Thoughts on Knocked Up

You're all capable of heading over to Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic and finding out that, much like Judd Apatow's last film, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up is an excellent comedy and a generally better than average movie. Saying that Knocked Up was a funny movie and one that I enjoyed seeing really doesn't help anybody, because most of you have already heard it from a number of other people.

I will say that while it's similar to 40-Year-Old Virgin, the two are very different films. The humor in Knocked Up is more refined. The obscenity has more edge while seeming less extreme (any time you can get the 50 year old women behind me in the theater laughing at masturbation jokes, you've done something right), and the situational aspects are handled superbly. I loved the scenes between Alison and her higher ups at E!, granted, I love pretty much any scene with Alan Tudyk.

However, without Steve Carell's sincere, personable screen presence, the storyline and schlock elements don't come across with the strength of 40-Year-Old Virgin's. Don't get me wrong, I love Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd. They added a lot to 40-Year-Old Virgin and they do a wonderful job in this film, but neither has the presence of an experienced leading man that Carell has. Part of this relative deficiency may be attributed to the fact that there isn't as much of a moral as 40-Year-Old Virgin had. The inherent irony of 40-Year-Old Virgin in the manner in which Andy's friends were telling him that he was "putting the pussy on a pedestal" when he had stopped giving a damn and society was the one forcing it up there wad delicious to me. Knocked Up just lacks that sort of message more than anything.

I'd like to take some time now to discuss something else, though, and that is what makes these two films so much better than the majority of mainstream comedies . I've heard a few people refer to some of the more mediocre movies of late as being in the spirit of the screwball comedies of the 30's and 40's. While they may have been written to replicate aspects of this amazing era of cinema, I feel that Judd Apatow's previous two films are much more in the spirit of these great films than the mimickers that flood the markets.

There are a few main reasons that I say this. One thing is the overarching style. Most Screwball Comedies derive much of their comedy from the interactions of realistic characters and those that are larger than life and the antics that ensue when these groups come together. Knocked Up has this, with Ben and Allison being, with the possible exception of their occupation, realistic people surrounded by friends and family that are just too crazy to be real. The fundamental problem is very real, but the pit stops along the road to its resolution can only be called zany.

The biggest thing that Apatow does and most comic directors fail to do, however, is to speak in the language of our time. Most comedies that try to mimic the old screwball ones try to hard to remain in their language. They're like the King James Bible in that way. While the language and situations of the Screwball Comedies or the 30's and 40's spoke excellently to their generation, trying to transplant that exact mindset into more modern situations just seems fluffy and weak.

In their time, many of the Screwball Comedies had strong topical elements. They often gave a cast a strong eye at class relations and gender roles, and people frequently forget this when trying to pay them honor. They focus on the farce and the romance and forget that there was still often a relationship to be shown. In the meantime, both 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up try to show how modern society relates to sex and the awkward standards (typically doule standards at that) that exist.

The concept of virginity as something to be ashamed of, the idea of having sex with a stranger as opposed to raising a family with one. Even in the visual department, while most people are perfectly comfortable with blatant sex in movies, a half second clip of a baby crowning is enough to disgust most people. Apatow is trying to make us think about sex as a part of sexuality and how human sexuality fits (or doesn't fit) into human society.

It's the willingness to be confrontational, both ideologically and within the narrative, that makes films like Knocked Up superior to your average fast talking comedy. It's also what, in my opinion, makes them the true legacy of the golden era of the Screwball Comedy.

Also, the scene where Pete and Ben are tripping on 'shrooms in Vegas is the best comic scene were drugs or alcohol are used to further the plot since the scene The Philadelphia Story.