No one in Baskets gets to have what he wants. Take Chip Baskets (Zach Galifianakis), who just wants to be a clown. Back home in Bakersfield, California, after flunking out of clown school in France, Chip gets a gig with a rodeo, but it does little to fulfill his artistic ambitions. Nevertheless, he prepares to be knocked around by the bulls as if he’s about to take the stage at Carnegie Hall. This kind of conflation and misapprehension of fantasy and reality is at the heart of this very dark comedy.
Looking out over a vista of industrial parks and strip malls, Chip’s mother asks Penelope, the Frenchwoman who married Chip for a green card but now refuses even to be in the same room with him, how she likes the view. Before she can answer, Mrs. Baskets adds, “Isn’t it beautiful?” without a shred of irony. It isn’t beautiful and everyone knows that, but it’s better to laugh about it, if for no other reason than to keep from crying.
