The Interview

Directors: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park, Diana Bang, Timothy Simons, Eminem, Rob Lowe, Ben Schwartz
Running Time: 112 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

All the controversy surrounding the release, or semi non-release of The Interview was simultaneously the best and worst thing that could have happened to this movie. Had it not incited an international incident, chances are it would just come and go, opening to mixed reviews and winning its weekend at the box office, before being set aside until the next James Franco/Seth Rogen comedy vehicle comes along. But now the Sony hack has made it an "event movie," with its release has shifting the conversation entirely and turning its stars into worldwide superstars for at least a few weeks, making the film's actual quality an irrelevant afterthought. It should be the kind of publicity you can't buy but Sony buckled by failing to conventionally release it in a timely manner to capitalize before abruptly changing course. In other words, the studio blew it.

Despite rescuing the film from playing alongside Song of the South and The Day The Clown Cried in an unseen triple feature, it's tentative release is still an ironic debacle worthy of the actual film this fiasco is centered around, which is funnier and smarter than it's getting credit for. If nothing else it's got the media satire thing down pat and features a bizarre, over-the-top performances from America's most popular "love him or hate him" actor. It's hard to watch The Interview without thinking of everything that happened precisely because it's just the kind of event this movie is spoofing.

Franco plays sleazy, dimwitted TV journalist Dave Skylark, whose "Skylark Tonight" talk show scrapes the bottom of the pop culture barrel, covering topics like Rob Lowe's baldness and Eminem's homosexuality (with both cameoing as versions of themselves). Producing it is his best friend and business associate, Aaron Rapaport (Rogen), who's viewed as a big joke in the industry due to his association with a program that makes TMZ look like Charlie Rose and gives a whole new, lesser meaning to the term "soft news." They hope that's about to change when they discover North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) is a fan and wants to arrange a sit-down interview with Dave, albeit under his terms, with all questions formulated by his top official Sook (Diana Bang). Seeing a potential ratings bonanza and the rare shot at journalistic respectability, they jump at the chance. But when CIA Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) hears about the interview she recognizes it as a rare opportunity to assassinate Kim and plans to use Dave and Aaron to do it. Things go awry when she underestimates Dave's incompetence and stupidity and he forms an unlikely bond with the seemingly fun-loving North Korean leader.

The big question going into this was just how necessary it was to focus the plot around a real-life world leader, even going so far as to use his real name and physical likeness. While it's definitely a decision the studio paid for in many ways, it's also easy to understand why co-directors Rogen and Evan Goldberg pushed it through despite the drawbacks. They knew it would be controversial and if you're making an R-rated comedy you want it to have teeth and not pull any punches. Whether we'd have the same movie if they used a fictitious character is debatable, but the the decision does arguably give the story an edge and curiosity factor it probably wouldn't otherwise have on its own.

Make no mistake that this is all about assassinating Kim, so anyone going in solely for that reason won't be disappointed. His role is far from a cameo and they definitely don't wuss out in lampooning the real person, which would have truly been a letdown. But forget about North Korea since Sony's lucky GLAAD didn't go after the movie for the amount of gay jokes Rogen and Goldberg throw in, which are enough to make you think you're back in the fourth grade playground. It seemed they couldn't go five minutes without one, which got tiresome after a while, as did many of the sex jokes, which were hit-or-miss. Where this really scores is with the physical comedy and satire.

We may as well just admit that any scene involving the planning, smuggling, or attempted administering of the poison to Kim is laugh-out-loud hilarious. Luckily, these sight gags takes up a large portion of the film and there's a training sequence early on where Caplan's character attempts to prepare Franco's TV host for the mission, realizing there's probably no way this moron will be able to carry it out. She's mostly right. Once they get to North Korea it only gets better when Dave Skylark bonds with the free wheeling, emotional Kim, even as Aaron tries to convince him he's being taken for a ride. But Aaron's also being taken for one, by Kim's right hand woman Sook, with whom he becomes infatuated.

