Finally got around to seeing Knocked Up
Knocked Up scores biggest by avoiding the Big Artificial Conflict that wrecks almost every relationship comedy. I’m going to demonstrate this by using one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, the positively fecal The Object of My Affection
Where Object and so many movies fail, Knocked Up succeeds. Yes, Alison and Ben break up, but it is an inevitable occurrence, the result of a slow build of tension that explodes in a hilarious, foul-mouthed screaming match that starts in a car and ends in a gynecologist’s office. It also serves as a pivotal plot point that gets Ben to grow up, which, frankly, I’d been waiting the whole movie for him to start doing. And, most importantly, Apatow picks up the movie’s pace after the split, avoiding the typical slowdown in most relationship comedies that comes after the writer has forced the two people apart and now needs to spend a solid 45 minutes showing us how miserable they are without each other. We don’t see Alison or Ben miserable; we see both of them acting responsibly, and we see Ben doing something about his half of the problem. What a decidedly grown-up concept.
The main actors were all very good. I’ve been a Katherine Heigl (Alison) fan since “Roswell” – the season-three hairstyle sold me, since you can’t pull that look off if you’re not flat-out gorgeous – so I didn’t need much convincing on that one. Seth Rogan (Ben) was outstanding as a very unlikeable guy who, it turns out, is more clueless than jackass. (Speaking of which, I don’t get the criticism that the movie is “sexist,” which Heigl herself even intimated in a recent Vanity Fair interview. Ben starts out as a goofball and a ne’er-do-well, he’s depicted as reaching in the relationship until the very end of the film, and his friends are socially retarded. Alison’s successful, smart, and funny. This is sexist … how?) Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd are hilarious as a vaguely demented married couple whose relationship is slowly disintegrating under the weight of two kids and his busy job; Rudd’s scene in the Vegas hotel room with Rogan was one of the film’s highlights. And Harold Ramis has a great cameo as Ben’s father.
The movie does have some missed notes and unevenness. Joanna Kerns as Alison’s psychobitch-mom-from-hell was jarring, and she appears just once as a sort of comic foil and doesn’t resurface until the closing credits. The Asian doctor was just as one-dimensional before a jarring character change near the film’s end – it’s like he was there for the joke, but then Apatow needed him to be more normal, so he altered the character. In general, Apatow uses his one- and two-scene characters as sharply-defined props to create slightly forced comic moments, when his specialty is building comedy from real situations. I thought ending the movie with a scene where Alison sees the nursery Ben set up would have been perfect, but that’s just me being sentimental. And I wish that the idea that Ben is a skilled handler of people – he wins two interpersonal negotiations near the film’s end by using conciliatory tactics in one and firm tactics in the other – had been explored a little more earlier in the film. If it was a latent skill, fine, but show us a glimpse earlier on rather than having him emotionally tone-deaf in all of these situations where he’s with Alison and says the absolute worst possible thing.
If you can handle some vulgarity and don’t mind marijuana usage as a running gag, Knocked Up is worth the rental. But if you’re married with kids, it becomes a must-see, because there’s another layer of humor that you’ll get that the non-parents in the audience just won’t quite appreciate.
Keith – I thought the movie was “ok.” It was funny, but I think I was expecting it to be more than it was. Now, have you seen Seth’s other film Super Bad? Maybe it is just the fact that I like juvenile humor, but I thought it was hilarious!
Click on my name for the Heigl pic that Keith is referring to. The one he pointed to seems to have been removed.
And yes, Knocked Up is an excellent movie for married couples.
The hotel room scene had me on the floor. Apatow and Rogen are the new comic heavyweights. I agree with Brian – Keith should see Superbad and 40 Year Old Virgin if he hasn’t already.
Keith–
Glad you finally saw this flick, it’s one of my favorites of the past year. The one thing I really like about 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up is the reality of how the relationships work or don’t work. It is true that both movies have somewhat “unbelievable” premises (the idea that Rogen would actually sleep with Heigl is a bit of a stretch) but they make up for it with believable characters. Carell’s vulnerability in Virgin was just right. In Knocked Up, the relationship between Rudd and Mann is about as realistic as I’ve seen. The way they interact about sex and the kids as well as the way they argue is spot on. The way they crumble a bit towards the middle is very believable as well. Did you happen to catch Freaks and Geeks while it was on? That was a great show, and it’s a shame it didn’t last!
The scene of Paul Rudd sneaking off to attend his fantasy league draft reminded me that I’m luck to have a wife who is tolerant of my baseball obsession.
No question that Apatow and Rogen are new heavyweights in comedy. Too bad people didn’t realize it sooner when TV series like “Freaks and Geeks” got cancelled after one truly excellent season.
I liked Knocked Up but was happy I rented instead of going to the cineplex. The weaknesses were Paul Rudd’s wife… one note, Heigl and Rogan very mediocre actors and an ending that wouldn’t end. It was funny and sweet but how many Katherine Heigl’s end up with Seth Rogans, especially if he’s more juvenile than funny?
Super Bad was funny when McLovin spoke but the rest, especially the cops, was tedious.
$0 year old virgin is the best of the troika. The friends did get tiresome but it hit the most notes without me wanting to turn the channel.
