I am – Hercules!!
Funny People FAQ
Is “Funny People” funny?
Yes, it’s easily one of the funniest movies of the year. Like the stellar “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” before it, it boasts an improbable number of million-dollar jokes. Expect to laugh a lot and expect a lot of the gags to resonate on the drive home.
Isn’t this a cancer movie? Isn’t it closer to it closer to “My Sister’s Keeper” than “Knocked Up”?
It’s way way way closer to “Knocked Up.” DOUBLE SECRET SPOILER ALERT: as some of the ads suggest, the comedian with the cancer is essentially cured halfway through the movie, and in truth he’s never seen sicker than a college freshman on a Friday night. (We’re treated to the most fleeting glimpse of toilet hugging but happily spared the sight of actual puke.) Apatow has something to say about existential crisis, but this is not Judd Apatow’s “Brian’s Song,” or even his “Terms of Endearment.” Because nobody actually dies.
Isn’t “Funny People” super-long?
“Funny People” is kinda super-long! It runs 146 minutes and feels a bit like a movie AND that movie’s sequel.
That first movie would be a hilarious 90-minute R-rated black comedy, set in Los Angeles and co-starring Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill and Aubrey Plaza. It’s about an aspiring twentysomething comic (Seth Rogen) befriended by a supersuccessful fortysomething comic (Adam Sandler) who’s been told he’s dying.
The sequel would be an hour-long indie-ish affair, also funny, about the older comedian’s Girl Who Got Away. This one takes place in Northern California and co-stars Leslie Mann, Eric Bana and Judd Apatow’s tiny daughters.
2:26? Does it get boring?
It does not! The movie crams a lot of plot in around its gags, so my interest, at least, was not tempted to flag. (Though cinemagoers not warned ahead of time – as I wasn’t – may think the credits are about to roll around the 90-minute mark; and this may be what’s throwing some of the critics.) Among many other things, the movie offers a quite compelling look at the workings of Los Angeles comedy scene generally, and the one surrounding Hollywood’s Improv nightclub in particular.
Kindly describe some of your favorite components.
Ray Romano is on screen for maybe a minute (the film is packed with big-name cameos) and is funnier here, I think, than he was during the nine-year run of his CBS sitcom. Rogen’s character and his roomies smoke less dope and have more pointed conversations than they did in “Knocked Up,” including an instant classic about the fates of dead relatives. Aubrey Plaza, who plays the bored intern on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” plays a stand-up comic and the Rogen character’s potential love interest; she’s given a witty, very relatable personality and it’s not hard to see what the male comics see in her. There’s a great bit involving Eric Bana’s character drilling his children in Chinese. (Apatow’s kids, also key components of “Knocked Up,” continue to be reliable sources of funny generally.) Even sensitive singer-songwriter James Taylor gets off a decent zinger.
So, in sum, it’s a long, weird movie that ably demonstrates its creators’ extraordinary comic acumen?
As usual, Paul, you’ve crystallized my thoughts perfectly. As far as I’m concerned, director Judd Apatow is now three for three.
How does it end, spoiler-boy?
In Otto’s, with napkins.
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