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![]() The other way the film pushes the envelope is through sheer, contemptuous incoherence. The fact that the relentless barrage of this humor is occasionally punctuated with pointedly insincere homilies wherein “dirty” grandpa De Niro tries to encourage sellout grandson Efron to Follow His Dreams just makes the whole thing that more depressing. Because they’re at a golf course, get it? That De Niro delivers these moronic japes with gusto, even vehemence, does not improve them. He continues by making a salacious play on the name “Jack Nicklaus,” putting a D where the N customarily is. ![]() Early in the film’s road trip, De Niro’s horny patriarch is trying to charm some ladies on a golf course on being stymied by uptight soon-to-be-married lawyer grandson Efron, he responds with a panoply of puns based on the term, if you’ll excuse it, “cock blocker.” “Who does your taxes, H. Only in a John Waters or Harmony Korine film the jokes might be funny, or pointed. The sort of thing you might expect in a John Waters or Harmony Korine film. The subjects of its indifferently crafted and callously executed jokes include roofie-ing, crack smoking, child molestation, jailhouse rape, graphic depictions of penises in the shape of a swastika being displayed to a rabbi, and more. The weird thing is, although the non-oneiric “Dirty Grandpa” does not feature Aubrey Plaza naked (although she gets closer than one might have expected), the movie is, as in my dream, a genuine envelope-pusher. Or maybe I’m just a perv who wants to see Aubrey Plaza naked. So maybe the dream speaks to my critical desire to see De Niro go back to surprising his audiences with audacious performances. As the author of a book on De Niro, I’m frequently (okay, not that frequently, but more often than would be the case for a guy who hadn’t written a book on De Niro) asked what I make of his various career moves. The question is WHY did I have this dream. Now you just have to take my word for it that I had this dream, but honestly, I did.
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