When I first read about Judd Apatow’s next project after the release of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS last summer, I learned that the film was about the world of stand-up comedy and it would be starring Adam Sandler. My initial reaction to this news was sort of a mix of excitement and a general feeling of, ”How the fuck is Apatow going to pull THIS one off?”
Judd Apatow has long been known to flex his muscles of morality within his “cock and balls,” dirty joke frameworks that are rampant in his movies. THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP (both directed by Apatow) are heavily influenced by subtexts of responsibility, manhood, abstinence, and friendship–Themes that are fairly uncommon in most modern Hollywood comedies.
Yes, FUNNY PEOPLE is a far cry from the blockbuster comedies that were being produced en masse in the late 90’s. My generation can literally sum our collective comedic experience into the exploits of one character whose name still brings a chill to my bones. Stifler. God I fucking hate that piece of shit character. I’ve never been known strictly as a nerd or geek because my friendly personality and interests in fairly common social trends has hidden my inner-nerd from the outside world, but Stifler bothered me to my inner nerd core and made me weep openly for anyone who has ever been given a wedgie or for any girl who has ever had their tits grabbed followed by a honking sound.
(NOTE: My distaste for Stifler casts no shame upon Sean William Scott, who is actually a normal guy and has made up for his casting as Stifler with great performances in THE RUNDOWN, ROLE MODELS etc. I remember MTV did a special on Scott sometime in after AMERICAN PIE was released and behind the scenes he was actually a kind of boring dude who didn’t say much and preferred to be the quiet one in a room. How ironic.)
Seriously, I can remember thinking that AMERICAN PIE was the crème de la crème of comedies. Granted, I was 13 years old and extremely unconcerned about the aspects of what made a movie “good, ” but the mental image of Jason Biggs prematurely ejaculating on Shannon Elizabeth and having sex with a pie just barely scratches the surface on everything I now detest from the “gross out” comedy romps of the late 90’s and early 21st century, a time when I was impressionable and vulnerable to the absolute garbage that big movie studios produce annually. The financial strength of the AMERICAN PIE name has brought on SIX FUCKING SEQUALS (4 of which have been of the “straight to DVD” variety).
I have nightmares that my first born son will live long enough to see the DVD release of AMERICAN PIE: IM GOING TO GIVE YOUR MOM A SHOCKER WHILE YOUR DAD WATCHES AND YOU”RE CRYING UNDER THE BED starring the cast of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL.
NOTE: Im not saying that semen/bodily fluids can’t produce an epically funny joke; Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz proved this in THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. Todd Phillips is also a master of gross out humor done right. THE HANGOVER was an instant classic and is currently engaged in an all out battle in my mind for best comedy of 2009 thus far.
My point is, it amazes me how sophisticated the genre of comedy has become over the past few years thanks to the Apatow comedy crew that he frequently associates himself with: Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, James Franco, etc. Its amazing to see the young cast of FREEKS AND GEEKS mature into the talented actors that all of them have become. I think we are all witnessing a very important stage of comedy that has yet to reveal its true importance.
Sophisticated might be the last adjective you think of when analyzing a dick joke, but Apatow’s strength as a director is to let his casts chemistry overwhelm the simplicities of dick based humor by developing his films characters to the point where what you perceive on screen is actually a group of real friends dealing with real issues. (Apatow is famous for letting his cast improvise scenes over and over again until a take comes out perfect—some scenes are shot between 20-25 times)
Comedy is the result of escape. Good comedians use comedy in order to cope with the horrible things that have somehow affected their lives—and Apatow’s films are chock full of these themes:
There is nothing funny about knocking up a chick you just met at a club when you are a broke stoner with no direction in life, in fact, that’s a nightmare that no one I know personally ever wants to experience.
Who the fuck wants to wake up at 40 years old with no friends, no family, and no dirty tales to share at your employee poker game?
Who ACTUALLY wants to lie to their coworkers while describing a tit as having the consistency of a bag of sand?
FUNNY PEOPLE takes this formula that Apatow has been tweaking ever so slightly over the past few years and delivers a mind blowing film that is both hysterically funny and extremely heart breaking at the same time. I’ve only seen the film once, but I can say that this is by far Apatow’s best OVERALL film and one that needs further viewing to really appreciate what is going on for the duration of the film.
The running time IS a tad long (140 min) for a conventional comedy but I never found myself kicking in my seat or rearranging my position every 1.5 minutes which is a good sign. ADHD + Uncomfortable movie seats = disaster for anyone sitting near me.
NOTE: This is the first review I have ever written for a blog, so I am still experimenting with content, analysis, and my overall presentation. I am currently thinking that less plot breakdown = better analysis. I also want to come up with a scoring system, but all of that is under development. I would also like to restrain from using spoilers as much as possible. Hopefully with my reviews you will get a sense of what’s good and/or bad about the movie without too much exploration of plot details. And as always, if you have suggestions or comments, don’t be shy. I am a rapper self promoting my music. Criticism/suggestions are essential at this stage.
On to the REVIEW:
The main strengths of FUNNY PEOPLE revolve around the relationships that Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) establishes throughout the film.
