Judd Apatow's new movie, Funny People, is more ambitious and less successful than his previous films, the easy-to-digest and massively popular romantic comedies The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Funny People is a sort of message movie, a take on the classic story about a dying man trying to get his life right, told from stand-up comedy's backstage.
Adam Sandler stars as George Simmons, a comedian much like Sandler himself -- a famous guy who's been in a bunch of crappy movies -- and the film uses Sandler's life and career as a stand-in for Simmons' own. It opens with vintage camcorder footage of a young Sandler making prank calls, and later footage of a young Sandler working his way up the stand-up circuit, telling inchoate jokes and getting by on sheer charisma. As with all his serious movies, Sandler plays a restrained, tight-lipped version of himself, sublimating his usual aggression to project regret. He's not a great actor, but all he has to do is play himself as if he were about to die, and he does a pretty good job.
Seth Rogen plays Ira Wright (born Ira Wiener, an inevitable showbiz Jewish name change), a slightly talented up-and-comer on the stand-up circuit who happens to meet Simmons and becomes his assistant and co-writer. Simmons holds him somewhere between compliment and contempt, and the audience, seeing him tell a few of his barely decent jokes without much success, feels about the same. Rogen allows himself to be less funny than in any other movie he's ever starred in, and is generous in letting Sandler upstage him.
Movies about artists are an ever-popular genre, from Shakespeare in Love to Dreamgirls, Basquiat to Pollack. But movies about comedians are fewer and less popular. I can think of two reasons. Comedians are neurotic and narcissistic not just by personality but by profession, and the warts-and-all approach leaves little to sympathize with. Moreover, while a movie about a great writer who was a difficult person can pay off by showing the wonderful novel that resulted, the greatest thing a comedian can create is a joke. In Judd Apatow movies, that joke will almost always involve a dick. And no one cares about the blood and sweat that goes into refining a dick joke.
Still, there have been some good ones, and Funny People is one of them. Billy Crystal's lovely Mr. Saturday Night, about an almost-star of the Milton Berle era with a tendency towards self-destruction, accurately depicts the use of jokes as a defense mechanism, so that hilarity comes out as hostility, a substitute for genuine emotional expression. Comedian, the documentary that showed Jerry Seinfeld getting back on the road to try to rebuild his stand-up career, gets right the tremendous disparity in the clubs between those who have it -- like Seinfeld -- and those who don't, like Orny Adams, the hapless comedian the film holds up as Jerry's foil. Sandler and Rogen in Funny People share the same dynamic.
And, perhaps, the most notorious was The Aristocrats, a documentary which featured over a hundred comedians telling versions of a classic blue joke, the bluest joke one could ever tell, with a bare vaudeville framework -- a family act in a talent agent's office -- and unlimited improvisational license to go to the darkest reaches of the human imagination for shock laughter. The movie itself is uneven, only as strong as the cast member onscreen at the time, but through the telling it reveals the lonely possibilities and limitations of the comic process. On a DVD extra, Kevin Pollak tells a version of the joke while doing a dead-on impression of Albert Brooks, and then says, regretfully, "The trippy thing about doing Brooks, though, is that I'm faster and funnier than I am as myself. It's very, very sad... Literally, I'm listening to myself and thinking, why am I never this funny?"
Apatow's mistake in Funny People is going straight for the heartstrings by opening with death. As always, his heart's in the right place, but just as inevitably, the movie runs long and the emotional resolution feels forced -- just like it did in Judd's last two movies. And it's unnecessary. Even without imminent death, comedians have plenty to worry about: they know they're not masters of their own inspiration, and they constantly fear a silent audience, a blank mind, and the disappearance of everything that ever made anyone think they were funny. Comedians will always feel inadequate to the joke and helpless to the fate that brings them a laugh one minute and deserts them the next. Or goes to the next guy. As Crystal says in Mr. Saturday Night: "I wanted it so bad, to be the guy who, when he walked into the Friars [Club], everybody turns around, and they say, 'Why him, that lucky bastard? I'm funnier than him.' I wanted to be that guy."
Or, as Kevin Pollak asked himself while hearing himself improvise: "Why am I never this funny?"
Rupert Pupkin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085794/
This flick reminds me somewhat of "Punchline" with Tom Hanks and Sally Field, I'm surprised no reviewer/critic has mentioned it at all. Presents the hard work/sometimes unfunny life of trying to be a comedian, with Hanks "mentoring" to some degree Field. Dated, but not bad. Both characters are unlikable at times, as in this movie - almost everyone here is unlikable.
Seth Rogen is the best part of Funny People, and the above assessment of Sandler - "He's not a great actor, but all he has to do is play himself as if he were about to die, and he does a pretty good job" - is right on for this film. All actors are good in it.
Leslie Mann is wasted, as she is so hilarious in every other role and has nothing of interest to play here. Eric Bana is a nut-job, very funny mostly since we usually see him so serious and all.
I've never gone to an Adam Sandler movie and never will - this is an Apatow/Rogen movie, in my mind, and has a fair bit to offer. If you like films for the varied things they can give us (not just the one-note) you will like this one.
