing it, and as a result, it was ineffective and uninteresting. I can see where Kelley feels the need to point out an artistic effort, but Green failed in the presentation. Because it was so uneven, FGF can be written off as a bad movie, and deserves that fate. On some level, for art to succeed in spite of taste, it must be compelling. However, once that ground has been broken, everything in the same vain is usually uninteresting, the novelty is gone, and novelty was so much of what the piece had going for it. There are eight urinals in the world that are called Fountain, approved by Duchamp, and there are numerous replicas. If you pull it off just right, you can get people to covet garbage for the artistic ground that you broke. But when the message is the medium, then you need to make the message clear. FGF could have been a compelling movie, but it is only uncomfortable. Personally, I think the outtakes at the end of the movie sabotage any artistic goal FGF arguably had.
I get where you're coming from, and I don't disagree - but the argument here is not FGF in the context of something larger, it's It's But most importantly, it's What's "intrinsically valuable" about reminding us that "some things make us uncomfortable?" Particularly when you haven't made a contract with the audience whereby they request to be made uncomfortable? Some things are cult classics because they're bad - Troll 2, Plan 9, Rocky Horror Picture Show. All of them provide some level of enjoyment, usually because they're unselfconsciously bad. On the other hand, nobody watches the Star Wars Christmas Special for more than ten minutes. Even the clips you can find of The Day The Clown Cried reveal that it's a film nobody wants to see. I think that's what pisses me off - Tom Green is capable of being funny. Tommy Wiseau is not. You can watch The Room and appreciate the tragedy in motion that is the outsider art of it all, but when you watch Tom Green deliberately not being funny, you're acquiescing to Tom Green choosing your entertainment, not you. It's like ordering a hot fudge sundae and being given liver and onions because the guy behind the counter decided you needed some iron and fuck that guy. I'm a fan of Red Dawn. I will never accuse it of being a good movie, and I will never argue that it didn't get its fair shake by the public. I will argue that people with a nostalgia for cold war insanity should take a fresh look at Red Dawn because it's a singular confluence of events and a cultural nadir that I'm still amazed we survived. But that doesn't make it a better movie. That doesn't make it an "underrated gem." And I'm not going to suggest people watch it because they need to learn a thing or two about Hollywood and propaganda any more than I'd shove Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will down their necks. I've never seen FGF. I can safely say I never will. There may be compelling reasons for me to check it out, under certain conditions, but arguing that it's been misjudged by history because people didn't ascribe the right motive to Tom Green is the wrong way to convince me.Imagine my shock to discover that the movie was sort of ... excellent. Not full-on excellent, mind you, but kind of excellent, partially excellent. Excellent in a negative way.
Freddy Got Fingered failed in the mainstream because it set out to push past that invisible boundary. This isn’t a light, lazy movie, getting by with no more than a “wangs are funny” attitude. It isn’t mere grossness and sophomoric comedy for the sake of a cheap laugh. The movie fails as a comedy, but succeeds as an exercise in discomfort.
The shock provided in this movie is an intrinsically valuable service. “Freddy Got Fingered“ helps remind us that some things make us uncomfortable. Some things are just taboo.