Man on Film: Wanderlust

Objectively, David Wain's feature-length directorial career has been a bit of a mixed bag. While Wet Hot American Summer has attained the much deserved cachet of being a cult comedy classic, The Ten was inconsistent with its thematically-linked sketch structure lending itself to relatively long stretches of film that work significantly less well than others. Role Models was a step back in the right direction after the misstep that was The Ten, marking perhaps his most conventional comedy, but it lacks the unhinged irreverence that runs roughshod through Wet Hot. 

All of that brings us to the latest film from The State-alum, Wanderlust. Teaming with former college roommate and frequent collaborator Ken Marino, Wain's fourth film takes a relatively normal if not slightly uptight New York couple--Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as George and Linda--who have been reduced to moving to Atlanta after he loses his job and her documentary on penguins with testicular cancer doesn't get picked up by HBO. After getting waylaid for a night at Elysium, an "intentional community," they go to stay with George's brother Rick (Ken Marino) with whom George is going to work. Upon finding out that this job is essentially doing data entry for a port-a-john company and finding his brother unbearable, George and Linda go back to Elysium to give it a two-week trial run in an attempt to find happiness.

What follows is an occasionally funny comedy that obviously plays upon the concept of throwing two normal people into a hippie commune. There are seriously funny parts. Justin Theroux is legitimately funny as Seth, the quasi-leader of the commune, and his passive-aggressive rivalry with George is great. Sure, he's essentially reprising his turn as Jesus in The Ten, but he does it well. Every scene that Ken Marino is in, he kills, and the same can be said about Michaela Watkins, who plays Rick's hilariously miserable and detached suburbanite wife, Marisa. The naturally likable Paul Rudd is somewhat limited by what the role calls for--as he is once again playing the straight-laced, uptight husband/boyfriend--but does get a chance to steal the show with his pre-coital pep talk in the bathroom mirror. His diarrheal dirty talk is so creepy and disgusting that it seems likely to be memorable years from now.

Unfortunately, much of the rest of the film doesn't work quite as well. This starts with Aniston, who is simply out of her depths when thrown into the deep end with some of these comedic talents. So much screen time is devoted to showcasing her, yet she is easily the least funny actress in the ensemble, which is saying something when Malin Akerman (pleasant, but not especially funny, despite the fact that she is almost exclusively in comedies) and Lauren Ambrose (who isn't bad, per se, just isn't particularly funny) are in the film. Talents like the aforementioned Michaela Watkins, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and the woefully underused Kathryn Hahn are here, sure, but it seems a shame that they aren't more prominently featured.

More importantly, though, Wanderlust just isn't quite funny enough. It has its moments, but they are slightly too few and just a little too spread apart.

What is awesome is Ken Marino's Macy Gray impression. Holy shit.


And since this is what is done here, let's take a gander at the Wanderlust trailer.

The shitty thing is, there are clips from this red-band trailer that aren't in the film and are actually funnier than what made it in, which is the somewhat worrisome aspect of what the heavily screen-tested Apatow productions hazard in seeing if the rubes in Peoria will go for something.

Tube Steak: A Fond Farewell to "Party Down"

Well, fuck.

Despite the fact that I've got at least two other entries to write, yesterday's news that Starz is cancelling "Party Down" bumps all other entries to the back-burner.

I really love this goddamn show.

Almost everyone else I know watches (and loves) it, too.

That latter fact is one that leaves me wondering how the hell Starz is figuring that only 74,000 watched its finale. Really? I think maybe Starz needs to reexamine how it is assessing viewership.*

*I started this post Thursday night, and Lizzy Caplan pretty much shared my take on things in an interview on Friday. She, too, is upset.

That 74,000 figure could very well be correct for people who were staying home on a Friday night to watch original programming at 10:00 pm EDT, but Starz makes all of its programming almost immediately available to stream instantly on Netflix. I know many people who went about watching the show this way. The delay is less than a day.

I subscribe to Starz. I have seen every episode of "Party Down" DVRed directly from the premium cable station I subscribe to, yet I have probably only seen five of the episodes in the series' two season run (a "season" is a "series," for any of you confused Brits out there) as they aired on Friday night.

Really the problem here is that shows that appeal to a tech-savvy subset of the viewing public* somehow get left by the wayside, with the arcane methods by which ratings are calculated falling short of capably gauging how many people watch these shows.

*Read: the public whose TV isn't stuck on CBS, a network that I am actually currently watching because the irreverent Craig Ferguson is on, and he demands my viewership. The clip embedded should explain why.


But enough of this embittered ratings-fueled cancellation venom-spewing. Really, I am upset because this show is so funny. Yes, my life is probably a little closer to the lives of the characters on "Party Down" than most people, but it doesn't feel like my enjoyment is a result of occupational similarity, as so many friends who do not work in or around private parties share this love of "Party Down."

I'll admit, what drew me in initially was the fact that Rob Thomas, the creator of one of my favorite shows ever, "Veronica Mars," had co-created a show with Paul Rudd*, who would be on the very short list of My Official Boys here at Inconsiderate Prick. Ken Marino and Martin Starr being in the cast certainly helped things.


*To be fair, there were two other co-creators: John Enbom, who wrote the indie Rory Cochrane star-vehicle The Low Life, which I've oddly seen about six times, and an assload of "Veronica Mars" episodes, including The Debasement Tapes in which Rudd guests as washed-up rock star Desmond Fellows; and Dan Etheridge, a producer on "Veronica Mars," who also produced Overnight Delivery and co-produced The Low Life and Bio-Dome.

Before long, "Party Down" was the first show that needed to be watched on the TiVo. The endless awkward situations, the blind leading the apathetic, the total clusterfucks that the parties ended up turning into... All of these elements combined with a likable cast and ridiculously strong writing to create a really great comedy about people suffering through a shitty job while waiting for their dreams to become a reality.

And the show was consistently hilarious. The characters seemed like real people. No one was perfect. They had their idiosyncracies; their insecurities. They were flawed, but ultimately sympathetic. As is too often the case, the person in charge (Marino's Ron Donald) was ill-equipped to do the job*, which led to countless hijinx ensuing. The failed actor Henry (Adam Scott) and his interplay with aspiring comedienne Casey (Lizzy Caplan, who some know from "Freaks and Geeks" or much more intimately from the first season of "True Blood") makes for some good inter-relational television without veering over into the lame or melodramatic.

*Or as Elvis Mitchell aptly describes him in this interview with Adam Scott, "the one man who wants to do it and cannot."


But really as much as the aforementioned three cast members make this show what it is (or sadly/precisely, was), the unsung hero was Ryan Hansen as Kyle. He wasn't central to the loose story arc that Henry had as he decides to walk away from his dream after being beaten down time and time again, but his presence really allows every other character to shine. Kyle is the yin to Roman's (Martin Starr) yang, and his dimness opens up the floor for Roman to spout off on his outcast nerd superiority rants at least once an episode. His being on the brink of making it (seemingly) while being more looks than talent/intelligence offer a perfect contrast to Henry, who by all accounts is teeming with talent but got swatted down at each turn. His general disrespect and occupational apathy open the door for Ron to mismanage countless situations. And in the first season, it was Kyle who played the best off of Jane Lynch's Constance, allowing for her otherwise overbearing character to fit in.


But what it boils down to is that this show is insanely funny. The last two episodes of this last season were outstanding. Watch the first 30 seconds of Cole Landry's Draft Day Party and try to tell me that you were able to stop watching.

I wasn't ever able to stop myself from watching this the instant I could. Now I don't get to watch it again.

DirecTV, where are you when I need another show rescued?