In "Funny People," Sandler now attempts to market schmaltz as serious, heart-rending sentiment (as Billy Crystal attempted to do in the universally panned Mr. Saturday Night). Schmaltz doesn't go over as well as serious sentiment, and dick jokes don't make Apatow into Mike Nichols.
Ultimately, a thinking person asked to care about these characters has to ask "why?" If these "comics" are basically in love with themselves, and not really funny, then the joke is on the audience (and the director).
At least his kids are kinda funny and cute. Her role was so ridiculous and pointless, it seemed entirely forced, to me at least. It ended up just looking like a way to get her a role in the film. As for the rest of your post, I disagree. Rogen played the part well, though I'd advise he seriously start expanding his work beyond the tired, selfish, confused wanna-be-nice guy, or he's going to flame out quickly. Bana was hilarious, and the cameos were good (Eminem, where'd that come from?!? lol). Sandler actually gave a great performance, one of the better roles I've seen him in. And there were some good punchlines and jokes throughout (the scene with the "accented" doctor was probably my favorite), and the drama didn't get too melodramatic.
I think people went into this movie expecting something totally different from what the movie was. Maybe that was the fault of misleading advertising, maybe the title wasn't exactly the best for this film lol. I still thought the movie was decent, I'd give it a solid B-.
The thing is although established (and i must point out i'm a big fan of Jerry), I think actually comes of worse in the film. Jerry is trying out new material, forgetting lines, struggling with heckles, Orny on the other hand has his jokes catalogued like i couldn't believe, he has extreme self belief - but rightly so, i laughed a lot more at Orny's stand-up routines, than i did Jerry's. Jerry himself even states he is a BIG fan of Orny hence his inclusion on the DVD.
My point is, i bought the comedian Film as a fan of Jerry and his work, but by the time the movie finished i was a fan of Orny too.
Orny Adams is far from being a "hapless comedian" or "Jerry's foil" i'm sorry but i think this is highly offensive to Orny and the hard work and talent he puts into every single bit.
Mr Remington, please stop and think before you resort to lazy journalism in the future.
2. I find Orny even funnier than Seinfeld
3. Those 'who don't' /'hapless' is a part of Orny's Schtick, so it doesn't really work in this article because in our reality it's used as a comedic metaphor rather than literal, but in this article it is written as if literal. So Alex, I think you may have not done your homework as thoroughly as you should have...... sooooooo..........
4. Expect a few contrary posts. Orny's got a bit of a cult following. What "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was to Musicals and Horror, Orny is to the comedy world. Unique, defines his own catagory short of no other, defies the norm, and KNOWS that the intelligent among us will get 'it'.
We do.
Best Regards
Bunny Dunn
I mean, I can't imagine Joel Coen would have been so presumptuous, so self-obssessed as to promote "Miller's Crossing" as the third film from the director of "Blood Simple" and "Raising Arizona". Yet those films were outstanding and would certainly permit a little self-congratulation.
Apatow needs to back off a little, shift gears and realize that his "crew" (Rogen, Hill Goldberg, etc.) and formula (loveable losers telling p**is jokes) wears thin... quickly.
I've never heard of Orny Adams, but I am not keen on checking him out now.
That being said - thank you for the review Alex. I've been on the fence about seeing "Funny People" but your analysis makes it sound a lot more appealing. I enjoy stand-up comedy and sort of "behind the scenes" type movies, so knowing that this is a theme makes it more likely they will get my dollars. Well thought out; it's a shame one irrelevant line is overshadowing the real point.
Also, really if you do enjoy stand up comedy, do yourself a big favor,PDX, and check Orny out sometime. Contrary to what this writer says, he does "have it".
I agree with Orny Adams...Show some guts and come out from behind the "way to bright" light of your Best Buy PC and try even for ONE MINUTE to survive a comedy stage where you cannot get away with lies, as you do within the confines of the Huffy puffy post..., no, the audience will either immmediately show their appreciate or not....
And as for your "mis" take on Comedian Orny Adams...
....After 15 years of Comedy and seeing everything under the sun, I will never forget when I worked with Orny at the Ice House...I still brag on how he was not only a rock sold powerhouse from the first second he hit the stage until his last joke, but how incredibly gracious, down to earth, and humble he was backstage....I often tell other comics how, unlike so many famous or somewhat famous comics who cant wait to flaunt themselves after a show, or go "find a party"....Orny went straight to the "work room" and analiyzed which new jokes needed adjusting, which ones were solid etc...
I have met and worked with TONS of comics on every coast...Since working with Orny Adams, he will always be on my top ten...
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If you really think the greatest thing a comedian can create is a joke, then I suppose it's also fair to say the greatest thing a critic can create is fair criticism. I'm sorry you were unable to achieve this in your review. You were able to give us great examples of overgeneralizing stereotypes of comedians, though, so thanks for the lesson in how to discriminate.
But I did get a laugh out of reading your article and the comments, which is ironic, what with your unfair criticism of comedians in general, and Orny Adams, specifically. The one reply that said your review was accurate also looks forward to sending you op-ed pieces. Awesome.
keep up the fine work, alex. i look forward to submitting more of my op-ed pieces to you over at WaPo.
I have no idea who you think I am, but you're incorrect. I've never written anything of the sort.