The REEL Addict 

By Souf Jalili

Thanks in large part to the Frat pack and the Apatow movie-making machine, the past few years have seen a resurgence of a much-loved movie genre - the R-rated comedy. Hitting theatres this Friday is the latest entry to the genre, the David Wain written and directed ROLE MODELS which focuses on a Big Brothers type program called Sturdy Wings and stars Sean William Scott and Apatow regular, Paul Rudd.

Rudd and Scott play Dana and Wheeler, two energy drink representatives who go from school to school promoting their drink, Minotaur. The two men are poles apart and are at different stages of life. Rudd plays a variation of his cynical unamused type and having worked with Minotaur for a decade, he clearly hates his job and his life. While, Scott is the more carefree and laid-back of the two and actually seems to enjoy dressing up in a Minotaur costume. Following a scuffle with the law, the duo is forced to do thirty days of community service with Sturdy Wings as an alternative to prison. Here under the watchful eye of program leader, Gayle (Kelly Lynch), Rudd is paired up with medieval enthusiast teen, Augie (Christopher ‘McLovin’ Mintz-Plasse) and Scott is assigned a hilariously foul-mouthed African American pre-teen, Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson)

The film has a fairly generic plot, and charts a predictable course of first-act set-up, second-act conflict and third-act reconciliation. Both Rudd and Scott and the kids hate each other to start with, they slowly warm up to each other and end up having a great time together until a misunderstanding forces them apart resulting in an extended emotional climax at a medieval LARP (live action role playing) match featuring the four dressed as members of the band KISS.

However, what sets the film apart is its infectious energy and the fact that there is a certain sweetness to the relationships that Paul and Scott form with the two boys. Ronnie has a rather amusing penchant for swearing and for staring at women’s breasts and he is known to give past mentors a difficult time. However, Scott changes all that by forming a sweet insubordinate bond with Ronnie, he takes Ronnie to parties, introduces him to KISS and even teaches him to subtly stare at boobies and the two form a special kind of friendship.

On the other hand, Rudd is initially cynical about Augie’s obsession with LARP-ing but seeing both Augies’ unrelenting passion for the sport and his parents’ absolute lack of support for it, he begins to get involved in the unique hobby himself in order to help Augie out. The film actually does a good job at celebrating the eccentricities of LARP-ing enthusiasts and gives a colourful insight into their life especially during the heart-warming and inspiring LARP-ing finale.

Yes, like a lot of films in the genre, the characters are very two-dimensional - Rudd and Scott appear as caricatures forced into embarrassing and funny situations with kids, and this makes it hard to identify with their characters and the transformation that they undergo as a result of their mentoring experience. However, the performances serve to elevate the material. Rudd and Scott both deliver fine performances; Scott is pretty likeable and Rudd once again proves that he can carry a movie on his own. While both of them belong to completely different schools of comedy they have great chemistry and play off each other well, The kids are especially great and are very adorable, while Mintz-Plasse takes ‘McLovin’ one step further and does a great job of conveying his character’s silent suffering and his insecurities, Bobb’e J. Thompson is hilarious and has some scene-stealing moments as the raunchy foul-mouthed pre-teen. Kelly Lynch has some really funny moments and a running hot-dog joke and Elizabeth Banks does a decent job in a small part playing Rudd’s girlfriend. The rest of the cast is rounded up by a lot of familiar faces such as Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, and Ken Jeong who is perfect as Augie’s nemesis and the reigning LARP-ing King.

All in all, despite the cookie-cutter format and two-dimensional characters, the film is consistently entertaining and amusing and has a lot of charisma and energy, a large part of which can be attributed to the kids. The film is also uniquely inspiring with its subtle message to ‘just be yourself’ and it manages to successfully maintain that elusive balance between inappropriate humour and sweetness and with its raunchy wit and a great supporting cast it makes for a fairly satisfactory and sweet comedy.