More than a dozen years after it was made, I settled down to watch this highly lauded Polish film and soon wondered what took me so long. "Day of the Wacko" is Polish cinema at its best. It's as if Federico Fellini had made "Jackass, the Movie." Brilliantly played by Marek Kondrat, the main character is a jackass, a bitter 49-year-old man who hates his life. His obsessive-compulsive daily routines, his insomnia, and his contempt for other people, have made a mess of him. He lives in a delusional world in which he is the only sane and rational person. Through his world view, however, comes a well deserved satirizing of the commercialization of Polish life and the vapid individuals who inhabit his world. We end up sympathizing with him, as his son, his former wife, his mother, and all of his neighbors display their absurd normalcy. This is comedy that makes you think.
Review of Day of the Wacko
