Man on Film: The Five-Year Engagement

It has gotten to the point with the Team Apatow flicks where you tend to look forward to non-Judd Apatow directed films. He has assembled quite the cadre of talented comedic minds around him and certainly has comedic chops himself, but the proper Judd Apatow films tend to need a slightly more cutthroat hand in the editor's room.

Perhaps the most pleasant of the surprises of the the aforementioned lot of films was Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the first film from the team of writer/director Nicholas Stoller and occasional writing partner Jason Segel. It was with that--and the success of The Muppets--that one came into their newest project, The Five-Year Engagement.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall it wasn't.

The Five-Year Engagement is the closest to a straight-up romantic comedy as the Apatow crew has come. To be fair, it is not the typical documentation of a relationship in its courtship phase or the tired scenario in which the two main characters are clearly perfect for each other but they're stuck in a relationship that clearly doesn't befit their outstanding moral fiber. This starts with the proposal and then spends the entire rest of the film building a storm that they have to weather to stay together. In the case of The Five-Year Engagement, that storm is the unenviable fate of living in Michigan. To support his fiance, Tom Solomon (Segel) gives up his career as a chef in high-end San Francisco restaurants taking a job in a sandwich shop in Ann Arbor while Violet (Emily Blunt) pursues her career in academia. It operates in something that at least vaguely resembles the real world, unlike most romantic comedies. This is an important distinction, and The Five-Year Engagement is better than most rom-com fare, being far more adult than the ultimately simplistic and idealistic genre ever gets.

Unfortunately, The Five-Year Engagement does not live up to the standards that the previous teaming of the team of Segel and Stoller got. It is funny. It seems to have elements of a personal tale, presumably Stoller's. There is no point in the film in which you are not wanting to be there watching it, but it also doesn't step past the realm of simply being a pleasant film. It's got elements to like. Jacki Weaver and Alison Brie are both funny. Chris Pratt is outstanding. Segel and Blunt work well together for the most part. Pratt alone almost takes the film to that next level, but it doesn't quite get there.

In the end, The Five-Year Engagement is an all right time. Certainly something that both halves of a relationship can enjoy. It just isn't quite as good as Stoller and Segel's other output.

Man on Film: Get Him to the Greek

Despite the fact that Nicholas Stoller's directorial debut, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, might just be my favorite of the Team Apatow productions*, I was not exactly excited for the latest Apatow Productions film, Get Him to the Greek.

*Now, it should be noted that Step Brothers is a film that I've seen approximately 30 times (unfortunately, none of those times were in the theater). It's weird because despite the fact that the Apatow Productions title card is in front of the film it feels like this is not a product of Team Apatow. Perhaps it's the "Freaks and Geeks"-lessness of the cast, but they seem only loosely related to one another. I do love Step Brothers but am reluctant to put it in the conversation with the other Apatow products.

Yes, I really loved FSM, but a lot of Get Him to the Greek relies on Jonah Hill, something I was reticent about heading into the film. Generally speaking, I like almost all of the films Hill has been in, yet I often feel like he is one of the weaker links in the film. While he is certainly capable of being very funny, there is something about his energy that can be off-putting. Luckily for us all, Get Him to the Greek is not a film in which that holds true.

Since my reluctance (and I do not believe I am alone in this) lied in the film's obvious reliance upon Hill, I will start by talking about him. As the regular music fan who got into the music industry because of his fandom, Hill's character, Aaron Green, is ideally constructed to suit his strengths. He isn't supposed to play anything that lies outside of his wheelhouse. As a regular dude who has ceded any semblance of a social life to his girlfriend's schedule and her desire to watch "Gossip Girl" (or maybe it was "Grey's Anatomy") on DVD, Jonah Hill is not only believable but also likable.

