Going Through Films #3

Knocked Up
Dir. Judd Apatow, 2007
Seen June 7, 2007

After not really getting into Old School, Anchorman, and Starsky and Hutch, I was relieved that I really, totally dug The 40-Year-Old Virgin and finally had a movie I could quote freely with folks round town. I even chose Steve Carell for Best Actor that year over Heath Ledger and Phillip Seymour-Hoffman. So Knocked Up was a no-brainer for me. Although when I was watching it I didn't get the feeling that improv was ruining comedy, I did get the feeling that you could stick five guys playing stoners and have them improv in any movie and get a few laughs. I thought in many ways this movie was a bit sloppier than Virgin. Some of the shots didn't quite match up in the editing and there's a montage every twenty minutes or so (the one set to the Bright Eyes song got some unintended laughs at the screening I went to. Just goes to show that Nebraska gets giddy over any connection to our much ignored state). Nevertheless, Knocked Up, has even more heart at its center than The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which had plenty compassion to spare. In nine movies out of ten, the scene where Leslie Mann confronts Paul Rudd on his mysterious disappearances would either be played for cheap laughs or provide a pat conclusion to their troubles. But instead it goes a much more realistic way that lets nobody off the hook. I've heard some wish that Apatow would utilize the camera in a more dynamic fashion, but I kind of like low-key approach for movies like this.