Just A Photo

I wanted to add a photo of myself. That is all.

Rocket Science and the Cinema Of Suicidal Suburban Bliss

"Oh, who gives a shit! Who needs a fucken baby anyway, you wanna make your self useful around here, why dont you get that goddamn tv fixed?"
-- Justine Last from The Good Girl

"Idealism is guilty middle-class bullshit."
-- Jeff from Suburbia (1996)

"We have to overcome the idea that everyone is the same."
-- Justin Cobb from Thumbsucker

Last Spring I saw Michael White's Year Of The Dog. The film is not what I expected at all. May I just say that whoever marketed the film should have been fired. Relationship/Date movie my ass. Come on folks, Year Of The Dog may be the best example I have seen of the effects of the suicidal blandness of the suburbs in some time. I am a child of suburbia and I have no problems with that, but I am not going to yank your chain. Diary of Mad Housewife is the real deal. The Ice Storm is a documentary to me. I felt like I was watching a home movie when I dragged Phil Goldberg to go see that in 1997. Little Children was wishful thinking for me. I knew all too well, I wanted to say sure, that is about right. Tell me something I do not know, Todd Field. The Virgin Suicides was like watching a film strip of my youth via trips to the Aspen Hill Shopping Center during the 1970's. Sadly, there were no Libson Sisters for me to be friends with while growing up. In one way or another, all of these films hit a nerve. Good or bad, they just hit nerves. Year Of The Dog was a call to arms. It is not the thinking person's Dog Park, but the antithesis of The Truth About Cats And Dogs. Molly Shannon steps way out of her comfort zone to play Peggy. She loses her beautiful beagle, Pencil. He dies in the first act of the film. Pencil's death sets in a motion one of the potent tales of the birth of an activist. To me, that is really what Michael White's Year Of The Dog is really about in the long run. Peggy's journey from mourning to becoming a full blown animal rights activist. At first, I thought it was merely Michael White playing around Peggy and the characters in her Southern Californian permanent non day sun existence. Peggy's interactions with family, friends and potential mates. At times the film falls into Todd Solondz territory-- is he laughing with or at his characters. That is not a criticism, but a lifelong obsession with White and Solondz. Maybe not lifelong, but at least for the last ten years. For Peggy, the suicidal blandness of the suburbs leads to something else. To honor Pencil's memory and her love of Pencil, she becomes an animal rights activist. It is a startling transformation.

So what does all this have to do with Rocket Science? Plenty because Jeffrey Blitz has dome something remarkable here. Rocket Science is being dismissed as a Napoleon Dynamite clone. I like Napoleon Dynamite and I while I do think Hot Rod is the same in tone, there are still parts of Hot Rod I found entertaining. Bill Hader's character and the virtues of am radio held my interest. I guess a lot of films are going to be compared to Napoleon Dynamite. It is inevitable. Rocket Science belongs more to the same genre of suburban cinema as Spanking The Monkey, Rushmore, Thumbsucker and Garden State. I could give you more, but I think Rocket Science belongs in the same category as those films. Sure, Garden State is over hyped, but I found plenty to like and it is the only thing I have seen Zach Braff in that I like. Blitz made a wonderful documentary called Spellbound back in 2002 that followed the lives of several teenagers involved in 1999 National Spelling Bee. If anything, I felt that Rocket Science is the narrative version of one of those lives. Rocket Science's Hal Hefner seems like the long lost brother of Thumbsucker's Justin Cobb or Spanking The Monkey's Ray Aibelli. I would not say he is that much different from Rushmore's Max Fisher. Wait a second, is anyone really like Max Fisher? Hal Hefner is a very interesting character. Here is teenage boy who stutters his way through life. Yet in order to get more out of life, he takes a risk and accepts an invitation to join the high school debate team in the New Jersey suburbs. An invitation at firs that seems outlandish and will turn out later not to be sincere as one would think. But leave it to Reece Thompson's Hal to make it one of the most interesting performances of year.

