"Forgetting Sarah Marshall": Kristen Bell and Russell Brand. P to the V.
Excerpt from an Apatowian appreciation I wrote for MSN Movies, covering "Freaks & Geeks" to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" to "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (with the inconspicuous omission of "Drillbit Taylor"):
Writer/director/producer Judd Apatow, the man Entertainment Weekly recently crowned the 'Smartest Person in Hollywood,' has made a solemn promise to put a penis -- at least one penis -- into every movie he makes from now on. He's slipped penises into his pictures before, of course: all those obsessive-compulsive drawings in "Superbad," his own on comically disconcerting display in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," and Jason Segel's for a humiliating breakup in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Sometimes, too, his films include breasts and vaginas. And there are perfectly good reasons for that. Not the least of which is that all genitalia and externally visible glands are funny.
... Cast your memory back to the romantic comedy of an earlier age: specifically the execrable "When Harry Met Sally ... ," an anemically romantic, allegedly comic ersatz "Annie Hall." In that movie, Billy Crystal (Jew) and Meg Ryan (shiksa) set out, with their magic screen chemistry, to prove that men and women cannot be friends because their sexual organs fit so nicely together that it's impossible to keep them apart. Apatow's movies approach the "When Penis Met Vagina ..." dilemma from another angle, which is that although friendship between men and women (or boys and girls, or boys and women) may lead to sex, the guys actually hope that the sex will lead to friendship. Women represent a possible win-win scenario: the love and acceptance that comes with friendship combined with the joys of animalistic rutting. Besides, as Ben (Seth Rogen) observes when he and Alison (Katherine Heigl) are getting naked in "Knocked-Up," "You're prettier than I am." [...]In ["Superbad"'s] final images, Seth and Evan part ways on a mall escalator, physically and metaphorically, each taking his first tentative independent steps with a girl, glancing back with a slightly apprehensive shrug in anticipation of what awaits him on the next "level."
If there's a myth we cling to in America, it's that life is arranged in stages of "personal growth," and each one leads to a higher plane of enlightenment. But Apatow seems at least somewhat ambivalent about the idea, which is why his movies tend to end with reunions rather than the weddings or engagements that have concluded traditional comedies for centuries.
You know what they say about the difference between comedy and tragedy -- it's all in where you choose to end the story. Apatow's films begin with something less than tragedy ("Are you living your dream?" Ben's dad asks him sarcastically in "Knocked Up") and end with something less than a love-you-forever promise. The road ahead for Andy (Steve Carell) and Trish (Catherine Keener) in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Peter (Segel) and Rachel (Mila Kunis) in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (billed as "The Ultimate Romantic Disaster Movie") and, especially, Ben and Alison in "Knocked Up," will be uphill and, most likely, riddled with obstacles and potholes they can't possibly anticipate until they hit 'em. That emotional open-endedness feels both satisfying and refreshingly honest....
Full story here.
I think this articulates some long-dormant thoughts of my own, namely why Apatow's films - despite fitting so many traditional "molds" that, by themselves, are stale and kind of pointless - represent something fresh. That they feel familiar in many ways is key, they being like so many films we've seen dozens of times, only dusted off.
And yes, penises and vaginas are funny. Everything about the human form is hilarious, if you're into that sort of logic/absurdity edge.
All great, except now I know how "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" ends. But I guess the fun is in the journey, something else Apatow seems to understand (aside form the lame "Dewey Cox Story".)
Certainly the humor is a tad more childish and perverse but you kinda just described "The Graduate". I think like all great comedians and writers Apatow is feeling out the vibe of the current dating/relationship world and translating it nicely to the screen. Women are a little more hardcore, little less vulnerable in the big city dating world and guys are a little more vulnerable. Hate to point this out but take a look at Brad and Angelina - it's almost like the ultimate role reversal of what it was like 40 years ago.
All words starting with the letter P are funny and many body parts start with the letter P. Even non-genitalaneous ones like pituitary gland are funny. As for the difference between comedy and tragedy, though, I heard it differently from Mel Brooks. Comedy is when you get run over by a bus. Tragedy is when I stub my toe. Or something. Apatow understands this rule, as well.
Dewey Cox was a different sort of animal but lame? Not in my book.
Tragedy is when I get a papercut, comedy is when you fall into an open manhole and die.
And don't forget Alan Alda's annoying and oft-repeated line in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors": "Comedy is tragedy plus time."
If it bends, it's funny ...
Doh, I was hoping this was going to be an entry on nudity in comedies!
I would disagree that:
"If there's a myth we cling to in America, it's that life is arranged in stages of "personal growth," and each one leads to a higher plane of enlightenment. But Apatow seems at least somewhat ambivalent about the idea"
I would say the opposit is true, stages of "personal growth" isn't something I associate with American culture or beliefs, but it is something I think Apatow has whole-heartedly embraced. Knocked Up and Superbad are both films where the entire plot is based on a stage in life (first pregnancy, graduation) that demands personal grown from its characters. What is refreshing to me is the honestly with which the growth is handled. These are not films about people who "learn a lesson" but are instead films that show, not tell, the audience how the situation forces emotional development on its characters.