“This is the first wall that our father ever built, back in 1962 … It’s pretty simple back then, it’s just cinder block and mortar, you know? No tricks. And then, they added the, uh, the barbed wire later on, I think, just to keep ‘the element’ out. You know what I mean? So, yeah, this is the first wall that Boccamazzo Construction ever built, right here. We’ve been keeping people apart ever since.â€
Meet Bobby and Todd Boccamazzo (Kevin Interdonato and Gavin Price). They’re Brooklyn’s finest wall guys. Any kind of wall you want — wood, concrete, the kind from “the time of Game of Thrones†— they can build it. Now, they’re putting a bid together to build Trump’s border wall. Only, about midway through their little doc, we start to realize even they think it’s a half-baked idea. How does this have anything to do with Christmas, you ask? It doesn’t. Tricked ya. Watch it anyway because it’s 100 percent less derivative than it sounds.
As a character study, Boccamazzo Construction: We Build “Wallsâ€! is nearly perfect. Yes, because of the unfailingly entertaining cadence of wannabe good fellas from the “old school,†but also because of the subtle and gradual indictment of Trump’s batshit policy by two guys you’d think would love him. Writer-director Paul Riccio introduces us to the poster boys for small-mindedness and then gives them just enough sense to restore our faith in the future of American humanity, even if preserving the cross-border flow of Mexican food is a feeble-minded factor.
Days away from a government shutdown, we must remember what even a cup-lah Boccamazzos probably know in their hearts: Pushing for this wall ain’t gonna make anyone’s Christmas any more merry. Hey, look-a-that! We made it about Christmas after all.
Luke is executive producer at Big Breakfast and a watcher of many web videos. Send him yours @LKellyClyne.