YOUR HIGHNESS

High Times

Directed by David Gordon Green
Starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Justin Theroux

The last few years have brought a flood of new character comedians to Hollywood; take Zach Galifinakis and his awkward shtick or Seth Rogen and his ‘dude next door’ approach. A stand out example has to be Danny McBride with his angry, yet casually calm characters. Bringing McBride’s sexually charged humour to the fantasy genre is as hilarious as you might think - on the other hand, if you think McBride in any movie is a disaster, there will be little else for which to grasp.

Set in a time of kings and monsters, Your Highness sees two princes set out on a quest to rescue a fair maiden and stop an evil prophecy from being fulfilled. McBride plays slacker prince Thadeous, who has spent his life watching his perfect older brother, and heir to the throne, Fabious (played by James Franco) embark on valiant journeys and just generally be perfect. Thadeous prefers a life of wizard’s weed, hard booze and easy wenches. But when Fabious rescues Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) from the tower of evil wizard Leezar, he brings turmoil to his kingdom. Leezar steals his prized virgin back on the day she and Fabious are to wed, and so Thadeous has to put his pipe and ale to the side and finally help his brother on a manly quest.

During the course of the film the characters are thrown staples of the fantasy genre - the wise wizard, a mechanical bird, and a sword forged of unicorn. But everything has passed through the perpetually immature mind of the writers, so the wise wizard becomes a sexually molesting stoner and a Minotaur’s cock becomes a noble prize. Hearing Thadeous drop an F bomb amongst prince and princesses talking about the fair light of yonder moon never got old, and had me laughing until the final line.

Along the way the rag-tagged troupe runs into Natalie Portman’s warrior princess, herself on a quest of revenge. She keeps up with the antics of McBride well, but I still maintain he wrote her into Your Highness so he could have a chance to see her apple shaped arse in person.

Your Highness was written by McBride and Ben Best, both of whom also co-wrote Foot Fist Way and Eastbound And Down - the critically praised TV series centered around an ex-Major League baseball pitcher Kenny Powers, played by McBride. As this is the third project they have worked on together the humour that threads through their previous work is readily apparent in Your Highness. So to say that Your Highness is like Kenny Powers walking around the set of Conan The Barbarian or Lord Of The Rings is an understatement. Does it work? Does Kenny Fucking Powers own a bitchin’ jet ski? God damn right he does.

As someone who thinks Eastbound And Down is one of the greatest TV series to ever grace the small screen, largely in part to Danny McBride’s style, I found Your Highness a hilarious journey. But if you find his antics immature and juvenile give this one a royal miss.

_TOM VARIAN

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