'Funny People': New Trailer and Adam Sandler's Prank Call, Circa 1991

That was great. I miss the old Adam stuff so much!

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« DENZEL BACK ON THE TRAIN WITH "UNSTOPPABLE" | Main
Here Comes Apatow – A Lot of Apatow

By: Peter Bart
Published: Wed, July 22, 2009, 3:07 PM
| Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBack ( 0 )

Funny_people_movie_poster Over the course of time, filmmakers increasingly seem to take on traits of the characters in their movies. The great Billy Wilder talked in the same crisply sardonic style of his leading men. Alfred Hitchcock was slyly elliptical in his conversation, so you never were quite sure where he was taking you. Michael Mann is chilly and brooding and, like most of his characters, vaguely hostile.

Which brings us to Judd Apatow, who inhabits his films more than any filmmaker in memory. Watching “Funny People,” which opens July 31 is akin to visiting not only with Apatow, but also with his wife, children and assorted pals, many of whom are permanent featured players in the Apatow universe (yes, the wife and kids have important parts in the new film).

Characters in Apatow movies tend to be likeable people, for the most part, but all of them rely on scatology and scrotology as their font of humor. It’s not that they have to talk dirty; it’s their only lexicon.

At a running time of two hours twenty-six minutes, “Funny People” represents a lot of Apatow and as such, is like a lively Apatow dinner party with too many quests and too many desserts.

I’m not going to pre-review the movie here, but suffice to say that it’s a smart and surreal meditation about death. Except that it’s not very meditative and no one dies.

The central character, played by Adam Sandler (an amazing resemblance of his true persona) is a famous standup comic who learns he is dying of a dread blood disease. He hires Seth Rogen, (a wannabe standup comic) to be his assistant and joke writer, and then unexpectedly becomes infatuated with his ex-wife. Trouble is his ex-wife, played by Apatow’s present wife, has re-married and has two kids (played by Apatow’s kids).

This is a complicated plot to unravel, but what takes the time in Apatow movies is the director’s zeal to be real. Many scenes seem to play out in real time and real standup comics keep turning up as themselves, albeit delivering Apatow lines. Also the Apatow children play a lot of on-camera Apatow games.

The Apatow family, as well as members of the Apatow fraternity, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill, all perform nimbly, but it’s Adam Sandler who stubbornly holds center stage. The Sandler he depicts seems persuasively egotistical and manipulative. The problem is that, when his health suddenly improves, it’s not clear whether we should be relieved or daunted. His ex-wife doesn’t seem to know, either.

Sandler will doubtless spearhead the hard sell on this movie – it’s being marketed as a funny movie about funny people, even though it’s a poignant movie about sad people. Despite its leisurely pace, I think it will all work because Apatow, who is himself an ex-standup, knows how to deliver the laughs.

All of which brings up a basic question about Judd Apatow: As he gets older and even more successful, will Apatow himself get funnier, like some of his characters, or mean-spirited, like some of his other characters?

I’m betting on the former.
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Very interested in seeing what Apatow can do with some more serious subject matter. I am actually 100% confident that Sandler will shine in this roll – loved him in Reign Over Me and Punch Drunk Love, but Apatow choosing to cross over beyond just flashes of seriousness (which all his works have), is new territory for him. So long as the film relies more on Sandler than Apatow-buddy Rogen, I think it will turn out.

So far the trailers, which are great, seem to emphasize the comedic aspects, but I am more interested in how well the drama is fleshed out. I guess they want to make sure their bread and butter fratboy crowd see the movie. We’ll see. I did think it was cool that, in typical Apatow fashion, the TV trailer features a great song – “Ain’t That Strange” by Rhett Miller – wouldn’t be surprised at all if this ended up pulling a “Paper Planes” and getting huge from this movie alone.

You can check out this other tv trailer at : http://displacedbrett.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/funny-people/

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