Arts

Rollercoasters and American Gladiator Sounds Good to Me

Why can't Apatow's women have fun, too?

Katherine Heigl, Seth Rogen, Knocked Up

Photographic still of “Knocked Up” staring Katherine Heigl, Leslie Mann, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

This is the fourth entry in a dialogue about the films of Judd Apatow and the state of the romantic comedy among Double X Managing Editor Jessica Grose, Slate critic Troy Patterson, and Variety contributor Lael Loewenstein. Read the first entry here, the second entry here, and the third entry here.

Troy and Lael,

The two of you agree that Apatow privileges the bromance over any heterosexual union. Troy, you say that in Apatovia, women are not full-fledged characters, but merely plot wrinkles who pose a threat to the sanctity of dudely bonds. Lael, you wonder if the man-love is so strong in Apatow movies that it prevents Judd’s anti-heroes from having a good relationship with a wife or a girlfriend.

I don’t think all the romantic relationships in Apatow films are secondary to the bromance. As you point out, Lael, the love between Andy (Steve Carell) and Trish (Catherine Keener) in The 40-Year-Old Virgin is wholly functional. That film’s treatment of romantic love cannot be lumped in with Knocked Up, Funny People, or any of the other Apatow-related movies Troy mentions (Pineapple Express, Superbad, etc.). In the other movies, women are seen as interlopers who threaten male friendship; in The 40-Year-old Virgin, Andy’s male friendships help him to establish a healthy love affair with a woman.

Before Andy started palling around with his coworkers from SmartTech, he barely left the house except to watch reality TV with his elderly neighbors. His coworkers, in their oafish way, encourage Andy to meet women: they take him to the club, they send him to speed date. All of these men believe that happiness is being in a committed relationship. Or as Andy’s SmartTech coworker tells him, “Life is about people. It's about connections ... It’s not about butthole pleasures.”

Even though they still make anus jokes, the stars of The 40-Year-Old Virgin are adults who have grown-up relationships. As a result, the film holds up much better than the other Apatow movies. I wouldn’t call Funny People “unserious and incoherent, plagued by flimsy characterizations and narrative bloat,” as Troy did. (Jeez, Patterson, tell us how you really feel.) I do agree, though, that the bonds between the main characters in Funny People are nowhere near as compelling as the Trish/Andy relationship.

But that relationship is not the one that has been repeated in subsequent Apatow movies. The rest of the films show that men are truly happy in their dudes-only clubhouse. And who wouldn’t be happy in that playful paradise? In the opening scene of Knocked Up, Seth Rogen’s character is going on roller coasters, playing American Gladiator-style games, and smoking pot with his five best friends in a sprawling if decrepit house. To this girl, that sounds truly awesome.

By contrast, look at the life of Alison (Katherine Heigl) in Knocked Up. She’s apparently friendless, living in her sister’s guest house, and working incredibly hard at her job at E!. And what about Leslie Mann in Funny People? She’s trapped in a difficult marriage, where her husband is away most of the time. She is wistful about her former career as an actress. Both these women are in a no-fun zone.

Comments

Odd couple

By: Dark King | Tue, 08/04/2009 - 22:10

First, a disclaimer: I haven't seen any of these films. So all of my opinions are based on what I've read about them.

Just from this article, however, it strikes me that Apatow seems to be working the old sit-com material of the "odd couple". Take two people with significantly different personalities, careers, values and lifestyles. Then add a plot twist that somehow forces the two of them to interact. Comedy arises from the sparks thrown up by the clash of lifestyles.

You can do this with just about any "odd couple" mix you want - how about a misogynist forced to look after a single mother as a "community service" sentence? Or a "Jewish princess" and the "Prince of Bel-Air"? Or how about a rich businessman with a successful career but a lousy personal life who gets involved with a high class "escort"...oh, I think they may have done that one already.

Apatow chooses men who haven't fully grown up yet and women who have. That's his choice and apparently he knows how to get at the humour in those couplings. Is it sexist? I'm not sure. Monty Python never wrote roles for women in their material because they didn't know how to do anything that wasn't a screaming stereotype that they would do themselves in drag - did that make them sexist? Or just aware of the limits of their comedic talents?

Yes. THIS.

By: PepeSilvia | Mon, 08/03/2009 - 09:42

This is the most spot-on assessment so far. Catherine Keener's character in 40 Year Old Virgin is probably the best-drawn major female character in an Apatow movie, though in hindsight I almost wonder how much of that is the result of good writing and how much of it is just Catherine Keener managing to breathe life into an otherwise so-so character. And in his TV shows, it's generally agreed that Freaks and Geeks had great female characters, but many are adamant that that's actually to Paul Feig's credit, now Apatow's; Undeclared, meanwhile, could've been a terrific show if only the females could have been even remotely 3-dimensional. And then there's the sad, sad spectacle that is Knocked Up. The dudes are all fine, but the only, and I mean the ONLY female character I found at all relatable was Charlyne Yi, who only had a handful of lines as the goofy stoner girl living in the guys' house. And ain't I a woman??

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