Not Coming to a Theater Near You

---

Knocked Up / USA / 2007

I will wholeheartedly agree with the acclaim that Apatow’s latest comedy has received from critics, which includes a couple of positive reviews on our own site. As has been pointed out previously, Apatow’s latest comedies focus on juvenile men who realize their potential through the companionship of women who are way out of their league — in fact, they aren’t even playing the same sport. I’m thinking this is yet another example of a guy writing what he knows and it works exceedingly well for him.

Having said that I do find it a little odd that Apatow continues to make these raunchy comedies centered around protagonists struggling with sexual complications while surrounded by characters engaged in immature (which I’m sure some would consider “inappropriate”) behavior, and yet his fundamental morality is so remarkably traditional. It feels like a strange exhibition of a liberal lifestyle keenly aware of its hedonistic ways, thus resigned to conformity and aspiring to more virtuous existence. It also might be an illustration of a simple fact of life that my psych professor once exclaimed: the older we get, the more conservative we become. The film also conveniently concludes before we witness the eventual reality of Ben quarantining/ostracizing himself from his stoner pals.

Truthfully, while Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl are likeable throughout the film, it’s the couple played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann that are much more fascinating in their mild dysfunction. Rudd continues to be a dependable comedic presence mostly due to his casual, almost charming, cynicism. Meanwhile, having finally graduated from her “french-toast” cameo, Mann somehow finds a way to make a character that could have just been annoyingly self-centered into something more sympathetic. It’s surprising to observe Mann’s ability, especially when Debbie passively mentions the color of cups she requested; thereby registering her dissatisfaction at her husband’s ineptitude, then somehow simultaneously brushing it off as a silly irritation, while never losing the understanding of the audience. Apatow’s a luck man… or he’s slowly being driven insane.

As an aside, the conversation involving the De Lorean going 88 mph is frighteningly familiar.

Rumsey’s Thoughts

Jason’s Thoughts

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Universal Pictures 35mm Theatrical Print
04 Jun 2007 5:56 PM | Comments (3)

---

Comments / 3 total / Submit Comment

1. Andrew / 6 June 2007 / 8:17 PM

   As the opposite of what Roger Ebert would say, I love, love, love this movie. The best comedy of the year so far, is also this best film of the year, so far. Judd Apatow is the best director working in comedy today. From Freaks and Geeks to The 40 Year Old Virgin, Mr. Apatow has not misstep yet. I hate to repeat everybody elses opinion, but the critics and audience agree. Its laugh out funny and heartbreakingly sad at the same time. If the Academy has any guts, the will recongnize the performance of Leslie Mann. Im turning into a quote whore, so Im going to shut up now.

2. Jason / 7 June 2007 / 2:36 PM / URL

   Andrew, I agree with your enthusiasm for Knocked Up, having found it very funny and entertaining myself. I would like add a few more points about the film, based on discussions I’ve had with various friends in the past week who have also seen the film. These points are in no way meant to detract from your enthusiasm for the film. I’m just trying to get a reaction to some ideas surrounding Apatow’s filmmaking.

   Jit, you hit on something important by stating that Apatow makes raunchy comedies built around a remarkably traditional morality. In this sense, Knocked Up seems less well-suited to Apatow’s writing style than 40-Year-Old Virgin, because in Virgin Apatow’s juvenile, referential humor played up how inconsistent and stupid most of the advice being given to Carrell’s character by his friends really is, and how most of this advice fails when actually attempted. In Knocked Up, Apatow attempts to resolve raunch with extremely traditional values about childbirth, marriage, committment, etc, and at times it becomes two movies clashing together. Apatow pulls this division off well for the most part, because he makes the story about two worlds clashing together, but I wonder what’s in store for Apatow’s future films, because life only becomes more filled with traditional responsbilities once one has a child. Presuming Apatow continues creating tv series/films in chronological order to actual life experiences, it will be interesting to see how long he can resolve a raunchy/juvenile perspective with the actualities of thirty-, forty-, and fifty-something characters’ lives.

