REVIEW: This Is the End

This Is the End (2013): Written and directed by: Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen. Starring: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera and Emma Watson. Rated R (Language and assorted apocalyptic debauchery). Running time 106 minutes.
 

2 ½ stars (out of four)

There are so many references and in-jokes in This Is the End, an end-of-the-world comedy written and directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, I can’t imagine the movie will be very funny even just a few years from now. Still, if you see it on a Friday or Saturday night in the next couple of weeks (a comedy like this is always more enjoyable with a packed house), you’ll get your money’s worth of laughs.

And if you already think the guys in this movie are funny, then seeing This Is the End in theaters is a no-brainer. When all hell is (literally) unleashed on the world, a group of Judd Apatow regulars hole up in Hollywood hoping to outlast the apocalypse.

Everyone plays themselves, or rather, caricatured, sometimes self-deprecating versions of themselves. For some of them, the movie is an opportunity to reinforce an already established persona. Seth Rogen, as always, is the affable stoner. He has a remarkable ability to give you the impression that he is already your friend. James Franco is the playboy. He’s the charismatic jerk who hosts the epic banger of a party in his newly bought mansion on the night of the rapture.

Other actors use the movie to play with their celebrity personas. Jonah Hill, wearing a diamond earring in his left ear, is effeminate and full of himself. Apparently still high off his Oscar nomination from a few years ago, the Hill character sees himself as a cut above the rest of these lowbrow comedians. Like many of the other actors in the movie, Hill is one of those guys people always accuse of playing themselves in every movie. Here, he actually does play himself and it’s one of the most individually distinct characters he’s ever played.

Michael Cera has a memorable cameo, playing against his usual awkward adolescent character as a coke-sniffing womanizer. Emma Watson shows up too to prove she’s more than Hermione Granger. (About a dozen more actors and stars have cameos, some of which are inspired.)

Danny McBride was never an actor I particularly liked but here, maybe for the first time, I understand what it is that people like about him. His comedic timing is on point and he is relentlessly, cheerfully tasteless. After a while though, I remembered why it is I can only take him in doses. His sense of humor is exhaustingly crude and cynical. It can be a bit much.

For my money, Craig Robinson made me laugh the most. He’s been stealing scenes in supporting roles for the better part of a decade now and is always a welcome presence in a movie. Perhaps the most likable and relatable guy here, Robinson squeals like a little girl in the face of danger and is delighted to find that drinking his own pee isn’t so bad. He can switch back and forth between straight man and goofball in a way few comedians can.

Then there’s Jay Baruchel, who usually plays the whiny, goody two-shoes of the group. In This Is the End, he plays the whiny, goody two-shoes of the group. With everyone else so gleefully playing into his type or against it, why isn’t Baruchel allowed to join in on the fun? Did Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen think the movie needed a moral center for the audience to relate to? Someone who scorns the vain lives of Hollywood celebrities? The movie does not need that and would have been more fun without it. Similarly, his bromance with Seth Rogen (in the film, the two are childhood friends reuniting for a weekend of smoking weed at Rogen’s place) is tired and weighs the movie down.

These scenes aside, This Is the End is a lot of fun. These actors are great at banter and the biggest laughs in the movie come not from the gross-out gags but the slick, fast-paced dialogue. At one point, bored in Franco’s fortress of a home, the guys decide to make a homemade sequel to The Pineapple Express. The best thing about This Is the End is that it feels like a movie made by a bunch of friends. All the CGI demons and other hellish effects made possible by the movie’s big budget aren’t necessary. This Is the End puts its stars front and center. They’re having a good time and you will too.

- Steve Avigliano, 6/15/13

REVIEW: 50/50

50/50 (2011): Dir. Jonathan Levine. Written by: Will Reiser. Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, Phillip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer. Rated R (Medicinal drug use, language and sexuality). Running time: 100 minutes.

3 ½ stars (out of four)

50/50 takes typically melodramatic material and, with keen emotional insight and a collection of strong performances, avoids the cheap sentimentality that often comes with a film about cancer. Largely a comedy, the film takes time for some well-earned tear-jerking scenes in its last third. A product of Judd Apatow’s extended family (frequent Apatow collaborator Evan Goldberg produced the film along with Seth Rogen, who also co-stars), 50/50 explores the bonds of friendship (call it a bromance if you must), romantic love and family when put under the strain of a debilitating disease.

Adam (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a young Seattleite who works in public radio with his best bud Kyle (Rogen). Adam and his girlfriend Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard) are entering the domestic stage of their relationship – she is flattered to learn he has made space for her clothes in one of his dresser drawers – though Kyle has some choice words regarding Rachel’s prudishness and Adam’s flagging sex life.

Still, life appears to be as good as it gets for a hip, well-dressed twentysomething such as Adam. That is, until he receives the unfortunate diagnosis from his doctor. He has a malignant tumor on his spine. The news creates serious ripples in his personal life and each of those closest to him react differently.

Kyle is perhaps even more distraught than Adam but, like a true friend, he is quick to provide distractions. Does Adam realize, for example, how easy picking up chicks will be when they hear he has cancer? Not to mention the medicinal marijuana. Rogen is in goofy best friend mode here (something he does exceedingly well) and his bumbling stoner cadence is just right to diffuse potential melodrama and lighten the mood for his pal.

The other members of Adam’s support circle are less reliable. Rachel may not be as prepared for the difficulties of chemotherapy as she claims and Adam’s overbearing mother (Anjelica Huston) only makes him more anxious with her persistent maternal worries.

