Web MasterComedian
Directed by: Christian Charles
Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Orny Adams, Chris Rock, Colin Quinn
Playing at: The Tivoli
Bottom Line: “…not just Seinfeld on a larger screen or humor hero worship; it is an attempt to show the actualities of the comic’s art.”
Grade: B+
by Matt McCluskey
If you like Seinfeld or Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and think that Comedian will provide laughs on that level or of that ilk then you will be disappointed. This is a behind-the-scenes (as opposed to in front of the stage) stand-up comedy film. The producers did not set out to make a laugh out loud, roll on the sticky theater floor film. I doubt the filmmakers, Director Christian Charles and Producer Gary Steiner, even knew exactly what they were going to come out with when they decided to grab digital video cameras and follow established comedian Jerry Seinfeld and upward- climbing stand-up Orny Adams for a year or so. What they give us is an accurate depiction of the humility, frustration, and sometimes joy that stand-up comedians experience.
The main part of Comedian begins after Seinfeld retires his well-honed stand-up act in the hilarious HBO Special “I’m Telling You for the Last Time.” Citing a “compulsion to perform” common among all comics, Seinfeld waxes philosophically about what he wants to do with comedy, how he sees himself down the road, and how he fears losing touch with the material and with the audience. He wants rebirth and tries to find it by creating an entirely new act.
The proving ground is a handful of well-known New York City comedy clubs, including the Comedy Cellar, Gotham, and Caroline’s. Granted Seinfeld could get stage time at any club he wanted in America at any time his uncomfortability and lack of confidence with his new material obscure the influence of his reputation. Snippets of Seinfeld having troubles and successes onstage are intercut between conversations with other stand-up comedians like Colin Quinn and Chris Rock (among many others). Along the way, Seinfeld pays homage to those who influenced him, namely Robert Klein, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin. Seinfeld is alone in his comic renaissance, but he gets by with a little help from his friends and idols.
The other section of Comedian follows a year in the life of Orny Adams, an NYC-based comic trying to joke his way to the top. As the film progresses, Adams develops notoriety by performing at the Toronto Comedy festival and being signed by George Shapiro, the famous agent who also handles Seinfeld’s career. Unlike the older, wiser Seinfeld, Adams is extremely tortured, extremely sensitive, and at times, extremely annoying. He has his eyes on the big dollars but not the big picture, and speaks with a bitterness usually reserved for oppressed minority groups. The segments with Adams are valuable, though, because they show what the first stage of a comic career looks like and they show Adams confronting the same hurdles as Seinfeld.
Comedian is not just Seinfeld on a larger screen or humor hero worship; it is an attempt to show the actualities of the comic’s art. The confidence a comedian has onstage is a fa‡ade. Behind the curtain comics are nervous, insecure, and most of all, serious. Seinfeld and Adams’ devotion to their art is tested by the art itself, a paradox that lies at the heart of the film.
Before we go into the theater we know that Seinfeld has created a new act and is touring with it, but we suspend that disbelief to see the means to that end. The means are mostly clear, though it would have been nice to document the evolution of a certain bit or show Seinfeld critiquing his own material with some specificity instead of general statements. Despite a flurry of generalities, the message is crystal clear. This film will not teach you how to become a comic, but it will show that the struggles of the comic-experienced or otherwise-are universal throughout the occupation.
Even if you have no aspirations to be a comic or have never set foot in a comedy club Comedian is still worthy of your time. Very few films make humility and frustration as tangible as Comedian does and that is no laughing matter.
Formula 51
Directed by: Ronny Yu
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer
Playing at: The Esquire
Bottom Line: “There are good elements but they just don’t gel together to make anything worth remembering.”
Grade: C+
by Molly Sutter
Although he can still kick some major ass, let’s face it-Samuel L. Jackson is getting old. It’s a shame too, because his movies are getting old as well. This latest flick has some promising moments, and Jackson is bad-ass enough to pull off wearing a kilt throughout the entire movie; however, I couldn’t help wishing for the Pulp Fiction or the Shaft or even the Changing Lanes Jackson. In Formula 51, Jackson is cool, but he just ain’t cool enough, and his role parallels the movie as a whole. There are good elements, but they just don’t gel together to make anything worth remembering.
The movie kicks off with a flashback to the 1970s, where we meet Jackson’s character, Elmo McElroy, who has just graduated with a degree from pharmacutical school. McElroy is flyin’ high-both literally and figuratively-as he’s pulled over for driving all over the road and winds up getting caught with illegal niceties. The poor guy gets slammed with possession and loses his licence.
Fast forward thirty years to Los Angeles where McElroy’s smarts have placed him in the top ranks of illegal drug chemists with the development of Formula 51, a new designer drug with a high fifty-one times stronger than anything on the market. McElroy steals the formula from the Lizard (a villain of absolutely no consequence, played by Meat Loaf) and blows up his little factory while he’s at it. McElroy then flies off to jolly old England for a new deal, thinking he has successfully burned all his bridges. However, the Lizard lives, and sends a hired assassin, Dakota Phillips (Emily Mortimer) after him in order to bring McElroy and the formula back to the States.
