The Caffeine Diaries
Despite the Judd Apatow renaissance I went through this past summer (including viewing the entire series of "Freaks and Geeks" for the first time, and a high percentage of the episodes of "Undeclared"), and the subsequent admiration for Seth Rogen that it inevitably cultivated, I did not see Knocked Up in theaters. Teo is not really a theater person, the person I knew would go with me had already seen it, and even though everyone and their mother was raving about how good it is, including my own sister, I knew it'd translate just fine to the small screen and was okay with waiting. It got released on DVD, and I did not pounce. It was on sale in the Black Friday madness, and I remained untempted. It wasn't until I remembered how much my library system's reserve system rules that I was all "oh, I bet they have that and I can get it for free and therefore it's a no-risk kind of deal" So I put in my request and let the Poor Man's Netflix system work for me.
Discussion (with spoilers) under the cut:
Knocked Up (2007)
I sat down to watch the movie expecting to like it a lot. Seth Rogen is infinitely likeable, especially when he's finally given something to do. Katie Heigl is really, really, really pretty, and I even think she's a passable actress, though how she'd fare in less commercial fare, I don't really know. I will watch Jason Segel (who is actually indirectly responsible for the Judd Apatow renaissance) read a phone book. Judd Apatow is excellent at mixing sarcasm, absurdity and genuine emotion. Everyone I talked to liked it. I was all set to.
And, well, I did, sort of. I think I kind of ended up liking Knocked Up in spite of itself, rather than for the movie. I liked it for all of the reasons that I thought I'd like it. Seth Rogen played it perfectly, Katie Heigl was pretty, Jason Segel was alarming and hilarious, there was good writing and reactions to situations that I recognized as genuine human reactions. And yet, it was so forced in some areas, forced into absurdity or extreme characterization, that I couldn't watch and feel like "this is real, this is a real story" the same way I can walk away from an episode of "Freaks and Geeks" and pick out where I fit, who those people are that I knew.
Part of it was that it was too crass for me. I didn't like 40 Year Old Virgin very much, for essentially the same reason, and this was toned down from that, but I feel like a little of that humor goes a long way. I liked seeing Ben's friends to establish what kind of guy he is at the beginning of the movie, as a yardstick to measure growth. I liked seeing them as a contrast to Alison's character, so we know who she is and how she reacts to uncomfortable situations and is game to try to like Ben. I like them for a little color and humor, but there was just too much of it to make the movie work for me. Again, that's partly personal preference, but also partly feeling like their scenes started to drag down the movie. At some point, Judd is just writing boys' scenes because those are his stable of actors and he loves to give them great stuff. Which is fine, but it does not make for a compelling movie. Especially if a lot of it comes off feeling pretty flat and stereotyped.
I kept wavering back and forth on Debbie's character. I liked her about half of the time, and thought she was poorly written the other half. Freaking out about your husband's possible extracurriculars can both be genuine and funny, but the writing was not skilled enough here for me. It also felt like something got cut with the Debbie and Pete story, like there was no resolution with their tension. I wouldn't necessarily be annoyed about a loose end like this, as there is rarely a pat resolution to a problem like that, but this is clearly the kind of movie that would like to go ahead and tie it all up in a shiny bow of "this is a neat and tidy way to finish this and that" so that lack of resolution was glaring to me.
I'm willing to accept this as more of Ben's story, which is why the unbalance with the narrative (we see Ben's friends a lot while was see ninety seconds of Alison's, for example) doesn't necessarily get to me. But for almost all of the growth to be happening for Ben (he has a job! he has an apartment! he read the baby books!) and almost none of it for Alison (she's...more comfortable with on-screen nudity?), it loses a rich story-telling opportunity. Part of what was so great about "F&G" was knowing the male and female characters almost equally and relating to them all. Knocked Up worked for me as a "coming of age" story for one character, but it never moved beyond that and it had a really great set-up to do that.
Again, I did like a lot of the story, but it wasn't the movie I was hoping it would be. It made me laugh out loud several times, but it wasn't as clever or well-characterized as it should have been.
Discussion (with spoilers) under the cut:
Knocked Up (2007)
I sat down to watch the movie expecting to like it a lot. Seth Rogen is infinitely likeable, especially when he's finally given something to do. Katie Heigl is really, really, really pretty, and I even think she's a passable actress, though how she'd fare in less commercial fare, I don't really know. I will watch Jason Segel (who is actually indirectly responsible for the Judd Apatow renaissance) read a phone book. Judd Apatow is excellent at mixing sarcasm, absurdity and genuine emotion. Everyone I talked to liked it. I was all set to.
And, well, I did, sort of. I think I kind of ended up liking Knocked Up in spite of itself, rather than for the movie. I liked it for all of the reasons that I thought I'd like it. Seth Rogen played it perfectly, Katie Heigl was pretty, Jason Segel was alarming and hilarious, there was good writing and reactions to situations that I recognized as genuine human reactions. And yet, it was so forced in some areas, forced into absurdity or extreme characterization, that I couldn't watch and feel like "this is real, this is a real story" the same way I can walk away from an episode of "Freaks and Geeks" and pick out where I fit, who those people are that I knew.
Part of it was that it was too crass for me. I didn't like 40 Year Old Virgin very much, for essentially the same reason, and this was toned down from that, but I feel like a little of that humor goes a long way. I liked seeing Ben's friends to establish what kind of guy he is at the beginning of the movie, as a yardstick to measure growth. I liked seeing them as a contrast to Alison's character, so we know who she is and how she reacts to uncomfortable situations and is game to try to like Ben. I like them for a little color and humor, but there was just too much of it to make the movie work for me. Again, that's partly personal preference, but also partly feeling like their scenes started to drag down the movie. At some point, Judd is just writing boys' scenes because those are his stable of actors and he loves to give them great stuff. Which is fine, but it does not make for a compelling movie. Especially if a lot of it comes off feeling pretty flat and stereotyped.
I kept wavering back and forth on Debbie's character. I liked her about half of the time, and thought she was poorly written the other half. Freaking out about your husband's possible extracurriculars can both be genuine and funny, but the writing was not skilled enough here for me. It also felt like something got cut with the Debbie and Pete story, like there was no resolution with their tension. I wouldn't necessarily be annoyed about a loose end like this, as there is rarely a pat resolution to a problem like that, but this is clearly the kind of movie that would like to go ahead and tie it all up in a shiny bow of "this is a neat and tidy way to finish this and that" so that lack of resolution was glaring to me.
I'm willing to accept this as more of Ben's story, which is why the unbalance with the narrative (we see Ben's friends a lot while was see ninety seconds of Alison's, for example) doesn't necessarily get to me. But for almost all of the growth to be happening for Ben (he has a job! he has an apartment! he read the baby books!) and almost none of it for Alison (she's...more comfortable with on-screen nudity?), it loses a rich story-telling opportunity. Part of what was so great about "F&G" was knowing the male and female characters almost equally and relating to them all. Knocked Up worked for me as a "coming of age" story for one character, but it never moved beyond that and it had a really great set-up to do that.
Again, I did like a lot of the story, but it wasn't the movie I was hoping it would be. It made me laugh out loud several times, but it wasn't as clever or well-characterized as it should have been.