Two older gentlemen Adam meets in chemotherapy, Alan (Phillip Baker Hall) and Mitch (Matt Frewer), offer a more understanding perspective. They know how painful the treatment can be and assuage Adam’s fears with jokes and homemade weed macaroons.

Adam also starts seeing a hospital therapist, Katherine (Anna Kendrick), a doctorate student still new to treating actual patients. She accurately identifies Adam’s reactions to the disease by pointing out the stages of shock and anger to him but her textbook approach is hardly comforting. Indeed, the two learn from one another and tiptoe around the patient/therapist relationship while laying the groundwork for a possible romance.

Kendrick, who received an Oscar nomination for her performance as a calculating but ultimately naive businesswoman in Up in the Air, plays a softer shade of that character here. She has a wonderful way of using the tics and fidgets of uncomfortable social interactions to flesh out a character. Underneath the cutesy-perky energy of her characters, she finds the tension between their emotional vulnerability and the sterile professionalism they have been told to exhibit.

As a lead, Joseph Gordon-Levitt skillfully navigates the film’s tonal shifts between comedy and drama. His shell-shocked response to the diagnosis works well as a comedic foil for Seth Rogen but Gordon-Levitt also has the chops to handle the heavier material. Adam’s silence is punctuated by outbursts of rage and fear late in the film as the gravity of his situation becomes clearer.

50/50 deftly examines the emotional turmoil of cancer treatment though it mostly does so through the familiar mechanisms of a romantic comedy structure. All of the pieces are in place – the best friend, the waning relationship and the new romantic prospect on the rise – but they are more effective here than in similar films because the emotions are authentic. Either 50/50 is a heartfelt drama that conforms to Hollywood conventions or a rom-com imbued with surprising genuineness. Whichever way you prefer to look at it, this is an entertaining and thoughtful film about the unexpected complications life throws our way and the strength of human connection in difficult times.

- Steve Avigliano, 10/2/11

REVIEW: Funny People

Funny People (2009): Written and Directed by Judd Apatow. Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman. Rated R (language and crude sexual humor throughout, and some sexuality). Running time: 146 min.

2 ½ stars (out of four)

Funny People is about the competitive brotherhood of stand-up comedians and the world of raunchy conversations and part-time jobs that exist in between gigs. Funny People is about a comedic superstar forced to reexamine his life of empty fame after being diagnosed with a form of leukemia. Funny People is about a man who, twelve years after the fact, tries to get back the love of his life despite her new husband and family. The third film from writer/director/producer-extraordinaire Judd Apatow could lay claim to any of the above descriptions, but in actuality Funny People tries to be all of these things at once, ultimately becoming overlong and underdeveloped in the process.

Despite virtually unanimous acclaim for his first two films (The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up), the one note of criticism made of both was that they could benefit from some editing. Even films such as Pineapple Express and Superbad, which bear Apatow’s name under a producer credit, could sacrifice some minutes. Almost in defiance of these criticisms, he has delivered a film more in need of condensing than any of his previous efforts. In trying to fill the movie with an ambitious plot, Apatow delivers a film that is comedically successful but dramatically uneven.

The scenes of three young stand-up comedians/roommates (Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman) are standard Apatowian fare: male bonding, sex talk and pop-culture references. Their one-liners and banter are as funny as anything you’ll hear this year, along with some great excerpts of stand-up routines. The movie also has great fun with a fake TV show, “Yo Teach!” starring Schwartzman’s character. Rogen in particular is hilarious as Ira Wright, a shyer, less confidant version of the character he played in Knocked Up, scoring laughs from subtleties and character details in addition to his jokes.

The heart of Funny People however, lies with Adam Sandler’s performance as former stand-up comedian turned superstar, George Simmons. Simmons, we learn from posters and clips of fake movies, has built an immensely successful career on dumb comedies like Merman (self-explanatory) and Re-Do (about a man turned into a baby). By poking fun at Sandler’s own career as a film comedian, these self-references lend credibility to the character, giving strength to the more emotional moments that come later. After a positive reaction to Ira’s stand-up, Simmons takes him on as an assistant, apprentice and confidant to his medical secret. Scenes between Sandler and Rogen are particularly good in the way they depict a man who is very good at subverting his fears with laughter.

Following a few revelations in the face of death, a process expedited through use of montages, Simmons decides the one part of his life most in need of fixing is his romantic life. None of the girls in his long line of one-night stands compare to his almost-wife from years before, Laura (the irresistible Leslie Mann). In this last leg of the film, we get some very funny scenes featuring Eric Bana as a cheerfully pompous Australian businessman. When the film tries to wrap up a complicated situation into a neat finale, its Bana’s delightfully absurd monologue about lessons learned during his trips to China that masks the strings Judd Apatow is carefully pulling as screenwriter.

This tidy ending comes as something of a disappointment following The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, neither of which relied on contrivances. Those films remained, excluding occasional tangents for the sake of a good joke, focused on the main storyline. They used side characters to populate the films’ worlds, but never lost sight of the central characters. Each of those films also offered surprisingly good-natured morals as solutions to the complexities of their characters’ lives. For The 40-Year-Old Virgin it was their choice to wait until marriage; for Knocked Up, it was the decision to raise the baby in spite of the challenges. The ending of Funny People places a similar importance on family ideals, but never makes a strong argument for what happens.

On a scene-by-scene basis, Funny People works, but as a whole film it is unfocused, failing to deliver one cohesive message, but instead a collection of ideas that linger in the air as the credits roll. And yet the film is consistently enjoyable on the strength of its sharp comedic writing and winning performances. That shouldn’t come as a surprise though: these are, after all, very, very funny people.

- Steve Avigliano, 8/03/09