Jackass 3D

March 24 · Regal Riviera · 10:00 P.M.

Jeff Tremaine, 2010, 100 minutes

In 2008, only ten major films were released in 3D, half of which were either concert novelties (U2 3D and Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience) or documentaries made specifically for IMAX theaters. A year later, James Cameron’s Avatar made nearly $3 billion at the box office and kicked off a new gold rush. In 2011, more than 60 3D features were released in theaters.

2010 was a kind of transition period, as theatrical exhibitors raced to update projection equipment, studios aggressively converted 2D films for 3D screenings (often to diminished effect), and home electronics manufacturers rushed 3D TVs to the market. Werner Herzog’s documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams, which is also screening in Stereo Visions, is one of the more interesting experiments of 2010. As is Disney’s Step Up 3D, which we seriously considered for Big Ears.

However, the real outlier of 2010, a year dominated by animated and fantasy films, is Jackass 3D — surely the most radically strange theatrical release in the hundred-year history of Paramount Pictures. Much of the film sticks to the classic Jackass formula, with master of ceremonies Johnny Knoxville (Philip Clapp, Jr. to us locals) introducing stunts and pranks performed by Bam, Steve-O, Wee Man, Ryan Dunn, and the rest. Highlights include “High Five,” “Beehive Tetherbal””, and “Poo Cocktail Supreme.” (Imagine it. This film opened on nearly 4,600 screens and earned back its budget in one day.) The opening and closing sequences, shot using high speed cameras, are as wildly arresting — avant-garde, even — as anything you’ll see in Stereo Visions.

In the years since its release, Jackass 3D has earned a significant place in critical conversations about media consumption, experimental forms, and the post-9/11 era. Written as a supplement to BAMcinématek’s 2015 series, “3D in the 21st Century,” Uncas Blythe’s essay, “The Sad Masters,” makes the case that Jackass 3D is:

unusually moving, even pathos-ridden, as it’s clear this is a sort of Last Hurrah. This is a movie of wheezing, ancient man-child priests, like Jean-Luc Godard. The gang are clearly getting “too old for this shit” in any dimension. Except for the late Ryan Dunn, of course, who in apotheosis becomes the guardian angel, the Lady Di, of Reality Television.

The essay, and the ideas that propel it, aren’t nearly as reaching or pedantic as that snippet might suggest. You can see it on Bam’s face when he’s trying to climb out of the snake pit and on Steve-O’s when he’s strapped to the portapot. Jackass 3D is visually inventive, can’t-catch-your-breath hilarious, indefensibly gross, and, at the same time, pathetic — in every sense of the word.