Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at two comedies from SXSW 09… well, at least two films that are sold as comedies.
Broken Lizard’s THE SLAMMIN’ SALMON is definitely a balls out comedy, whereas ADVENTURELAND is more of a sweet coming of age story, a slllligghhttlllyyy vulgar rom-com about two young and flawed characters who find real, tangible love for the first time. It’s being sold as SUPERBAD and it really isn’t. It’s a love-letter to an era and a nostalgic look back at first-time love… with some boner jokes and dick-punches thrown in for good measure.
I think the highest compliment I can pay to ADVENTURELAND is it made me fall in love with Kristen Stewart (I forgive you for TWILIGHT, baby. We can pretend that never happened). For a romantic comedy to work for me I have to fall in love with the girl and Stewart plays her with that perfect mix of vulnerability and brokenness.
It’s the GARDEN STATE formula. In these movies if you can accept who the girl (or guy if your gender or particular orientation looks that way instead) for who she is as a complete, if flawed, person then the movie works. If you don’t give a shit, I don’t care how many well-timed fart jokes or higher-brow dry humor is packed in there the movie just won’t work.
ADVENTURELAND is a surprisingly adult movie, with none of the characters 100% innocent or right. Jesse Eisenberg plays the lead with a Woody Allen-like twitch, melding likeability with a dry detachment. When his alcoholic father is demoted, he’s forced to take a summer job to pay for his first year of college at Columbia University in New York City.
Turns out the only work he’s qualified for is carnie, being the jerk at the game booths at a local amusement park. When he gets there he’s immediately thrown in with a bunch of crazy characters. There’s the pipe-smoking, intellectual dork played by FREAKS & GEEKS vet Martin Starr, the epitome of ‘80s sex, Lisa P (played with huge hair by Margarita Levieva), a mysterious and cool mechanic who doubles as a musician played by Ryan Reynolds, the nutty duo of Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig who run the park, Eisenberg’s friend and hook-up for the job, the dick-punching Frigo (Matt Bush) and, of course, the withdrawn Molly Ringwald-ish Em, played by Kristen Stewart.
While the sparks begin with Stewart and Eisenberg, the girl is also juggling a lustful affair with the married Reynolds. The two lives run parallel at the beginning, but as Eisenberg and Stewart’s love really takes hold we know that they’re going to collide eventually and the hurt will begin.
What Mottola pays especially close attention to is making the characters real and flawed, so there is not one big fuck-up. Eisenberg semi-cheats on Stewart about halfway through the movie and in any other film that would have been the big 2nd act drama that separates the two lovers. But not here. I love that about this film.
And I’d also like to underline Reynolds’ work here. His Connell could have easily been a villain… a married man, using this young girl who is obviously in love with him to scratch a particular itch. He even starts to actively give bad advice to Eisenberg, who looks up to him as does everyone else in the park, as the two young characters get more and more serious.
But he’s torn as a character. He’s a likable guy, despite the bullshit he pulls. You get the feeling that Connell cares for Em and Eisenberg’s James Brennan in his own way and doesn’t go super studio jilted lover crazy. He’s laid back, watching as things unfold and gently nudging the characters and situation when he can.
Hader and Wiig bring the comedy relief, peppering the movie with their bizarre characters. Hader in particular has a few moments to shine, including his incredibly unlikely moment of being a threatening badass, protecting his employees. It’s always good to see Hader. He’s becoming almost like comfort food for me, seeing him pop up in all these films. I know he’ll always bring something funny.
I will say that I don’t think this film will be as iconic as SUPERBAD was, that it won’t invade pop culture the way that flick did, but I think it stands a big chance of being more important to a lot more people, the same way THE SURE THING, SAY ANYTHING and PRETTY IN PINK are more important to some people than the FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFFs and SIXTEEN CANDLES’. There’s something real to the romance, a real spark, and the world is just real enough to lose yourself in it.
I know a lot of readers and talkbackers aren’t fans of Broken Lizard. That’s fine. Different strokes and all that. But I personally love their stuff. I’m even one of the only people in the world that unconditionally enjoyed CLUB DREAD.
It goes back to the early days, seeing SUPER TROOPERS at SXSW. To this day, I hold ST up as one of the best comedies of the naughts. Brian Cox… “Ursula! I’m… nekkid!” … and Kevin Heffernan’s Farva and the mustache rides and snozzberries that taste like snozzberries and chicken-fuckers and littering and, littering and… littering and…
I love random humor. I’m a sucker for it, so they play right into my funny bone.