It really is a terrific movie, but I’d have to say that Superbad was even better. It really manages to capture teenage though. Also, I’ve been a huge Michael Cera fan since Arrested Development.
All I’ve heard/read about Superbad, including positive reviews, is that it’s a gross-out comedy. That style doesn’t really appeal to me and hasn’t in probably ten years.
I saw a clip of Virgin involving a back-waxing scene. Excess body-hair jokes fit into the above – they might have been funny a decade ago, but I’m not so into that type of humor, and besides, the joke was already played out long before that movie.
As far as arguments of sexism goes, it might have something to do with the fact that many women in movies usually aren’t allowed to be anything BUT “successful, smart, and funny” if we’re going to take them seriously, while male characters are often given more depth, or at the very least, the opportunity to redeem their bumbling mistakes and socially retarded friends.
However, I haven’t seen “Knocked Up” yet, so I’m definitely not making a case one way or another. Just thought I’d throw some of the more common arguments out there in an attempt to (maybe) clarify some things.
My favorite part of “knocked Up” was the opening scene. Knowing the premise and seeing Rogen’s character dancing and rapping with friends to the classic Ol’ Dirty Bastard track “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” whose chorus “ooh baby I like it raw” is a paean to unprotected sex, it was more than I could take.
Superbad was flat-out hilarious, but it was definitely juvenile humor. I second the Michael Cera shout-out (he plays awkward better than a 13-year old going through puberty), but I’m afraid if I reference Arrested Development a third time I’ll be forever shunned.
Huge Paul Rudd fan here (especially as Brian Fantana).
Keith, the chest-waxing scene takes up about 5 minutes of the movie and was thrown in mainly because it was shot live without interruptions, and Steve Carell actually goes through with it. The overall humor in the movie develops more from a good, believable story and hilarious acting than random jokes like excessive body hair. Don’t make that one scene the reason not to see it, you’d be missing out. Especially if you like Steve Carell.
Keith,
I loved Knocked Up, but as someone who is not married and sans enfants, I guess I missed the unavoidable slow up at the end of the movie. I was actually bored by the last minutes of the film, but probably due to the fact that my face was tired from smiling and laughing during the movie. This movie was 2/3 frat humor and 1/3 chick flick. I would also include The Break Up in your description of lazy writing … while hysterical, that ending was simply unimaginative.
I did enjoy Ben and Allison not getting back together, because while their getting together in the first place was lets say a stretch, them staying separated was unfortunately a real life scenario. Let’s just say their situation was certainly not a fairy-tale! Paul Rudd as always was fantastic (everyone should see Diggers if you want a more serious movie, which I think is his finest performance) and I also loved Ben’s best friend, Jason Segel (“Say hello to your sister for me …”), from “How I Met Your Mother”. Very good film, not great. Superbad – very average, but probably due to the hype and my desire for more.
I don’t see how it would be possible to like Knocked Up, but not like 40yr Virgin: therefore, see the latter as well.
Keith,
SuperBad IS gross. But it is not reliant on scatology so much as a deep, subtle understanding of teens, geeks and the need to be accepted. All of that figures in too. Like “The 40 Year Old Virgin”‘, it has a heart and an unusually wise core. But it has no problem going for the off-colour comic set pieces either.
I kind of feel the same way about Superbad as tangotiger does about 40 Year Old Virgin. I don’t see a way one could like any one of the Rogan-Apatow pseudo-trilogy and not like the other two. I actually thought that Knocked Up was the least strong of the three, but they’re all solid.
Superbad really only has a couple “gross-out” moments in it (I mean, the whole movie is about awkward teenaged boys trying to have sex, which is, you know, gross, but not in the gross-out-comedy sense of the word). I think people were conflating the terms “teen comedy” with “gross-out comedy,” which is an understandable enough mistake since they tend to go together, or otherwise were confusing the vulgarity (which is shocking, but no worse than in Knocked Up) with gross-out humor. And it’s only a “teen comedy” in the sense that it’s a comedy starring teens. It’s fun.
I also enjoyed the film and, as a father, know what you mean about the married with kids humor. Count me in as another one lucky to have a wife tolerant of fantasy baseball.
I have to come down as one who sees the sexism in the film, though. It’s not sexist for what’s on the screen–it’s sexist for what is NOT on the screen. As you mention, Ben’s character is explored deeply and evolves quite a bit over the course of the film. What’s left out is any similar evolution by Alison. For example:
-Pregnancy, childbirth, and potential single motherhood made this pregnancy much more life-changing for Alison then Ben. Yet abortion is barely mentioned and each character gets equal screen time for considering the possibility. And we never quite understand why Alison has made her decision.
-Why did Alison decide to start a relationship with Ben anyway? She finds out she’s pregnant, she briefly talks about whether or not she should tell Ben, sets up a meeting to tell him, and then all of a sudden they’re a serious couple. Alison sleeping with Ben after a drunken night seemed quite plausible to me. Alison giving him a chance to be an involved father did not. If her character was more fully developed it may have made more sense, but I don’t see it.
