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June 30, 2009
JUDD APATOW AND HIS GIRLS.
As a brand name, Judd Apatow is doing pretty well. The comedies that he directs and produces are box office and critical successes. He is the driving force behind FREAKS AND GEEKS, which successfully engineered three movie stars (the freaks; the geeks are not quite so big), and is responsible for Steve Carell becoming quite possibly the biggest comedy star in the world. And the brand he produces isn't shoddy either: Apatow produces comedies that both guys and girls like featuring characters and situation who are at once familiar to us as people and unfamiliar in movie scenarios. We aren't treated to the same recycled plot; the word "heart" and "emotion" gets thrown around a lot in reviews of Apatow's movies.
The surprise hit THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN got things kick-started, and KNOCKED UP proved he was no one trick pony. He hit home runs with Will Ferrell movies. The ensuing success of Apatow as a producer with SUPERBAD, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, ADVENTURELAND, and I LOVE YOU, MAN made his last name of the few that the average filmgoer recognizes - that's a select group; in the old days it was "Hitchcock" and "Capra" and now it rests with "Speilberg" and (sadly) "Bay." Only a few (for instance, the recent Jack Black/Harold Ramis stinkbomb YEAR ONE) have proved disappointing. Apatow is an unusual celebrity, and so are the stars of his films. None of them are conventionally good-looking, and all of his films take great efforts to remind us of this. This is one of the factors that critics and audiences find refreshing about his films, that we'd rather see the average-looking Seth Rogen or Jason Segel handle the foibles of a romantic conundrum than impossibly dashing and witty British actors named Hugh. Only Apatow staple Paul Rudd is someone we'd find in a traditional Romantic comedy, and he's usually refreshingly cast against type as someone whose looks caused more problems than they do solutions. Jeffrey Wells offered this criticism of Segel in SARAH MARSHALL:
*I immediately went, "Oh, shit...I'm stuck with this dude for the whole film." Segel is an obviously bright guy with moderately appealing features, but he also has a chunky, blemished ass and little white man-boobs, and he could definitely use a little treadmill and stairmaster time and a serious cutback program regarding pasta, Frito scoop chips, Ben & Jerry's and Fatburger takeout. I don't relate to this at all, I was muttering to myself. *
Yet that criticism can also be turned into a rallying cry, and Apatow has thrived off "moderately appealing" guys to whom audiences give their sympathies.
My own personal opinion is this: TALLADEGA NIGHTS is probably the funniest movie of the decade. I really liked ADVENTURELAND and KNOCKED UP but am lukewarm to the rest of them. THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN veered a bit too far over into "Mad TV" territory; SUPERBAD and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL were maddeningly uneven and aren't really that much better than the genres they're supposed to be set apart from. An Apatow movie is not a big event for me; I generally end up catching them on Netflix, which is about right. For their fans, these films are endlessly rewatchable.
But I have a bone to pick on one issue, and I'll boil it down like this. Look at pictures of three actors in KNOCKED UP, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, and ADVENTURELAND.
Now look at pictures of their three romantic companions.
Isn't there something a bit unsettling about this? Apatow has invited the "slob" and the "nerd" to a traditional romantic scenario to which they were denied entry. But he hasn't invited any equivalent women. The girls who these dudes end up with are constantly showing up on the cover of glamorous magazines. MARSHALL is a particularly problematic example: Jason Segel forgets the beautiful actress Sarah Marshall (played by beautiful actress Kristen Bell) and instead hooks up with beautiful Hawaaian hotel clerk Mila Kunis, who is even more beautiful than Sarah Marshall. He doesn't particularly learn anything about women; he just happens in to a relationship with the one woman around who is more beautiful than his ex-girlfriend. A similar situation plagues ADVENTURELAND - where dorky intellectual Jesse Eisenberg is forced to choose between the smoking hot local girl and the smoking hot smart local girl* who just shot the celebrity moon with TWILIGHT. I think you'll agree that he makes the right choice; it's a choice that many of us don't get to make.
What bothers me is that these movies are seen as so groundbreaking when basically they're playing the same audience tricks - roping in all the dudes with the promise of getting to ogle the usual suspects, while putting them together with a guy we can all relate to. In the 70s, directors gave us Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Gene Hackman as a remedy to the Tab Hunters who won all the casting calls in the 50s and 60s. But they also gave us a lot of interesting actresses like Sissy Spacek, Ellen Burstyn, and Shelley Duvall who defied the traditional cover-girls who usually graced the big screen. Apatow could this, but he hasn't yet. He and his directors continue to cast his movies with whoever is getting some buzz in the FHM circles, and whoever can promote the movies by wearing her underwear in ESQUIRE. And I realize that the only movie he's made that doesn't fit this criticism is the one I probably like the least: THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN.
This summer, Apatow's FUNNY PEOPLE might remedy his troubling paradigm. Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann, stars as the romantic interest of normal-guy-extraordinaire Adam Sandler. I've always liked Mann, as she brings a screwball sensibility to every scene with her big eyes; she was my favorite thing about KNOCKED UP. But I worry that Apatow's success will keep him from revising the can't-miss genre that he's successfully masterminded. Here's hoping that Apatow casts women who, like his men, can be described as "average."
*- An argument can be made that Stewart is "average-looking," and that this is the key to her success. But I think that ADVENTURELAND director Greg Mottola is constantly reminding us what an impossibly beautiful woman she is by shooting her in skimpy clothing, short shorts, and (in a few situations) her underwear. In other words, sexualizing her.
| By Andytown | 2:23 PM