The first act highlights Ira’s non-spectacular life by showing us the daily interactions between Ira and his best friends/roommates Mark (played by wonder-douche Jason Schwartzman who doubled his acting duties by also scoring the film—which is wonderfully done) and Leo (Jonah Hill, seriously, can someone give this guy a more substantial role then the “fat friend?” Jonah Hill always steals the show and we haven’t seen him in much of worth since SUPERBAD, when he single handedly carried Michael Cera’s honest, but brutally boring performance)
These opening scenes provide ample laughs throughout the beginning of film and the dynamic trio never fails to entertain. These are 3 guys trying to make it in the cut throat world of comedy in LA and Apatow perfectly emulates common real life situations throughout the film where these friendships are tested.
The second act begins after George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is diagnosed with a blood disease that is potentially fatal. Simmons catches Ira’s short but potentially lucrative stand up set and decides to offer him a position as an assistant in order to help him transition back into performing at standup gigs while simultaneously providing him with someone he can air our his stresses to without worrying about a potential backlash, because 1) Ira doesn’t know Simmons that well and, 2) He can fire him at will.
Apatow uses the relationship between Simmons and Ira to assert his main theme that Funny People = Unhappy People.
The sharp contrast between Simmons and Ira’s stage in life leads to a sort of odd couple/opposites attract type of relationship. Ira is unsuccessful, “unfunny,” terrible with women, and hates his day job. Simmons is successful, funny, promiscuous, and lives the life that Ira is chasing. But Simmons is FAR from happy. The friendship that develops between Ira and George is both hilarious and compelling to watch. The pair also echoes the sentimental values that Apatow often places within his narratives. The shared experiences of misery/jealousy/failure/and impending death bring Ira and Simmons into “Bro” like bond that creates both humor and sentiment.
The third act of the film shifts the focus onto the relationship between Simmons and his ex girlfriend/true love (the one that got away) Laura (played by Apatow mainstay Leslie Mann, more thoughts on this later) and in my mind, this is where the film falters, if only briefly, the most.
Apatow works hard for the first 2/3rds of the film developing Rogens character Ira and then drops the ball when the focus shifts to Sandler’s character George Simmons. While the idea of Simmons attempting to tie up loose ends in his life is a fitting place to take the story arc, Ira Wright’s character suffers greatly from this distraction.
Apatow has been harshly criticized for his portrayals of women in his films. Katherine Hegel famously declared her hatred for the film KNOCKED UP due to its misogynistic nature, and I must say, in FUNNY PEOPLE, there isn’t much of a thematic change here. [EDIT--I am JUST realizing how Hegel's comments should be completely discredited based on her starring role in this summers THE UGLY TRUTH. I have not seen this movie yet and don't intend to anytime soon, but by all accounts, Hegel should have saved her distasteful comments for THIS movie instead. If Hegel is truly concerned about misogyny, stereotypes, and or feminism she would not have accepted a role in a film that has her publicly orgasming a la Meg Ryan while asserting to the world that the ugly truth about relationships is that men are ONLY concerned about sex. This is quite a contradiction from her relatively harmless role in KNOCKED UP, no?]
I don’t know anything about Judd Apatow’s history with women, but if my logic about comedians dealing with emotional scar tissue through escapist tactics of comedy holds firm, then some she bitch REALLY did a number on Mr. Apatow and his most likely Adolescent heart. This film reeks of anger towards women.
2 Women come to my mind after seeing this film, BOTH are love interests for the two main characters, Simmons, and Ira, and BOTH of them draw despise for different reasons from the Male perspective. Based on MY personal experiences with relationships with women a particular scene in the movie made me cringe with disgust. I believe that this was calculated and intentional on Apatow’s part and while I don’t think one can go as far to call Apatow’s portrayal of women as misogynistic, surely, his personal ideologies in regards to women and their effect on men is one with strong skepticism and mistrust
The bro’s before ho’s mantra.
FUNNY PEOPLE is by far Apatow’s strongest film to date, yes, it does have its flaws, but I believe that these flaws are justified by the main themes of the film: Funny People are by nature, flawed.
In order to truly gain satisfaction or personal happiness in life, one must realize that friendships/relationships are based upon recognizing and placing value among the flaws that we all bear as humans.
The resulting film is a two hour+ masterpiece on human connection and the power of friendship filled with hilarious anecdotes about dicks, cocks, balls, masturbation, oral sex, and the many things you will expect from an Apatow film. The frat boy who admired Stifler in high school will hate this film, pretty much anyone else should enjoy the experience.
NOTE: I have come up with a list of questions to answer for each film that I review that will become a staple for the “Hypothesis Spits Movie Review.” The Questions will come at the end of each review and will be the same every time, so without further ado, here is what most of you will skip to before reading my long winded, verbose movie reviews.
THE FINAL EXAM: (catchy right?)
How does the movie compare to other films from the director?
Effectively combines all of the elements of previous Apatow films into one masterpiece of comedic filmmaking that most will enjoy immensely.
Is the movie effective?
Yes, the movie reaches past simple elements of comedy into real issues of what makes a true friend and what makes one happy. These are extremely deep metaphysical questions that are answered strongly, even if objectively, by Judd Apatow.
Would I watch the film again?
Yes, I can’t wait to view this film again.
Best aspect of the film?
Seth Rogens performance here, along with OBSERVE AND REPORT, really show off his talents as an actor. I am consistently surprised by the range of Seth Rogens characters. I also fucking loved the multiple cameos in the film. They are magical. Aziz Ansari was by far the best. Be ready for that one.
Worst aspect of the film?
Eric Bana’s character disappointed me. I also think the film does little to separate Apatow from his critics who suggest that his films are misogynistic. Still, I disagree.
Final grade + viewing suggestion?
92/100. A- Go see this film.
