Actors: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen
Director: Judd Apatow
I've heard Funny People described as overstuffed, ambitious, plodding, direction-less; it deserves most of this criticism. It is very difficult to sustain an audience's interest for an 140 minute comedy - luckily, at bottom, Funny People is in many ways not a comedy. It is an exploration of what makes comedians tick - difficult to pull off without being preachy, I think Apatow manages it quite well.
One thing that upset me about the film was that Apatow basically swung for the fences here - the film is surprisingly ambitious for someone who's printed money in Hollywood for the last five years - but Apatow wasn't entirely sure people would get his film, so he threw in a ton of celebrity cameos that are extraordinarily 'safe'. They don't belong in this film, and will instantly date the movie.
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The big criticism slung at Apatow is that his films are always socially conservative at base. Consider how "40 Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," and "Funny People" all have relatable backbones: abstain from sex until marriage, abortion is wrong, and family values is the key to happiness and fulfillment.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times said, 'No contemporary figure has done more than Apatow, the 41-year-old auteur of gross-out comedies, to rebrand social conservatism for a younger generation that associates it primarily with priggishness and puritanism.'
I don't really agree with the notion that a film director has all that much sway when it comes to influencing how people decide to live their lives, but I wouldn't disagree that Jud Apatow can't help but bleed facile messages into otherwise harmless and fun comedies, and I've never really been able to get around that.
to me that's the biggest reason for apatow's success. 'harmless and fun' comedy is often at bottom nihilistic. i don't think apatow is trying to inject a message so much as tell a story the way he thinks it should be told. so for the 40 year old virgin to end as it does - it ends as a traditional comedy should, where our supposed hero and heroine end up happy together. yeah, there's lots of prudery in the film - that the guys are 'grossed out' by elizabeth banks's character masturbating, as though women are merely supposed to be living people in whom men jerk off - there's a lot wrong there.
ReplyDeletewith funny people, i actually think he fails to put a truly heartwarming "facile" message in the film, and it makes the film more successful. apatow would want us to read the final scene of the film as positive, but i find it deeply negative. yes, george performs perhaps the first 'selfless' act of the film, but it's helping his 'friend' out with a comedy bit. while no doubt apatow sees exchanging and mending humor together as a high point in his life - after all, he's made millions of dollars doing it and being great at it - i see it as at bottom narcissistic and empty, even as i've loved doing it myself.
anyway i really don't see apatow intentionally putting socially conservative messages in his films - i think he's trying to put some sort of earnestness back into comedy, and comedy desperately needs that - it's been falling down a hole of self-referential irony and half-hearted, unfelt endings for years now.
the big criticism i'd sling at apatow is that his movies are so fucking long and tedious. i barely survived knocked up, and knew better than to try this one.
ReplyDeleteit's funny; funny people's plot gets moving from the very first scene of the film, but it completely wanders from there.
ReplyDeletei find it interesting, and not that i am an apatow fanboy, that you would criticize knocked up on the basis of plot - i think that's a rare thing for comedy these days. it's also the sort of film where you know the plot based on the title but it takes 40 minutes to actually get there.
still, you're making a good move not watching this, i have a feeling you'd hate it.