But going into THE SLAMMIN’ SALMON I had heard some iffy things. I know we got luke-warm reviews out of Slamdance, where they premiered, and that they haven’t been picked up for US distribution yet. I also knew this was the first time Jay Chandrasekhar stepped aside as director, Kevin Heffernan giving it a shot.
The trailer didn’t come across as all that funny to me, so apprehension is a pretty accurate description of my mindset going in. I hoped this wasn’t the one I disliked.
Turns out I didn’t need to worry my ugly little head over it. For Broken Lizard fans this film will be welcome addition to the library. For non-fans I don’t think there’s much chance this one will speak to you.
What is interesting about this flick is that it’s the first time since SUPER TROOPERS that they’ve gone the independent route, trying to recapture some of their early magic. For the most part it’s a success, but I will say it’s not as good as SUPER TROOPERS, a level I can’t be sure they’ll ever reach again. That film hit at the right time, under the right circumstances. It’s going to be a lot of work and luck to capture that lightning in a bottle again.
In the flick our team is working at an upper-class Miami seafood restaurant called The Slammin’ Salmon, named after the show-name of its owner, a retired boxer played by the great Michael Clarke Duncan. Everybody fears the man, for good reason. He’s not too bright, but he makes up for it with meanness and brute strength. In fact, when he misspeaks and someone corrects him, he doesn’t even wait for them to finis their sentences before he bellows out, “WHATEVER, MUTHAFUCKA!” I cracked up every single time Duncan shot out one of those.
Well, it turns out The Slammin’ Salmon got in trouble on a recent chip to the Orient. After losing a bet involving the hunting of Japanese Albinos to the Yakuza he only has one night to raise $20,000. The most the restaurant has ever taken in in a single night is $15k, so the boxer’s right hand man (played by Heffernan) has to put a fire under his employee’s asses. A competition is created, with the winner getting a long stay at a resort (how this is arranged is pretty damn funny in and of itself) and the promise of $10,000.
The rest of the Broken Lizard troupe play the waiters. Steve Lemme is an actor who (spectacularly) quit to take the lead in a CSI-ish network show only to find his character killed with the semen of his murderer in his shoes 5 episodes in.
Jay Chandrasekhar plays the Gollum-like role of Nuts, dubbed so by his co-workers for what happens when he goes off his medication and his Mr. Hyde, calling himself Zongo, becomes the dominant personality. Erik Stolhanske is the waiter probably the most into the competition and then there’s Paul Soter.
I mentioned that Chandrasekhar has a dual role, but Soter really has a dual role, playing twins. One is the somewhat insane cook and the other is his calm, introverted brother who just came on as busboy and is thrown into the competition against his will.
Of course we get all forms of customers, to the man (SNL’s Will Forte) who is one of the first seated and literally brings a copy of War and Peace to read, camping at the table, to the famous pop star and her posse (Vivica A. Fox) to the man wanting to propose to his girlfriend (TV stars Sendhil Ramamurthy of Heroes fame and G4’s Olivia Munn).
A scattershot approached is used here, with a hundred plates spinning at once, two or three gags firing every half-second as these men and women fight for that number one earner spot. As a result not everything works, but so many jokes are thrown out that do work that the mediocre ones don’t have time to stick.
I found myself laughing consistently. MVP goes to Michael Clarke Duncan, with a close second to Jay’s crazy Jeckyll & Hyde Nuts/Zongo. I almost wish we’d get a follow-up film just about Zongo and his crazy delusions, zero-filter rantings and hatred of pants.
But Duncan is the fresh ingredient here, really selling the threat, but also the comedy. The team originally wrote this role for Mike Tyson and while a part of me really damn wants to see that version of the movie, I’m glad they got Duncan instead. He doesn’t get much credit as a comic actor, but he proves here beyond any doubt that he’s got the chops.
So, I had a lot of fun with both of these films, but for different reasons. ADVENTURELAND hits theaters April 3rd and I’ll keep an ear to the ground and let you know when THE SLAMMIN’ SALMON gets picked up.
Last couple of days and I’m way behind on reviews… I also have 8 interviews to get in front of your eyes as well. Four movies tomorrow, so I’ll write when I have a chance to come up for air. If you want to keep up with my day to day, hour to hour minutiae you can follow me on Twitter!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
