richard reid a laugh riot? he is now!

You can read about my expectations for Judd Apatow's current box office hit Knocked Up here, and I am pleased to report that the movie actually did exceed my expectations! I like to guess what tone a movie is going to take by the trailers that are shown right before it, and the pre-show experience was a little bit of a red herring this time. Trailers were for the standard teen comedy fare (including Superbad, which I am excited for...), whose audience Knocked Up certainly appealed to, but the characters and the situations they got into were so believable and well-crafted, that I think older moviegoers could have had as much fun watching it as teenagers could.

On a message board I frequent, someone said that they liked how the film portrayed both sides of a conflict evenly, without vilifying either side. I thought this was a great way to express what I liked so much about the movie. It is true that not every argument has a right answer or party, and I was glad to be reminded of that by the interactions between the two couples. That alone was enough to make me, as a viewer, feel like a friend to all of the main characters. I didn't want to pick sides, because I sympathized with everyone. It may not seem like much, but to be able to appeal to male and female audience members equally using humor is something that I am very impressed by.

Secondary and tertiary actors Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Harold Ramis, and Kristen Wiig were excellent. Ramis was perfectly cast as Seth Rogen's father, and Wiig is one of SNL's best assets right now (do a YouTube search for "SNL" + "Body Fusion" or "Sloths" or the eponymous "Dick in a Box," and you'll see what I mean). Her comedy is borne out of restrained displeasure, and it gets me every time. Paul Rudd - who, first of all, has gotten way better looking with age - played such a good counterpart to Leslie Mann, because they seemed so polar even though they were realistic enough to have shades of each other's characters in themselves. I just wish they could have used Firefly's Alan Tudyk a little more.

I think Apatow uses weed humor as a bit of a crutch, when there are always plenty of other elements to his stoner characters that could elicit laughs. I thought the celebrity nude scene humor was awesome, and just the sort of quotable fare that will make this movie last. The ribbing among Ben and his friends was just too funny. Too, too funny. I'm cracking up a little bit at work right now, and I'd hate to draw attention to the fact that I'm blogging on the clock...

Katherine Heigl was beautiful, and played the vulnerable yet capable character very well. I thought she emoted at all the right times, but wasn't simply a hormonal mess. At a couple of points she was a little too reminiscent of the character of Izzie Stevens, whom I've grown to dislike, but it's hard to say if that's more my fault than hers.

There were a couple of points at which I wondered how audiences at large would react to the possibly pro-life sentiment displayed by the film. Neither of the main characters really considers abortion or adoption, and the two supporting characters who suggest the former option do it so cruelly that I would think few audience members could sympathize with them. I think this is interesting in light of how common alternatives to keeping an unplanned baby are displayed in the media, compared to how much more common it is for Americans to raise their unplanned kids. I was glad to see that Apatow didn't force Ben and Alison to have a shotgun wedding in order to appease those put off by the premarital baby-making, because I don't think it would have made much sense for the characters.

B.J. Novak's cameo was well-played, but my giddiness at the prolonged presence of real-life doctor and ...sensual... comedian Dr. Ken makes me want to leave you with one thing:

in a family way

For many years, I have prided myself on my ability to look down on people who favor gross-out or other types of base, broad comedy. That's not to say that if getting a screenwriting career meant selling out and writing Date Movie 12: Now That's What I Call Date Movie: Furious Havana Drift, I wouldn't do it, but I could never bring myself to watch more than a few minutes of the American Pie / Van Wilder sort of movies that gross so many millions. One exception to this rule is Grandma's Boy, which I saw as a free screener called "Nana's Boy" a few months before its release. Though I don't smoke pot, play video games, or have a particular obsession with huge fake boobs, there was good acting and plenty of witticism to string those themes together and create a laugh riot.

When The 40 Year Old Virgin came out, I didn't expect much. I knew Steve Carell to be funny from The Daily Show, but what sold me was that if Catherine Keener had been willing to sign on to what looked like a boring 'not-quite-teen sex romp,' there had to be something more substantial to it. What a pleasant surprise it was to see a smart collection of funny characters, perfectly crafted for their situations, with a revamped Hollywood storyline that ended up being just the right amount of endearing. I wouldn't say that everything in the movie was perfect, but I must applaud writer-director-producer Judd Apatow for appealing to popular kids, nerds, adults, men, women, comedy fans, and romance fans with this film. In hindsight, I'm sure I shouldn't have expected anything less from someone involved with both "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared."