With the potential dilemma of Hill having been addressed, the success of the film lies largely on the shoulders of Russell Brand, whose reprisal of the character Aldous Snow is pitch-perfect. He is larger than life and unabashedly self-centered. As the caricature of the drug-addled rock star with a posse of enablers, Brand hits every note with aplomb. It is Snow's ridiculously destructive and self-serving behavior that drives much of the comedy and nearly all of the drama within the film. When he is called on to have a withdrawal-fueled freak out, he kills. When called on to deliver the bloated pomposity that is "African Child," he imbues the song with a clueless sincerity not matched since Paul McCartney ripped off David Hasselhoff* for his egregious post-9/11 *cough* anthem "Freedom."


*This reminds me that despite my repeated assertions about Rocky IV and the David Hasselhoff performance above having won the Cold War, I've not blogged about it in this space. For this, I am sorry. Hopefully I'll have the time in the near future to tackle this at length and in detail.

Now Brand is great to be sure, but he is not alone. In his limited role as the executive at the label, Sean Combs is outstanding. From the dressing down of his employees in the staff meeting to his on-set argument with Pharrell, he is hilarious. More surprising (because if you remember Made, Combs's hilarity isn't necessarily unprecedented) is how fucking amazing Rose Byrne is as Snow's ex-lover Jackie Q. Seriously. If you need proof, I'll refer you to the shockingly lewd anal sex single embedded below (stick around through the end).

Despite my hesitancy to embrace Byrne in years past, I am fully on board, as she has been great in everything I've seen her in for a few years now.

Past the cast though, the film works. At its heart, Get Him to the Greek--as so many of the Team Apatow films are--is a film about male bonding and the perils of getting too close to your idol. On both counts, Stoller & Co. succeed. Despite all his faults, Snow ultimately finds value in what Green brings to the table, on a personal and professional label, even if he ends up vomiting on himself at least once a day.

Man on Film: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

In the latest release from the "Freaks and Geeks" sect of the Apatow clan, Jason Segel follows in Seth Rogen's footsteps and tries his hand at screenwriting. The resulting film is one which certainly measures up well to the latter's "Superbad" and assuages the fears of the reactionary Apatow fans who worried that a drop-off in quality was already underway. For the doubters, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" serves as a reminder that when "Freaks and Geeks" people are involved in the creation of Judd Apatow productions the end product will be of the highest quality.

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" follows the downtrodden protagonist, Peter, the composer for a comically horrible CSI-style show, as he tries to cope with having been dumped by the star of the show, the titular Sarah Marshall. In an effort to get over his relationship, he decides to escape to a resort in Hawai'i that she had spoken of before. When he gets there, he sees that Sarah is also there, and she is with a new man.

Any more talk of the plot would be futile. If you've seen any romantic comedies, you can tell where the film is going. The plot is not the important part of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". This is a character-driven film. From the leads to the supporting cast, the film is brimming over with great characters, like Paul Rudd's sunbaked surf instructor, Chuck, Jonah Hill's gay fanboy waiter, Matthew, or Da'Vone McDonald's sea turtle enthusiast/bartender, Dwyane. Of particular note, though, is Billy Baldwin, who channels the spirit of David Caruso to great effect in his cameo as the TV detective in Sarah Marshall's show. His one-liners are priceless, especially his play on frozen treats.

The true test of the film is whether or not the film is funny, and it is. The comedy is fresh; the jokes are funny; and the audience is given a film that is not simply stock moments with stock reactions. It is not your typical romantic comedy. It plays on awkwardness. It embraces pain. There are three full-frontal nude shots of Jason Segel, all in uncomfortable situations.

Honestly, I think this film works better than last summer's hit "Superbad". While "Superbad" was great, there seems to be a depth to this film that "Superbad" did not reach. It does explore relationships in an adult manner, showing instances in which the disintegration of the relationship is not simply one person's fault, even if that isn't the crux of the film.

And lastly, what Peter's depression culminates into is outstanding.

All in all, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is a great comedy, which is certain to have one particular line involving the letters B, L, and T repeated around the world.