Reflections

Noriega: God's Favorite

35mm, 115 min., 2000 (WP)

This black comedy of Third World politics is a surreal ride on the roller coaster of pan-American affairs of state, an upside-down world in which puppet dictators pull the strings and governments are as stable as radical compounds. Going against type, Noriega: God's Favorite depicts the infamous Panamanian despot as a buffoonish tyrant graced by an inexplicable luck that he perceives as divine providence. A lively Hoskins plays Noriega as a malevolent fool, a dangerous clown who wields power against all odds ... the twinkle in his eye is both comical and scary. Lawrence Wright's rollicking script takes no prisoners, skewering a hypocritical American foreign policy that coddles tyrants who traffic drugs and guns all in the name of the sacrosanct Monroe Doctrine. Briskly directed by jack-of-all-trades Spottiswoode, Noriega: God's Favorite once caught the eye of bombastic provocateur Oliver Stone, who no doubt would have drained this work of its blood in favor of conspiratorial intrigues and god-knows-what. (Thankfully, Stone's short attention span and budgetary shortsightedness ultimately prevailed.) Smart and wildly entertaining, Noriega: God's Favorite comes close to being the Duck Soup of our times.