It sounds like a “Saturday Night Live” skit; this, ahem, “brilliantly” inspired idea to have three rednecks review classic foreign films by the likes of Bergman, Kurosawa, Truffaut and Fellini. As you might expect, “A Cowboy’s Guide to Foreign Films” is about as humorous as SNL is nowadays, which is to say, not very. As the hayseeds — one of whom has the decidedly uncreative name “Red Neckerson” — give their rambling, pseudo-snob reviews, we watch brief cuts of the films they’re discussing…which is about the only thing worthwhile about this whole bad idea. Gregory Enyart’s one joke pony runs out of steam in the first few minutes, and such in-jokes as having an interview with Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Enyart) be out of sync with his picture, only come across as the filmmaker being smug. I’m sure that Enyart meant no harm with this; possibly even intending it as some sort of backhanded tribute to the filmmakers he’s so blithely lampooning. And, truth be told, no harm is done…except to the viewer’s patience. Still, while these directors would be the first to argue that no one, not even them, should be transformed into a sacred cow, these cinematic masters deserved more respect than this.