There's more than a few ways the character of Dave Skylark could have been played, as evidenced by the fact that real-life journalists were considered for the part at early stages in the project's development. While having an actual straight-laced newsman reacting to the absurdity around him would have been an interesting meta direction to go, the casting of Franco works better for the tone they're going for. While it's arguable whether that tone results in the best possible movie, Franco fully commits to playing Dave as basically the dumbest guy on the planet. The actor's not the least bit believable as any kind of journalist and doesn't even seem to care, which strangely makes the whole situation funnier. It's almost as if his entire performance consists of him mocking himself playing the role. Some would say that's become the story of his career, in that our feelings on whatever he's doing at the moment are completely wrapped up in our opinion of him as a personality. Obviously it works well for something like this, which is intrinsically tied to our relationship with the media, in both fictional and now non-fictional ways.

The reliable Rogen proves again his stock in trade is the likable schlub and while he isn't necessarily any more believable as a producer than Franco as a host, that's again exactly the point. There's no sense belaboring the point that these guys have such bro chemistry on screen by now that they may as well be married, a joke definitely in the spirit of this script. But it's Randall Park as Kim giving what's by far the film's best performance, especially shining in all his scenes opposite Franco and expertly skirting the line between believability and silliness when the story shifts and he must transform at the drop of a dime. His real life counterpart can at least take solace in the fact that they got a really great comic actor to play him.

If anyone deserves to emerge a winner out of all this, it's Park, and to a degree, Bang, who breathes life into movie every time she shares the screen with Rogen. Caplan's role as the CIA agent is mostly functional but she gets to have some golden exchanges early on when preparing the guys for their mission. The actual "interview" of the movie's title delivers, as does a hilarious fight sequence that takes place during it. It probably should have ended shortly thereafter since what follows isn't quite as memorable, but it's tough to complain when this is one of the few recent Rogen/Franco comedies with the restraint to contain itself at under two hours. 

Whenever massive hype is suddenly thrust upon what would otherwise be considered an ordinary release, disappointment usually awaits. There's definitely no guidebook for a situation like this but I can say it exceeded my admittedly low expectations, keeping me entertained throughout and doing more things right than wrong. It won't change the world, even if it's release seemed to alter the course of the movie industry, if just temporarily. Forced to choose between the real life incident and the one depicted in this movie, real life gets the edge. But not by much. Far worse comedies have gotten more attention for less.
                

This is the End

Directors: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, Martin Starr
Running Time: 106 min.

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

Sometimes it can be freeing for viewers to be given a break from the rigid constraints of what we've come to expect from comedies. To be filled with the feeling that literally anything can happen at anytime and what we're watching isn't dependent on a specific formula that's been tried before. This is the End provides that tantalizing proposition, as a group of talented, likable actors are given the opportunity to just cut loose and poke fun at their own celebrity by playing versions of "themselves." It's a golden idea from the minds of Superbad co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, even if it looked more enticing on the page than it ends up being on screen. I kept wondering if maybe these guys setting just a few ground rules would have done the film some good, as it starts out promising until devolving into kind of a mess about midway through.

The admittedly inspired central conceit starts running on fumes after a while, with all the actors in on a joke that wears out it's welcome. And it's a shame because what starts so promisingly eventually amounts to a bunch of actors hanging out on set smoking weed and cursing at each other for almost two hours. What nearly rescues this are all these performers since it can't be overstated how big a fan of theirs I am, only making this disappointment sting just a bit more.

When actor Jay Baruchel arrives in L.A. to meet up with his old friend Seth Rogen, he sees it as an opportunity to get high, eat junk food and play video games. But Rogen has other plans, dragging his unwilling and visibly uncomfortable pal to James Franco's debaucherous housewarming party, which includes celebrity attendees such as Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Rihanna, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, Jason Segel, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, David Krumholtz and Martin Starr. But when Baruchel goes out for cigarettes with Rogen, the two discover mass chaos on the streets, with explosions, fire, and a strange blue light shooting pedestrians up into the sky. It isn't long after they return that a massive crack opens in the earth, swallowing most of Franco's famous partygoers while leaving Baruchel, Rogen, Franco, Hill and Robinson hauled up in his house hoarding supplies and waiting for help. Franco also has an uninvited houseguest in Danny McBride, whose belligerent behavior and glutenous consumption of food and drink is making survival extremely difficult. As tempers flare and tensions escalate at the Franco compound, Jay's bold prediction that the biblical Apocalypse is upon them is looking more more believable by the second.

