ROCK THE KASBAH (2015)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Danny McBride, Scott Caan, Leem Lubany
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Rating: TBA
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://rockthekasbahmovie.com

Opening Day: 5 November 2015

Synopsis:  While visiting Kabul, Afghanistan, washed-up rock manager Richie Lanz (Bill Murray) gets dumped by his last client (Zooey Deschanel). His luck changes when he discovers Salima Khan, a Pashtun teenager with a beautiful voice who dreams of becoming the first female to compete on the television show "Afghan Star." With help from a savvy hooker (Kate Hudson), two war profiteers and a trigger-happy mercenary (Bruce Willis), Richie embarks on a mission to make sure his new star gets discovered.

Movie Review:

Bill Murray’s latest attempt at playing the curmudgeonly washed-out loser who finds personal redemption is in the form of a has-been rock promoter named Richie Lanz who, after suffering the indignity of having his one and only talent cum personal assistant Ronnie (Zooey Deschanel) skip out on him while on a tour to Afghanistan, stumbles upon a shy Pashtun girl (Leem Lubany) with the voice of an angel and a repertoire of Cat Stevens songs. The part about Richie is fiction, but that about the young Afghan woman who subsequently disregards familial disapproval and death threats to realise her dreams of performing live on the reality TV show ‘Afghan Star’ isn’t – it is partly inspired by the true story of Setara Hussainzada, who did just that in 2007 and has since been the subject of a 2009 documentary as well as a more recent HBO half-hour special.

As inspiring as it may have sounded over a treatment to graft that real-life story into a fictional screwball comedy, ‘Rock the Kasbah’ is as dismal as it gets. Its way of getting Richie from the low-rent Van Nuys motel he works out of in California to the deserts of Afghanistan is by way of a tip from a drunk USO liaison in a bar at which he has booked Ronnie to perform in. Its definition of humour is the sight of Ronnie freaking out on the plane surrounded with turbaned men, or a bandana-wearing Richie in an open convertible with two fast-talking arms dealers (Danny McBride and Scott Caan) in the middle of the night, or Richie wearing lipstick and a Marilyn Monroe wig tied to a bedpost. To corral these sexist, racist and crass moments into a coherent satire requires both wit and finesse, neither of which its screenwriter Mitch Glazer nor its director Barry Levinson brings to this misconceived mess.

The disappointment is even greater considering the pedigree here – Levinson was writer and director of the similarly toned ‘Wag the Dog’ back in 1997; Glazer was writer of Murray’s incalculably superior ‘Scrooged’; and Murray has proven gifted in his ability to mix pathos with dry sarcasm especially of late in critically acclaimed films like ‘Lost in Translation’, ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ and ‘St Vincent’. Yet Glazer’s script here is a mishmash of unfunny clichés even before Richie gets to the Pashtun village where he meets Salima (Lubany) – besides the Herbalife salesmen turned gun runners, Bruce Willis turns up as a psychotic gun-toting mercenary, Kate Hudson as a American hooker with a heart of gold, and Iranian-born Arian Moayed as a disco-loving taxi driver. And oh, in addition to manoeuvring to get Salima on the show, Richie also finds himself caught in a crossfire between duelling village chiefs and the opium trade.

But mostly, Levinson seems content on letting Murray be Murray, for better and for worse. A good two minutes spent listening to Murray caterwauling through Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’ to a group of Pashtun tribal elders, which gets less amusing and more grating with every passing second. Such self-absorbed off-kilter personalities are not new to the actor, but the fact that Murray plays the equivalent of a white-saviour without any shade of nuance or any hint of apology makes his character particularly loathsome and obnoxious. Rarely has Murray been less charming on screen, which is why the most cheer-worthy moment of the film is ironically when Richie falls to the ground after being shot at while trying to be the negotiator between two warring tribes.

Still, it would seem unfair to blame Murray for the insufferable experience of sitting through his character’s arrogance, misogyny and pomposity when it is clear that he is simply ambling through Glazer’s sloppy excuse of a script. It is all the more inexcusable for treating Salima as no more than a glorified cameo, relegated to the last third of the film just so in order to end the film on a real-meets-reel feel-good note. There is no catharsis to be had even when Salima defies the odds to become a bona fide celebrity, and by then the only thing clear is just how muddied this supposed black comedy is. It has no ideas, no clarity, no motive and no point, and is as unbridled an embarrassment for everyone involved as it gets. 

Movie Rating:

(Not even the reliable Bill Murray can save this haphazardly plotted, narratively bereft, and tonally misguided mess of a screwball comedy cum white-saviour redemption fable)

Review by Gabriel Chong