If I did not know any better, I would have thought Rocket Science's Ginny Ryerson and Election's Tracy Flick were separated at birth. Although in hindsight, I would rather have Tracy Flick here and send Ginny Ryerson to Baghdad to direct traffic coordination. Whatever one has against Tracy Flick, Ginny Ryerson takes it several steps further. After Ben Wekselbaum walks away from the debating championships, Ginny has to find a new debating partner. Ben Wekselbaum (Nicholas D'Agosto) is a local legend. And then in the middle of his debate, the words stop coming and he just goes silent. he walks away. He is the film's Kurtz. That is right, he is Kurtz and in many ways Hefner is our Willard. The third act of Rocket Science plays like a suburban Apocalypse Now. The Jersey suburbs are like the river leading to Kurtz's compound which in this case is Trenton. Ryerson is played by Anna Kendrick. Sadly she does not have Hal's best interest at heart. She is using him, but for Hal this is the best thing to ever happen to him. The chain of events leads to sudden maturity and a level of courage that was absent before. He comes from a dysfunctional family-- I know that is an oxymoron at this point. His older brother Earl is the perfect example of stupidity and brutality wrapped up in an ugly package. Let us just say, there is enough madness at home that makes him want to leave and explore the surroundings. Not just debate team, but the world of Ginny Ryerson. He befriends a boy and his family who live across the street from her family. Hal Hefner's journey may not be for everyone, but I found plenty to like and admire.

It is really while watching 51 Birch Street last night and watching the latest episode of Weeds tonight on Showtime that I see the best and worst of suburbia.
51 Birch Street is a very powerful documentary that at times plays like a real life version of Diary Of A Mad Housewife. The film shows how filmmaker, Doug Block learns that his parents 54 year marriage may not as been as happy as he thought it was. Block's mother dies unexpectedly and the father remarries three months later to his former secretary. Block finds out that his parents were far more complex than he ever could have imagined. The film is a powerful and riveting look at what goes on behind those doors in the suburbs. He discovers his Mother's diaries and he learns about a whole other side to her. Still that brings me to Weeds, which gets Southern California so right in so may ways. Hal Hefner might feel very at home in the Botwin household. Although, Mary-Louise Parker is a far better mother than the one that Hal has in the film. So Nancy is a drug dealer and a single mother, but she loves her children. Nancy may be the coolest and most loving mother in recent television history. Weeds get suburbia just right. The suburbs drive us to do crazy things, but for those of us who grew up here and still reside here, we know the drill. Some of us recognize the blandness that eats away at the land. The endless horizon of subdivisions and strip malls that make up the landscape. Although, Joe Dante's The 'burbs got all this right back in 1989. I always wanted Bruce Dern for a neighbor. For that matter, maybe Neighbors was not that far off the mark.

Superbad: One Last Blast In The Ruins (Spoilers!!!)

You know, Home Ec. is a joke. Everyone takes it to just get an A. Not to disgrace your profession or anything. There's three weeks left in school, just give me a fucking break! I'm sorry for cursing."
-- Seth from Superbad

"All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine."
-- Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High

"Imagine how many people out there are fuckin' right now man, just goin' at it."
-- Ron Slater from Dazed And Confused

It was no accident that Harold Ramis was cast as Ben Stone's father in Knocked Up. It was Judd Apatow paying homage to one of his idols of the great subversive comedy genre. Ramis has starred, written or directed some of the best ones of my generation. He co-wrote the best of the best: Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Back To School and the Ghostbusters films. He directed Caddyshack, Vacation, and some recent classics as well like Groundhog Dog. He has starred in many of these films along side Bill Murray-- one of the great poster boys of the subversive comedies of the late 1970's and early 1980's. These were the films of my youth that I have never been able to outgrow. The films have stood the test of time as far as I am concerned. It is only fitting that Ramis would play the father of Seth Rogen's Ben Stone. Apatow has a thing for carrying on the tradition in his television shows and his two directorial features-- The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Those two films show more wit, daring and just flat out laughs than I could ever commit to paper. Apatow gets it. Adulthood is a minefield and when you get there-- the inmates running the asylum are usually just as clueless as you. Whether it is Andy Stitzer getting advice on women, dating or love in The 40 Year Old Virgin or Ben getting advice on fatherhood, and life in Knocked Up-- the adults or experts in the films are just as in the dark as our main characters. Although, Catherine Keener has more on the ball than anyone as Trish in The 40 Year Old Virgin.
Apatow's film reveal a world where everyone is in a state of arrested development... forever. Maturity may be a goal, but immaturity is the lay of the land. Sometimes where you least expect it. The films play like the triumph of the slacker. I love it!!!

