Oh man, so I’m actually like … brain damaged it turns out. Probably from the years and years worth of concussions I’ve sustained while doing BMT. But that isn’t here no there because I can become a Hollywood star! Do you remember what happened in Fool’s Paradise?
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) We meet our hero at a mental institution. What does the doctor say he is afflicted with?
2) And why does he get picked up off the street by Ray Liotta and how does he end up with the permanent gig?
3) Latte Pronto performs in three films in the film, describe them.
4) After falling out of Hollywood he receives the key to the city, why?
5) Ultimately everything goes full circle and he links up with Jeong again. Why does he initially think Ken Jeong is dead, and what happened to him actually?
Bonus Question: Imagine if we did a sequel to Fool’s Paradise … imagine no more! Latte Pronto gets a call from his agent. What’s the news?
Answers
1) He is basically like a dog they say. He listens and obeys commands quite well but he can’t talk and he doesn’t really seem to have thoughts of his own. It is indicated that he might snap out of it eventually, but he has no name and no money so they dump him in downtown Los Angeles.
2) He gets picked up because he resembles a very difficult actor who is causing Liotta a headache on the set of a Western he is doing. Ultimately he gets the permanent gig because the original actor dies in a (probably autoerotic) asphyxiation accident.
3) Well the first is the western, a terrible looking nonsensical Billy the Kid film which involves him getting married and fighting with Adrian Brody and stuff which doesn’t make much sense if you’ve seen Young Guns (and you know I have). The second is a Marvel-esque superhero films called Mosquito Boy which is such a catastrophe that Pronto is drummed out of Hollywood. And the final is an actual porno that Ken Jeong ends up doing (with Pronto sitting to the side).
4) So after wandering around he meets up with Common who is, similarly, a vagrant who was once a superhero akin to Blade. While eating a sandwich Common starts choking and Latte Pronto saves his life, for which he is given the key to the city.
5) So after the porno incident Ken Jeong (who constantly drinks giant energy drinks) has a heart attack and almost dies. In the hospital Latte Pronto is accosted by the doctor who insists on taking a bunch of selfies with him while Jeong is taken away to recovery as he has stabilized. Pronto thinks Jeong has died and collects a bunch of ashes he thinks is his. In reality Jeong realizes the errors of his ways, and ends up becoming true friends with Pronto in the end … it is a confusing ending.
Bonus Answer: You got it baby! They want you back as Mosquito Boy. If the first is meant to indicate an odd innocence of a Chaplin-like figure, then the final reveal of the film that he can talk (as indicated by the doctor in the beginning, this could be the start of his recovery) and so we are definitively in the talkie era. And I think I would like to see the sequel take on the pinnacle of the musical. So this is a song and dance film all of a sudden. Now Mosquito Boy 2 is a musical in the vein of Singin’ in the Rain. Mosquito Boy is a failed actor (breaking the fourth wall, a meta-commentary on Latte Pronto’s career in the first film), just looking for a way to get his career back on track. When suddenly on the street (both in real life and in the movie) he meets a young lady who just might be the Gnat Girl they are looking for. Meanwhile Brad Luxt played by Sean Hayes is Chad’s older brother who is there to teach Latte Pronto how to make them laugh, how to sing, and maybe how to dance. In the end the movie goes off the rails, although it is revealed it is mostly because Brad Luxt is a lunatic who is sabotaging Pronto who he feels ultimately elevated Chad (whom he is desperately jealous of) to stardom. Pronto and Ken Jeong get the last laugh though as a weird documentary Jeong is making throughout the film ends up being released as an arthouse take on Mosquito Boy and a love story (a bit like Paper Heart there is a question of whether the romance of real, except this time people aren’t just being dumb about it and indeed Mosquito Boy and Gnat Girl are in love). This propels Latte Pronto into the arthouse scene and we see him working with a play off of Jim Jarmusch and being offered to direct a scene hinting at a third film in which Pronto becomes a director himself.
It is called Fool’s Purgatory and if you squint I bet you can tell it is all a play off of the Divine Comedy ( in reverse) and the finale will end up being Fool’s Inferno where Pronto is directing himself in the Divine Comedy all while destroying the lives of everyone who loves him (just prior to winning out and retiring from the poison of Hollywood to become a publicist team with Ken Jeong, his only remaining friend).
Bad Movie Twins 