THE PROMOTION
THE PROMOTION is a film that on the surface appears to be a Will Ferrell/Ben Stiller style comedy featuring two supermarket assistant managers – Richard (John C. Reilly) and Doug (Sean William Scott) vying for the same promotion, finding themselves engaged in increasingly escalating attempts at sabotaging the other. After about half an hour though you’ll realize you’re watching something different all together, and even a little special. THE PROMOTION is certainly funny, but largely because it’s rooted mostly in awkward familiarity and sadness. Richard and Doug aren’t Stiller-like caricatures, but rather average guys going to outlandish extremes (yet are they so outlandish and unrealistic?) to achieve something instantly recognizable and understandable: struggling to get by and wanting to improve their station in life for both themselves and their loved ones. In other words, they are not unlike a lot of us, which is why the laughter comes so readily in this film. How can we not laugh when recognizing ourselves in these guys struggling in the dog-eat-dog corporate most of us need to get by in? If you aren’t smiling at the movie’s portrayal of retail/corporate culture and politics – not because of its outlandishness, but rather because it’s eerily dead-on – then you’ve probably never been part of that world. For those of us who have, you’ll find an observant film that gives us great relatable characters, but most of all the ability to (temporarily at least) laugh at ourselves a little bit, and the rat race so many of us have to run.
Overall rating: B+
FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
From the original review: “FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is the funniest film I’ve seen all year, and yet while I was watching the film my laughter felt strangely hollow. Throughout all the great lines, and performances, and comedic set pieces, it was always there…In the end it’s maybe not that there was anything missing, but that what was there was too tangential, too meandering, and too unfocused. I never got the sense of having had a complete, fulfilling experience. It’s undoubtedly a witty, clever script, just maybe not an accomplished one. Sometimes a comedy being funny is more than enough. Sometimes you need a little more than that.”
Overall rating: B
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With FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL having hit theatres recently, it seems that Apatow comedies have hit a watershed mark of sorts in that people are now beginning to wonder (as I did yesterday), whether it’s all getting a bit stale. Over at Cracked, Michael Swaim’s expresses his opinion that the comedies are getting repetitive through a very creative process of coming up with a “How To Make Your Own Judd Apatow Movie” guide. It’s an amusing article, if a little bit unnecessarily mean-spirited, and thinks it’s funnier than it actually is, especially when it keeps on making the same joke suggesting Apatow & Co are always high or drunk when making their films.
Contrary to Swaim’s opinion, over at Cinematical we have Monika Bartyzel’s attempt to urge audiences to not give in entirely to “Judd Apatow fatigue” (as she calls it), and provides “Five Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Forget Sarah Marshall.” Her points are all valid, and actually highlight the film’s strengths quite well, a lot of which I failed to mention in my own review.
But wait! If you’re looking for a more analytical approach, Jim Emerson (who currently spends his days on Roger Ebert’s webpage), analytically deconstructs Apatow touched films as if they were a genre onto themselves over at MSN Movies. In some ways it’s a compliment that his films lend themselves to a film studies approach. On the other hand the fact that they’re treated like a thematic genre simply reinforces the repetition of his films.
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Before I get to far along, let me say that I’ve enjoyed all of the films Apatow has written and directed, and most of the films he has had a producing hand in. The thing is, while I was watching FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL this past weekend, I got the creeping feeling that maybe we’re starting to get over-exposed to his repetitive brand of humor and his shtick is going to start getting old soon.
Part of the problem is the plots, as almost without fail the majority of the movies he’s been involved with feature slacker boy-men having to grow up, stop being immature, oblivious, or stunted and learn to be sensitive, mature, men-men who have squared off against their supposed shortcomings and come out on the other side. In telling these stories, the movies all feature the same mix of crass humor and big heart, which eventually give way to a happy poignant ending and moral lessons. In theory, that’s not a bad thing, but – again – the repetition is the rub. During FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL while I was laughing, I often felt a sense of déjà vu, and it was largely because I was laughing at the same style of jokes I’d been laughing at for a while now. Yes, they are still funny, and they are still great enough to work multiple times (like any particular brand of humor) but there inevitably has to come a point where these films start risking that you might not laugh anymore at some of the jokes because you feel you’ve heard them before.
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FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is the funniest film I’ve seen all year, and yet while I was watching the film my laughter felt strangely hollow. Throughout all the great lines, and performances, and comedic set pieces, it was always there. As I was leaving the theatre I found myself trying to figure out what was missing, why I felt somehow disappointed, even though I had laughed my butt off and enjoyed myself.
The basic story was fine, if comfortably familiar. Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) is a composer for a hilarious CSI-knock off show (while working on an awesome puppet based Dracula rock-opera on the side), and is dating the show’s star, Sara Marshall (Kristen Bell) until she dumps him. After a series of drunken one-night stands, Peter escapes to Hawaii to get over Sarah only to (of course) bump into her and her new lothario rock star, Aldous Snow (the scene-stealing Russell Brand) at the resort. Things get worse for a while until (of course) he begins a flirtation with Rachel (Mila Kunis, who has gotten gorgeous since “That 70’s Show”), the concierge at the hotel. You can probably figure out where things go from there.
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