To make this plot line even more convoluted, the deal goes bust and McElroy winds up trying to find a new deal with the help of the sleazy yet endearing thug Felix de Sousa (Robert Carlyle). The two dodge all sorts of bizarre, often heinous characters such as corrupt cops and drug-hungry skinheads while brokering a deal with the nutty club owner Iki (Rhys Ifaus). There aren’t any big surprises here, as we learn that Dakota and Felix have a history (no way!) and that this precious formula doesn’t possess any real effects (how clever!). However, the obvious plot line’s shortcomings are made up for by the film’s lack of pretension, and its ability to keep us moving at a good clip. The good guys are likeable, the bad guys are laughable, and some of the scenes are enjoyable, such as when McElroy beats the tar out of some bad guys with a nine-iron and plays chicken (or “chicken bullocks”in Briton-speak) with one of the cops down an alley.
What is most bothersome is the abundance of action-packed clich‚s waiting around every turn. It’s better to ask what isn’t an overused idea than what’s original or at least not really, really old. From the names (the Lizard? oh please) to the hot lead chick character with a gun to Jackson’s memorable “Rest in peace, muthafucka,” it’s all stuff we’ve seen before. These things aren’t innovative and they’re funny only about half of the time. When McElroy beats up a bunch of skinheads, it’s slightly amusing, or when the foul-mouthed, Yankee-hating Felix torches a bar that supports the opponent of his beloved soccer team, it’s worth a chuckle, but overall the jokes are stale.
The same goes for the gross humor, including a tacky diarrhea scene involving those hapless skinheads. The end is somewhat poignant, with McElroy shouting at the Lizard, “Put me out of my misery!” However, this character development is swallowed up in the cheap jokes. And hey, aren’t drugs bad for you, anyway? Formula 51 isn’t sophisticated enough to even suggest that theme. The movie’s entertaining enough, but a little thought and innovation would have gone a long way to improving overall quality.
Knockaround Guys
Directed by: Brian Koppelman and David Levien
Starring: Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Dennis Hopper
Playing at: The Esquire
Bottom Line: “..if this were the real mob, cap! cap!, problem solved…but this is the sensitive second generation that philosophizes about its poor life of crime”
Grade: D+
by Dan Rubin
Golly gee, Pops. It’s a real shame that you are a not-very-badass mafia boss and that no one will hire me because I’m your son. Gosh, life is rough. And what’s worse, big bad uncle John Malkovich crushed my spirit to fire a gun when I was 12 by cutting Tommy Twiddlydick’s tongue out in front of me and telling me to shoot, so now I cannot even play a legitimate part in your world of crime. Gosh Dad, my life sucks. All I want to do is be a sports agent. Or maybe I want to prove myself to you.
Yeah, yeah. That’s what I’ll do. I will get a group of the second-generation criminals and start my own gang. I’ll get one pretty boy, one screw up, and one badass so that at a given point in the movie we can all stand next to each other and look really cool. And then, oh get this, I will convince you to let me make a pick-up for you to prove myself. But naturally the screw-up will screw up and I will have to become the crime lord in some random farming town in order to get your dough back. But naturally the ex-Marine sheriff wants the money for himself, so it gets semi-complicated. But I do real good, Pops, and I get so close to getting your money. But, of course, here comes Uncle Mal to steal it and kill me and I figure out with absolutely no scriptural basis that he has been behind the missing cash flow that has plagued our under-the-table business. I also figure out that he has been planning this since I was twelve and broke me so that a decade later I would not be able to shoot him. Naturally he is wrong and his cruelty pushes me far enough so that I pull the trigger at long last.
I enjoy a good rough ’em up action movie with an insignificant plot as much as the next red-blooded American male. The problem is, this was not an action movie. I don’t know what genre to put this under besides “crap”. Action movies have action. They are centered around either a hero or a group of heroes who kick everyone else’s ass. This movie focuses on the troubles of a mob boss’ sniveling son that was unfortunately played by the droopy faced Barry Pepper. He looked like he was on the verge of tears the whole time.
The hero’s tale: Bruce Willis has to stop thieves posing as terrorists. Keanu Reeves has to defuse a bomb on a bus. Jackie Chan has to kick whoever’s ass he has to kick. Barry Pepper and his group of “knockaround guys” (so called because they feel like they have been mistreated by their fathers and the society of criminals at large) have to go to some hick town, beat up the local beer-guzzling thug, and get their bag of dough back from the pot-smoking teenage airport workers. Where’s the challenge? With a group of four hardened city kids versus one hillbilly and two teenagers, it doesn’t matter if their dads are in the mob; they are going to win.
The writers must have realized this flaw, so they threw in two crooked cops who get to the money first and decide to keep it. Now the knockaround guys must go up against two cops, who apparently scare the pants off these four wimps. If this were the real mob, cap! cap!, problem solved, let’s go home boys. But this isn’t the real mob; this is the new sensitive second generation that philosophizes about its poor life of crime.
In the end, everyone is dead except for Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, and Dennis Hopper who plays Barry Pepper’s dad. Pepper has proved himself now and his father is willing to bring him into the organization. But wait, what is this? Pepper refuses his father? A life of crime is not for him? Why the hell didn’t he decide that before he got three of his friends shot up and I wasted $5.50 and 2 hours?