Role Models

The other day, I was discussing, via text message, the possibility of my going to see Role Models with a close friend of mine. He'd seen it, and described it as "LOLtastic". I replied "...oh dear", but sent him another message as I left the cinema.

"You were right."

Seann William Scott has announced his fear of typecasting in interviews. I'm afraid of him becoming typecast, too. Although he does play the Stifler kind of role really well, I've also seen him carry off different roles - Southland Tales is the one that comes to mind, although I suppose his characters in Evolution and Dude, Where's My Car? were slightly different too.

Still, Scott is a great comedic actor, and he was good in Role Models. I'm less familiar with Paul Rudd, although he and Scott worked very well together, contrasting when needed and working nicely as a double act at other times.

Another actor who should probably start to worry about typecasting is Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who plays Augie in Role Models, and is probably more familiar as Superbad's McLovin. So far, he's always played the geek, and it does suit him. But, I'd like to see him try sexy, or cool, or just not completely gauche. That would be interesting.

Role Models is literally laugh-out-loud hilarious. I especially love the dramatic conclusion (and the make-up). I think I've actually been coverted to a KISS fan by proxy.

The film's a little like Drillbit Taylor or Superbad, only not quite as cliched as either of those.

The film's rated an R in the US and a 15 in the UK, in both cases, for sex and language (the UK has slightly different attitudes towards both).

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

I think I know why director Kevin Smith doesn't have a day job. If his character's work ethics are even vaguely similar to his, he's better off doing something creative, far, far away from real people.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno does exactly what it says on the tin - best friends since high school, Zack and Miri decide that, in order to pay off their bills, they should make a porn film. While one character is easy to sympathize with, it's easy to believe that the other one is getting far, far more than he could possibly deserve.

Miri is a beautiful girl, with low confidence and few friends apart from Zack, who continually tells her that she's just as unattractive as she once was in high school (and really, if she did look like that in high school, her classmates were clearly blind). He also steals her handwarmer (that's just mean), and has such an utterly terrible working attitude that's it's hardly surprising that they can't pay their bills. Later in the film (and here's a bit of a spoiler) he runs away completely, abandoning Miri to their debts. What a nice guy. What a great friend.

The chemistry between Miri (Elizabeth Banks) and Zack (Seth Rogen) seems utterly fake. The sexual tension is written in but not felt, and laid on with a trowel. Zack and Miri don't feel like friends or potential lovers, however desperately the script wants you to think that. The film does have some funny moments, and a great scene from Justin Long, but generally speaking, it has the same problems I've seen in other Smith films, and other Rogen films, with very few of the good points. Although, you do get to see Jason Mewes naked (yum). Definitely worth the wait. I was honestly expecting just the gratuitous female nude shots - well done for being non-sexist.

I should probably confess here that, while I don't mind Kevin Smith, I really don't like Seth Rogen, because I think he abuses his position as a writer and/or producer in order to act out his fantasies with beautiful actresses. Despite purposefully making himself less attractive than the people leading male roles traditionally go to, he still always gets the girl. And that would be admirable if he didn't make sure that the 'girl' in question is a stunning up-and-coming actress. It would be good if someone at least acknowledged that these girls are way too good for him, even in the films that he's written - and I don't just mean his own character, in some kind of self-deprecating scene designed to make us think he's obviously really sweet and romantic and has hidden depths. To quote from an article on Alternate Takes (a fantastic film site, go take a look);

Laura Mulvey famously argued that in classical Hollywood cinema, the female serves as the “bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning” - that women are objectified by the implicitly male gaze of the camera, the audience, and the male lead.

Now, that may be true of most movies, but there's no need to be quite so transparent about it, is there Rogen?

Zack and Miri is funny, but forgettable, and supremely irritating in several ways. It's also quite amazing just how Miri's character manages to keep her curls intact with no water or electricity.