Superbad is the best film you can end the summer with. Why not? It has all the trappings of Judd Apatow's previous work. He is the perfect person to produce this coming of age story set on one day during the closing days of high school and the dawn of adulthood. Or in the case of the film's main characters-- college life.
If it makes any sense, Superbad is the perfect prequel to Knocked Up. Trust me, while Apatow does not direct, it makes sense that Greg Mottola called the shots this time. Has it been ten years since Mottola's The Daytrippers? Superbad owes some of it manic enrgy to that film and seems inspired from such films as Dazed And Confused, After Hours, Porky's and Fast Times At Ridgemont High. The Ramis subversive genes are here too. I am not sure I would this film this generation's Animal House, but I have a feeling that Jonah Hill's Seth is going to be quoted for many years to come. Jonah Hill has a rapid fire fould mouth. Hill's Seth is a mash up of Eric Cartman and a young Zero Mostel. The first twenty minutes of the film is a non stop barrage of Seth's mouth. Some of the funniest dialogue I have heard in some time. Seth's mouth is a treasure trove foul language, porn and gross out jokes!!! His chemistry with his best friend Evan, Michael Cera, is as real as they come. We believe these two have known each other their lives as soon as we see them in action. We like these two and we want to follow them for the rest of the film. But Superbad is really about a trio and this is where the film gets very interesting. Enter Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell or as his fake I.D. says, Mclovin. First off, I love the fact that Seth and Fogell do not get along. They hate each other. I did not expect that. Seth's manic outbursts toward him had me rolling. But Seth and Evan needs the uber geeky, Mclovin who plays like a cross between a geeked out Phil Silvers mixed with an over confident Spaz from Meatballs. Mclovin has the fake ID which can get them liquor and entrance into Jules' graduation party. Jules is played by Emma Stone and she delivers the goods. Stone's Jules is right up there with Keener's Trish and Katherine Heigl's Alison. Jules could easily grow up to be on of those women in the Apatow universe. The journey to the liquor store takes many unexpected turns. Scorsese's After Hours meets Linklater's Dazed And Confused in the post- American Pie landscape.
Superbad works very well. It would have been a shame if it did not work. The trailer in front of Grindhouse was the shape of things to come. The film has something else that Apatow's films have as well. It does have a lot of heart. In the end, this is a film about friendships and relationships. The film is based on a script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Seth was originally written for Seth Rogen, but he is too old to play the part. Instead Rogen plays one of two cops in the Southern Californian suburbs of my dreams. Officer Michaels along with Bill Hader's Officer Slater are the perfect contrast to Seth and Evan. Are they older versions of the two main charcaters? Or are they just two really slacker police officers out to show McLovin a wild night on the town? Some of have complained that the Rogen/Hader charcters are in the film too long. I disagree, these guys and their wild antics give the film a great balance and further advance Apatow's philosophy that no one wants to grow up. Even in law enforcement, cops just want to get wasted and slack off. Hader and Rogen have great chemistry as well. What if Beavis and Butthead became cops-- that is them in a nutshell. Hader's Slater is a delight. And Rogen's Michaels is furhter proof that Seth Rogen is more than just a young Albert Brooks. He is so much more than that. Their interactions with McLovin verge on the ridiculous. Do they believe that he is really who he says he is or are they really in on it? Are they real cops? Who knows, but we are just happy to be along for the ride.

Michael Cera's Evan has a thing for Becca (Marth MacIsaac). She is the wedge between Evan and Seth. The goal for the night as far as Seth is concerned is to be that "mistake" that women make when they have too much to drink. Seth is banking on this with Jules. Evan is not so desperate and is really in love with Becca. The reactions to their missions makes Superbad really stand out. The third act of the film is where Greg Mottola goes back to Daytrippers mode and delivers on a ten year old promise. Evan and Seth reach the breaking points of their lifelong friendship. Truths come out and anyone who has been there will be able to relate. Seth did not get inot Dartmouth. Evan and Fogell did-- like Seth ever had a chance. Maybe if Dartmouth had a Pornography major, but no such luck for him. The film can be seen as their last hurrah as best friends that threatens to unravel on a journey to the ultimate graduation party.

Superbad is the perfect film to end the summer on before some of go back school, college, work or the great unknown. Like Old School before it, I have not laughed out this loud in along time. Sure I had a blast with previous Apatow films, Swingers and Kevin Smith's films, but Superbad is like one huge belly laugh that you have been holding in all summer. Maybe since Knocked up, maybe since Dodgeball or maybe since Clerks II. Is it worth all the hype and buzz? Depending on your mood, it might just be, but regardless, the film is a lot of fun.
This week, I bought The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters on DVD. That film had me laughing at a fever pitch last spring. It just had me from the time the film started. Superbad had me from the trailer. Superbad also reminds me I have no interest in going back to high school. I doubt Seth, Evan or Fogell will ever want to go back either. Judd Apatow, whether as a writer, producer or director, knows his audience. Judd Apatow gets it.