Year 17, Day 202 - 7/21/25 - Movie #5,086
BEFORE: I can still get this one in as a Monday film, part of a double-feature of sorts. I had to get up very early on Monday morning, not to work at the theater, but to report in at the Department of Labor, a mandatory meeting with a jobs counselor. Unfortunately there was no way to change the date or time of the meeting, or even let my counselor know that, you know, I'm not really a "morning person", and could we possibly meet sometime after 1 pm? Not only was there no way to do that, it probably wouldn't have been a proper way to present myself to a jobs counselor - but hey, it's true, I don't like getting up early.
Anyway I was up at 7 and out the door at 7:30 (OK, 7:45) to take TWO buses across Queens, NY, to a very non-descript building that had a bunch of cubicles on the 2nd floor, and I described my job search, told my counselor about my "temp job" that sometimes lets me work 20 hours a week and also sometimes zero hours a week, if there are no events happening. She pointed out that I need to keep better records of which jobs I've applied to, just in case they want to audit my account, which could lead to denying me benefits if they think I'm not applying myself to, well, applying. But I have gone on interview (note singular) and applied for a dozen different things, including being a mascot at a notable restaurant - I probably won't get it, but it counts toward "things that I applied for", so there.
Elvis Presley carries over from "God Is the Bigger Elvis".
THE PLOT: Casa Bonita, a quirky Mexican restaurant in Colorado with cliff divers and other attractions, faces closure. "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone try saving this piece of their childhood history.
AFTER: If you've ever done any home renovation, or repairs on a larger building, then this may be the film for you. Because maybe things with your reno went smoothly, but more likely there were unforeseen problems and also the cost was greater than you thought it would be. Now multiply that by a hundred - no, wait, a thousand - and you'll see what the creators of "South Park" were up against when they decided to buy and update a Colorado Mexican restaurant that they enjoyed visiting during their childhood that had closed during the pandemic.
It's a relatable story, sure - thousands of restaurants closed in the past few years because they weren't able to pivot and adapt to delivery systems, or didn't realize that people nationwide would completely abuse the "Unlimited Shrimp" promotion (I'm innocent of this, for once, though I may have been single-handedly responsible for the demise of the Queens Sizzler back in the day). Any time a restaurant is closed for any period of time, it's going to take time and money to resurrect it. But multiply that by another thousand - no, wait a million - and you'll see what went down at Casa Bonita.
The systems in place may have been at fault - even fans of the restaurant will admit that there was always an odd smell to the place, like you just can't mix a chlorinated indoor pool with carpeting and Mexican food and think that nothing could possibly go wrong with that combination. But after 18 months of work and a budget that escalated to eight figures, you have to wonder if it might have been cheaper to just bulldoze the old Casa Bonita and build an exact replica with better electrical systems and working HVAC. When the project costs hit $10 million and far exceeded what the new owners spent to buy the restaurant in the first place, any rational owners would have cut their losses and walked away, hopefully $10 million smarter than when they first started.
Thankfully (?) Parker and Stone are not rational people, well not in the accounting sense, they're Hollywood animation creators, and they've been very successful over the years by pushing the envelope, some might say exceeding the boundaries of good taste with their cartoons, however they garnered a lot of publicity for doing that, and between "South Park" and "The Book of Mormon", generated enough income to be able to do the unrational things sometimes. There's a condition I've come to call "artist brain" which means that primarily someone needs to be creating art and worrying about the costs later. As a general rule those people surround themselves with other people who worry about accounting matters and logistics, while they focus on "What should this character look like?" and "Hey, is this funny? If not, how can we make it funny?"
There's nervous laughter throughout this whole film, as Parker and Stone learn from their people that the previous restaurant owners neglected upkeep on the building, preventive maintenance was not done for decades, and there was a constant practice known as "Safety Third" which means that it's a miracle that nobody over the years working as a cliff diver wasn't killed by hitting their head on a fake rock or electrocuted in the shower area after leaving the pool. Maybe whoever first designed the place just had the "artist brain" and did not surround themselves with the proper experts on safety and logistical matters, I don't know. Or it was the restaurant group that took over for the original owners that placed profit ahead of long-term building upkeep.
It turns out there are three kinds of management - there's daily management, long-term management, and micro-management. Daily management is what you have to do right now to get through the shift, so your current customers will leave happy and satisfied and entertained. Long-term management means fixing whatever is broken, so that you know next week the A/C will be working and the roof won't be leaking and as we often see, some people prioritize daily (short-term) over long-term repairs, however this has long-term negative effects. Micro-management is a whole different thing, it can involve fretting over the color of the paint or worrying that the puppet show doesn't have enough jokes. I don't care much for micro-managers, but I'll admit they do get stuff done, however they tend to stress the same points again and again and again and sometimes those are contradictory to the daily management. I've learned this from managing a movie theater these last four years and occasionally having to bend a rule or three during the course of a shift. I want all of my guests to leave happy and satisfied and entertained, even if I had to skip dinner or stay an extra hour.
Well, we know how the "South Park" guys spent their pandemic years, now. They probably could have made three seasons of their show if not for investing so much time and money into resurrecting this restaurant. But they're local heroes in Colorado now, hell they were before, but now even more so. I hope they can sell enough dinner platters to make up for all the effort, they did put people in place who actually cared about food quality and cleanliness, unlike the previous owners. A quick reminder that my blog has never officially endorsed any product or featured advertising of any sort, but I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you that new episodes of "South Park" start airing THIS WEEK. Make of that what you will.
We're heading into a section of films that focuses on people in the animation field, some of whom I have had professional dealings with in the real world. This is the first of them, because I met Trey Parker at the Toronto Film Festival in 1997, when "South Park" was really just starting up. "Orgazmo" was screening in Toronto, and I was there promoting the film "I Married a Strange Person". I saw Trey hanging out before the screening and I spoke with him, asked him if he wanted to meet my boss, which he did, and then I think we talked a little shop. I also managed to get myself invited to a preview of the first South Park Halloween episode, which Trey and Matt showed at the Caroline's Comedy Club. (Still upset that I wasted a question during the Q&A, sorry.). The chain dictates that I have to go back to music matters for a couple of days, but then, I promise, more stories about me meeting animators IRL. Well, look at that, it's programmed right around the time of San Diego Comic-Con, whaddaya know.
Directed by Arthur Bradford
Also starring Trey Parker (last heard in "Despicable Me 3"), Matt Stone (last seen in "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage"), Steve Bender, Amber Blais, Jim "JB" Brown, Ramiro Cazaux, Aaron D'Addario, Ron Daniels, Torrey DeMasters, Luis Barron Elias, Anne Garefino, Dan Jennison, Paul Lang, Bethel Lindsley, Charles McQuerry, Rudy Morado, Betty Boogie Parker, Randy Parker, Phil H. Phillips, Jared Polis, Carly J. Price, Rochelle Rich, Dana Rodriguez, Benjamin Schrader, Don Shannon, Scott Shoemaker, Chuck Spaeth, Chris L. Spellman, Patricia Stevens, Paul Vinyard, Bill Waugh, Frances Waugh, Don Whitcomb, Chad Wonder,
with archive footage of Rob Christie, Carson Daly (last seen in "Sheryl"), Shani Jonas, Hoda Kotb (last seen in "Marry Me"), Kristian Lopez, Ricardo Montalban (last seen in "I Am Burt Reynolds"), Al Roker (last seen in "Personality Crisis: One Night Only"), Harry Smith, Jeff Todd
RATING: 6 out of 10 sopapillas (I'm resolved to learn exactly what those are)
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