   I also wonder to what degree pregnancy/childbirth in Knocked Up represents Apatow’s struggles with artistic creation throughout his career. Apatow’s experienced multiple ‘stillbirths’ in that his two tv series were cancelled after less than a season on the air each, but then he hit the jackpot with Virgin, and proceeds to revolve his next film, Knocked Up, around a protagonist not knowing if responsibility is what he really wants. Apatow also essentially divides his life trajectory into two camps in ‘Knocked Up’: an idealization of his pre-fame life, presumably captured in the scenes of all of the guys living together in poverty, getting drunk and high, making a nudie website, and constantly riffing on pop culture, and his post-fame life, which comes off as a place of stability, but also a place of sadness and extreme compromise. In a way, Apatow’s extreme gender division in Knocked Up, while both astute and intelligent, allows for a convenient division, in which confusion about fame and responsibility can be equated with a world of women and domestication. Granted, that Apatow is both famous and married in real life to Leslie Mann, with whom he has two kids, no doubt makes this confusion a legitimate one for Apatow, and so the division between pre-fame/”hanging out with the guys”, and post-fame/marriage and kids may not be a stretch for Apatow.

   That said, a part of me can’t help but wonder if Apatow believes his line about married life being just like Everybody Loves Raymond, but less funny, in that Apatow draws rather strict lines of gender division that seem more than a little based on traditional situation comedy-type values. I don’t know if I agree with the accusations of misogyny being leveled against Apatow in some reviews of the film, but I do find it interesting that he associates a desirable life of ‘living his dream’ – to paraphrase Rogen’s character – with male companionship and anonymity, then in turn associates responsibility with with women, indirectly blaming women for being unengaging and dull. Of course, Heigl and Mann’s characters both express dissastisfaction and concern about their lives and futures as married women and mothers, but other than Mann’s character wanting to see Spider-Man 3, at no point do Heigl or Mann’s character desire a life that focuses on popular culture or seem generally engaged by culture at large, but rather focus on their weight, aging, and beauty, whereas the males only want lives of boozing, observational humor and telling jokes. This is especially ironic because Heigl’s character interviews celebrities as a career. At one point she even defends the need to hear what Matthew Fox has to say in general, against Rogen’s character riffing on how Fox has nothing interesting to say about anything.

   My apologies for this being wayyyy longer than expected. To quote Ron Burgundy, “God, that really got out of hand fast.”

3. Chiranjit / 18 June 2007 / 2:46 PM / URL

   Jason, I think your point regarding adolescent lives revolving around pop culture is an interesting one. It’s particularly interesting because Heigl’s character has chosen to make a serious career out of being obsessed with pop culture, so in some ways she has created responsibility within her life out of one of the most irrelevant aspects of our society.

   So I guess I kind of disagree with your point that that Heigl’s character has no desire to lead a life that focuses on popular culture or to be engaged by culture at large. In fact, in some ways her focus – not to mention Mann’s character’s insecurity – on weight, aging, and beauty, has everything to do with popular culture, considering a great many of her connections with these topics are determined by the opinions of her pop-culture-obsessed E! audience. While she might not derive the same level of momentary-enjoyment that Rogen’s character does from pop culture, she has instead found a way to make pop culture a serious endeavour which she is willing to dedicate a significant amount of energy towards. I guess like everything else within the film, while the male element seeks immediate gratification from pop-culture (ie. the website), the female component decides to become more dedicated towards the notion of pop culture. It is interesting that both characters seek to exploit our collective obsession with pop-culture for their own profits. Of course, all of this does revolve around the fact that this obsession with pop-culture might be all that Apatow knows.

Submit Comment

Please note that your email address will never be displayed on this page.

HTML is enabled; line breaks (<br />) and paragraphs (<p>) are automatically converted. Apostrophes, ellipses, em- and en-dashes, and quotes are also automatically formatted.

Name

Email address optional

Website optional

Comment