To call a movie like this "self-indulgent" is not only beside the point, but possibly a high compliment. We wouldn't expect anything else from these guys and would worry if they didn't take every opportunity to lampoon their own images with tongues planted firmly in cheek. That's by far the film's strongest aspect and it's made very clear within the opening minutes with Michael Cera's extended cameo a self-absorbed, drug-addicted celebrity man whore who heinous acts include blinding Christopher Mintz-Plasse with cocaine and sexually harassing Rihanna, The movie never quite repeats it's magic once he departs (in the most spectacularly hilarious way possible). All the dirty, filthy comedy with Cera works because it's truly shocking to see him specifically act like a spoiled Hollywood brat and he just throws himself into it with reckless abandon. And of course there's his unbelievably colorful windbreaker, which should really have its own movie.

When they try to repeat much of Cera's over-the-top hijinx with everyone else it doesn't work as well. We completely expect Rogen, Franco, Hill, McBride, and Robinson to do the craziest things possible, but what's most surprising is just how much of a slog the middle portion of the picture is, with the six of men under lockdown in Franco's house hurling insults at each other and doing drugs for almost an hour straight.  While an "end of the world" scenario with these actors should be exciting, the premise actually turns out to be creatively limiting, almost as if Rogen and Goldberg didn't know what to do once the party stopped and they had to switch gears into Apocalyptic action-comedy. There's this nagging feeling that a real-time movie that revolved entirely around this party would probably be superior to much of what follows. 

That's not say this still doesn't have its moments, most of them coming in smaller doses when the actors spoof their own reputations. Franco is the pretentious "artiste," with his living room doubling as a gallery adorned with Freaks and Geeks paintings and a basement containing a Spider-Man 3 cardboard standee and an Harvey Milk sign. And that's not even mentioning what happens with his prized pistol from Flyboys. Really clever. Jonah Hill is re-imagined as disinengenous and strangely effeminate, competing with Baruchel for Rogen's attention. Craig Robinson's "Mr. Robinson" hand towel never leaves his shoulder while Danny McBride is, well, Danny McBride. Or more accurately, he's Kenny Powers. He also appears in an epic breakfast montage sure to make Walt Jr. and Ron Swanson jealous, as well as a homemade Pineapple Express sequel trailer with Rogen and Franco you almost wish were real. While it's hard to categorize these as "performances," they really are in every sense. Even that's a joke in itself when in one of the film's first scenes Rogen is harassed at the airport by a papparazzo asking why he always plays the same role over and over. That these guys all definitely seem in on it and clearly don't take themselves seriously in the slightest is at the crux of all the best scenes.

They have the right lead in Baruchel, who's great as a socially awkward hipster struggling to hang on to his friendship with Rogen despite his disdain for L.A. and everyone in it. It was smart making him the only semi-normal character in the movie, giving the audience an eyes and ears, not to mention someone really likable to root for. That everyone now gets to see just how good the former Undeclared star is may end up being this movie's biggest contribution. There's definitely a lack of female presence, with the exception of Emma Watson's extended cameo that puts her at the center of a joke that really isn't funny. While I can't say it directly contradicts with the rest of the film's tone, something about it does seem especially mean and tone-deaf. While it's arguable this joke could have even worked under any circumstances, they're undeniably way off with the execution, revolving the film's cruelest joke around an actress that whose presence instantly makes the situation seem horrifyingly uncomfortable rather than comical.

Very little needs to be said about the apocalyptic aspect of the story because if it were excised entirely I'm not sure you'd be left with something that's all that different. The special effects strike the right balance in that they're cheap enough looking to be funny, yet impressive enough looking to pass off as disaster movie worthy. But the actual apocalypse is the weak link in this, taking a backseat to all the meta references and existing primarily as the creative catalyst to strengthen Rogen and Baruchel's bromance. So by those standards it does undeniably succeed, especially at the finish line.

If I could pick a project from these actors that this most reminds me of in terms of tone it would probably be the Franco-McBride starring lowbrow comedy Your Highness, only with the Apocalypse standing in for a medievel adventure. It's ironic they justifiably trash that during this, and while actually comparing the two may be stretching it, there are definite similarities in terms of the style of humor. This is the End is much smarter and funnier, but gets most of its leverage from extremely likable actors just having a blast together, even as the audience is sometimes left out in the cold.