Just saw Knocked Up tonight; it's a Judd Apatow movie, so I was predestined to love it, but the hours since have left me with two unforeseen questions:
- Is there a more brilliant, fueled-by-insanity comedic duo than Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen? Their scenes together in The 40-Year-Old Virgin hinted at the answer, but this time around there's no room for doubt.
- Now that I know who's hoarding all the funny women in Hollywood, can't we get them to make more movies? The problem, I concede, is that most movies don't let the female characters be funny. But Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann, hits it out of the park on this one, and Katherine Heigl is a perfect comic foil for the rambling lunacy of Rogen. (Also, admire as Kristen Wiig steals both her scenes while barely speaking above a whisper.)
And, even though it nauseates me to consider, I must ask: will Apatow follow down the same path as John Hughes? Hughes, you may remember, deftly straddled mainstream success and critical acclaim for about seven years before it all collapsed. He was left making tepid films that pleased neither group; we were left wondering how Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Curly Sue could've come from the same mind. Then again, I might just be looking too hard for similarities.