Whiplash Cinema 2

This week's mismatched movies were Zwartboek (Black Book) (I use the Dutch title to increase my pretension quotient) and Knocked Up. Not too many similarities between those titles.

Black Book is directed by Paul Verhoeven. It has been hailed as a return to his early form, when movies such as The 4th Man and Soldier of Orange made him seem like a promising auteur. Well, it didn't really pan out. He started with Robocop, a fine film, but he was soon directing Total Recall, Showgirls, and Starship Troopers. I think the last one may have been his Hollywood high mark; many have derided the movie, but I think that Verhoeven got at the heart of Robert A. Heinlein's novel in a way few could. The movie is a $100 million joke--it's Verhoeven saying "I can make you cheer for the Nazis."

Black Book has been cheered as a return to form, but it's not. It's Showgirls with swastikas or, as a friend of mine said, "WW2 mit boobies!" It's a preposterous mess, but it is entertaining. It's a movie ripe for MST3King. If that's your thing, Black Book is worth a look.

I loved Freaks & Geeks, Judd Apatow and Paul Feig's brilliant, short-lived TV series. Apatow gave TV another shot with Undeclared, which was basically the sequel to F & G. It went down in flames. So now Apatow's workin' in the movies and he's already had success as a producer (Anchorman, Talladega Nights) and as a writer/director (The 40-Year-Old Virgin). He's gathered something of a repertory company around himself and many of those players are on display in Knocked Up.

KU passes the first rule of comedy; it's really, really funny. Katherine Heigl plays Alison Scott, who works at E! and celebrates her promotion to on-air status by clubbing with her sister Debbie. Alison gets drunk, meets unemployed slacker Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) and, after a sloshed one-night stand, winds up pregnant. She decides to keep the baby and contacts Ben. That's as far as I'll go in plot summary. Like all the best comedies Knocked Up does not derive its humor from twists and story machinations, but from character. Rogen and the actors who play his stoner friends (Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, and Martin Starr) are Apatow alumni and much of their banter feels as though Apatow just tossed out an idea and turned on the camera. I've never much cared for Katherine Heigl, but her Alison is both beautiful and believable.

Two topics arise when discussing this movie. The first is the, shall we say, pulchritude gap between the leads. The second is Alison's choice to keep the baby and then contact Ben.

As to the first, I'm usually not much for "chemistry" between actors. If you're a professional, you should be able to manufacture it for the camera. That said, Heigl and Rogen project such an easy rapport with each other that it was easy for me to accept them as a burgeoning couple. Also, the idea that Rogen is a gargoyle and Heigl a goddess just ain't so. Heigl's a good-looking woman, but not unattainably pretty. Rogen is not ugly so much as badly-dressed (even then, he's Hollywood's idea of "badly dressed"; he wears a collection of vintage T's that would cost you $80 bucks a throw). If you still can't get over the gap, Google or IMDB Leslie Mann. Now do the same for Judd Apatow. Leslie Mann is Mrs. Judd Apatow. I think it's possible that Judd's writing what he knows.

The second point is thornier. I agree that most young women in Alison's position would end the pregnancy. That's just the way it is. For the movie to work, though, I only have to be convinced that this young woman would make this particular decision within the context of the film. It's true that the movie doesn't spend much time on Alison's decision, but at 129 minutes it's pretty long for a comedy already. Maybe Apatow didn't believe that he could write convincingly about such a decision.

This is a creative work, not a sociological text. The writer, director, and actors all have to make choices. That's one of the things that makes the movies way different than real life. In real life we can dither about decisions for days/weeks. That's a luxury a storyteller can't afford. I think that in the context of the film, Alison's decision works and doesn't seem forced.

But go back a couple of paragraphs. This is a comedy and I want to emphasize this-- it's funny. Most purported comedies today are tired, sagging retreads of TV shows, other movies, or high-concept, one-joke, no-character trials. I say, whatever it's shortcomings, we need more movies like Knocked Up.