-Ben’s “job” was given more screen time than Alison’s job. (Or maybe it just seemed that way as I enjoyed the scenes of Ben’s “job.” Chalk up her not telling the network she is pregnant as another implausible feature.
A lot of this may sound like nitpicking and I want to emphasize that I enjoyed the film for many of the reasons you listed. But Apatow’s failure to develop Alison’s character was the major flaw of the film. Judd certainly knows how to develop female leads. Even though Freaks and Geeks had a slight male bias in it’s humor, storylines, and simple ratio of characters, Lindsay was the most interesting character on the show. I wish I could say the same about Alison.
Knocked Up didn’t turn me off with its vulgarity. Sure, there was some, mostly F-bombs and the one argument about Jay shaving his nether regions (gross, but hilarious in the way that Jonah goes from quiet to apoplectic in about 0.02 seconds), but there was more non-vulgar humor and content than vulgar.
Closer was vulgar, start to finish, up and down, and that was sold as an intelligent art film. There may have been a good movie in there, but that’s my best example of a movie where the vulgarity overwhelmed it.
Keith, I echo the comments of a few others. 40 is a better film than Knocked Up and has the same nice message wrapped around vulgarity. Same with Superbad.
You mentioned during your chat yesterday that you haven’t seen any of the Best Pic noms. Having a small child probably limits your being able to go to a theater, but try and see There Will Be Blood and No Country. Although I have a feeling that you will wait until reading No Country before seeing it.
Though I wouldn’t agree, I suppose I can imagine where some of the charges of sexism come from with regard to this film. Alison’s character is, as you described, successful, smart and funny whereas there is little value in the characterization of Ben. If the morning after the mistake was not sufficient to tell Alison all she needed to know about Ben then one or two more encounters surely would have done the job. Yet she continues with him, and though they eventually separate, she hung around too long while her character was reduced from a successful independent woman to the plot device to play of off Ben’s immaturity.
I didn’t see it when I watched the film, and in fact thought her character was admirable. That Alison stayed with Ben as long as she did is certainly unrealistic, however I did not feel that her character was subsumed in the relationship.
I had never seen or read the criticism of the movie as sexist previously, though it is similar to other criticisms of Apatow’s films. I guess there is some feeling amongst Apatow followers (though I’m uncertain how wide spread the sentiment is) that his films have drifted from his roots in Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. In television Apatow strove to show the value of society’s marginal characters, yet increasingly in his films they are played as irredeemable fools and what decent people remain are used as comic apparatuses.
Man! The hotel scene was great. I have a vague memory from college along the same lines at a Queens of the Stone Age concert in San Diego. The grass on campus was extremely soft!
You know, I’ve been a big Apatow fan, especially of the full movies, but I have to say that this one didn’t do it for me. Ben took too long to mature. My friend and I spoke about this movie this morning, and we both agree that it just didn’t make sense for Ben, faced with the “decision” between Jonah Hill and his buddies and Katherine Heigl, what takes so long? I mean, not many of us “normal” guys lucky to sneak into a relationship with someone of Alison’s caliber would take almost, what, 8 months? to figure out what a great thing had happened to him. In that way, Ben just didn’t seem to be a likeable guy until the end when he changed. For a movie that’s so character driven, I just couldn’t get beyond that.
Jeremy –
The story in Knocked Up isn’t sexist. It focuses on one character.
Juno, which deals with similar themes, albeit with younger characters, focuses almost solely on the woman’s perspective. The male character (Michael Cera) in that movie barely registered with me. Never was his impending transition into “fatherhood” (“” because the baby was given up for adoption) explored. Doesn’t make Juno a sexist movie.
Juno and Knocked Up both concentrated on one character’s life, while using their partner as a comparitive backdrop.
I think Heigl’s “sexist” point of view had more to do with the men getting most of the laughs, while she played the career oriented foil. I guess this means that she might be missing your point, i.e. it wasn’t sexist she’s the smart and funny one with the great job etc….I thnk this might also speak to the fact that this movie was written by a man, and since experiences tend to be normative, this also means that the jokes will come from a man’s perspective.
Keith,
I enjoyed reading your review of Knocked Up. Hopefully you will continue to include movie reviews in your blog.
Perhaps the reason I found Superbad to be funnier than Knocked Up is because it is was easier for me to relate to the film, being the age the characters are in the movie. Apparently a good chunk of the movie was written when Seth Rogan was 14, which explains why he was able to really get into the minds of teenage boys. You wouldn’t believe how many of my friends came out of the movie saying, “It’s weird how similar I am to those two (Cera and Hill).” Finally Bill Hader’s and Seth Rogan’s roles as two cops who take a kid out for a night of fun may be the best part of the film.
Knock Up not vulgar, Keith? One of the jokes involved getting pink eye from scat.
40 yr old virgin is the best of the three. least vulgar/childish a well if that’s what you are looking for. other two are solid, but not great.
even if you hate body hair jokes, watching carell go through the process while saying ridiculous things is classic.
Mooj: Hey Andy, don’t let him bother you. It’s okay not to have sex. Not eveybody’s a pussy magnet. You, uh, what are you 25?
Andy: I’m 40.
Mooj: Holy shit, man you got to get on that.