Apatow's next project as a director (he's still writing and producing, but has kept his directorial talents from other projects such as - wait for the shock of a lifetime - Fun With Dick and Jane) is Knocked Up, which will bring along Virgin's Seth Rogen and pair him against the glorious Katherine Heigl. [Sidebar: Kirsten Dunst needs to realize that just because she has kittenteeth like Katherine Heigl doesn't mean they make her beautiful. Heigl also has the benefit of not looking like a hobo's mummified corpse.] The similarity in marketing between the two films is an interesting tie-in, hopefully getting Virgin's audience to come back. Look at how the first movie's poster is stylistically similar to the second, and how they convey that the characters are different, but both of them will surprise us with how unlike their appearances they are. Now, look at me, judging books by their covers and coming to the conclusion that these characters wouldn't want us to!

I'm interested in the parallels that the filmmakers and the stuido are trying to draw between the two films, because I would very much like for Knocked Up to have the same charm and charisma that the first did. I have faith in the main actors and in Apatow, but I wonder if the appeal of the subject matter will fail to attract the right type of audience. It doesn't seem that most teenage boys are going to want to spend their tips earned from hard nights delivering pizza and drinking Steel Reserve to want to see what happens when you get drunk and careless with a foxy lady. Certainly, there will be a larger female audience - perhaps because of Izzie Stevens, and perhaps because the thought of pregnancy/childbirth humor wouldn't disgust them. It follows, then, that enough boyfriends can be convinced to buy a ticket due to the Virgin-related advertising, so hopefully things will work out for this movie.

I like to see a quasi-realistic situation (whoops I'm a young professional who got drunk, got pregnant, and is trying to work it out) presented in a way that's not depressing like a Lifetime Original Movie, but not maudlin and predictable, either. So, I'm looking forward to Knocked Up, but I don't want to get my hopes up too high. The best case scenario seems to be that it is funny and sweet, and also presents a more positive take on real life to young audiences, where people do get pregnant, and people do turn unexpected pregnancies into positive situations. The worst case scenario is that is is funny but completely ridicules the situation that Heigl's character gets into. Apatow did produce Anchorman, one of my least favorite movies, but as he was not a part of the creative team, I'm not worried that this new film will leave the same sour taste in my mouth. Unless the studio wants it to so that more young men will see it.



*************************************************

Secondary blog: So, ever since I woke up yesterday morning, I've lost my voice. I was feeling unwell a few days ago, but right now I feel totally healthy. Except for the fact that I just can't make sound come out of my mouth! I've allowed myself to have some fun with it, assuming it goes away soon, and have been acting as though life is one big game of charades. My friends have been pretty good about interpreting my miming, and putting up with my furious scribbles on a notepad. I don't know, it's just an interesting experience. For some reason, I'm integrating what little ASL I know into my communication, even though none of my friends can interpret it. The last time I lost my voice was junior year of high school, when I was singing all the time, out of my range, for my school's production of The Wiz, and it just gives such an unusual filter to the minutiae of daily life. For one thing, I'm trying to listen more actively to what people say because I'm not thinking about what anecdote I want to tell everyone at the dinner table. My thoughts have become more introspective and reactionary, because if I really want to say something, I have to think about it more during the process of writing it down or conveying it some other way than if I were to just blurt it out. Perhaps because I have to pick and choose what to tell people, I am being more insightful? I don't know, I just wonder what things would be like if nobody used small talk. Also, one of my friends noticed that there is a little bit more of a patronizing tone that can occur when someone is responding to my hand motions and silent mouthing of words. I don't think this is a bad thing or unusual, it's just how people normally talk to children or other nonverbal beings. Anyway, just a random musing. If my voice isn't back by tomorrow morning, I am going to go to the doctor, because I think after two days of curious silence, it'll just get frustrating.