The Smell of Success

Every once in a while a movie comes along that is almost impossible to describe adequately, and this is one of them. Maybe that’s why it seems to have done no business, and there is almost no information about it out there. Maybe no one knew how to market it. Which is a shame, in a way, because although it’s not really a good movie, it is great to look at. Here, the production design is the biggest star. The human stars are Billy Bob Thornton and Téa Leoni. The story concerns two competing manure firms. That’s right, these people are selling cow shit, and it’s a nasty business. (The original title was Manure.) And there is where words begin to fail me. It is a broad satire, full of lame jokes about crap in all its various forms. Honest to shit, this is one of the few movies that I would actually recommend just for the way it looks. It is stunning, imaginative, surreal, supremely weird. Where else are you going to see a fleet of identical shit-brown (what I believe to be) 1968 Plymouth Belvederes? Here, take a look for yourself at the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6CKKWXDldQ