Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary Photo: Alami
In 1998, the great film critic Roger Ebert welcomed the release of the book » Something about Mary,” writing, “What a blessed relief it is laughter. It challenges manners, values, political correctness and propriety. It reveals us for who we are: the only animal with a sense of humor.»
Ebert further lovingly described the Farrelly brothers' comedy as «pure insipidity» and praised it for containing «five or six unbelievably funny scenes». He continued, “I love it when a film takes control, sweeps away my doubts and objections, and makes me laugh. I have a physical reaction, not an intellectual one. There is such freedom in laughing so loudly. I feel cleansed.”
Ebert died ten years ago, but it is inevitable that the joy he felt in enjoying such gaudy gaudy writings like Something About Mary would be deeply compromised today. The adult-oriented canine comedy Stray, about a group of abandoned dogs who reunite to get revenge on one of their careless owners, hit theaters this past weekend. It received mixed reviews from critics, but most agreed with that paper's Tim Robie that Dog Antics constituted «the roughest comedy of the year — bluntly, Jackass for Dogs, with every genitalia and poop-based climax that can be implied» .
In the not-too-distant past, this level of excessive confusion would have secured the status of a topic of conversation; Roby even commented that it is «sometimes just too disgusting on its own». However, viewers don't seem to be interested in these kind of nursery comedies anymore. Despite a stellar cast including Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx and the now ubiquitous Jamie Demetriou, and a surreal cameo by Dennis Quaid, the film flopped at the box office, grossing only $8.3 million in its opening weekend in the US. Inevitably, unless something changes in the coming weeks due to positive word of mouth, this $46 million picture is doomed to box office success.
At least Streis joined some great company. Jennifer Lawrence's sex comedy No Hurts was a reasonable box office success on paper, earning $86 million worldwide on a $45 million budget, but was also supposed to have an actual production budget of as high as $70 million.
His central vanity that a 30-year-old woman is paid to take the virginity of a shy young man has also drawn criticism. As one anonymous studio executive told Vulture, “I think the concept is terrible. When the first trailer came out, people were like, What the hell? Really? Is she going to sleep with some guy? It was so disgusting and weird that it didn't seem like a good idea.»
Others have simply failed miserably. The highly publicized Joy Ride was expected to be the next Crazy Rich Asians movie, but despite good reviews, its value has so far dropped to just $15 million. Next up is the unfortunately titled teen sex comedy The Bottom; Despite being produced by Elizabeth Banks, it's quite possible that it has the status of «a campy weird high school comedy in the vein of Wet Hot American Summer, but more for a Gen Z queer audience,» according to its writer/director Emma Seligman. , will end up being too niche for the mainstream audience.
After all, if you can't laugh at a bunch of foul-mouthed dogs voiced by big-name stars, what chance does a comedy about unpopular high schoolers trying to seduce cheerleaders into their own Fight Club really have?
Upcoming comedy The Bottom Photo: Alamie
Great screenwriter William Goldman's most quoted saying about Hollywood is «No one knows anything.» In general, this assumption of the late Goldman was fully confirmed. For decades, however, there was one exception to this rule: low-budget, adult-oriented comedies almost inevitably made a lot of money.
The 1981 teen sex comedy Porky may have been rough and tumble, but it was a huge success — grossing $160 million on a budget of just $5 million — and even its increasingly darker sequels, culminating in the absurdly titled «Revenge Porky!” were profitable. , although not to the same extent. It was the sequel to the sister farce National Lampoon's Animal House, which made John Belushi a star and became the highest-grossing comedy of its time, earning $141 million on a $3 million budget.
Audience tastes seem to have changed little over the coming decades. Following the huge success of The Something About Mary, which grossed $370 million worldwide (only $10 million less than the highly publicized Godzilla of the same year, which was six times overbudget), and American Pie and its two sequels seemed to provide a guaranteed, exuberant audience for films that combine traditional, even old-fashioned, romantic comedy imagery with jaw-dropping scenes of raw disgust: an odd combination, perhaps, but hugely successful. The guy may have gotten the girl, but first he had to deal with all the bodily fluids.
Kristen Bell and Russell Brand forget Sarah Marshall
The formula was successfully perfected by Judd Apatow in the mid-noughties, his paintings revolving around men and children who are reluctantly drawn into adulthood, though they powerlessly take refuge in recreational drugs and pop culture allusions. Films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall were critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and hinted at a new maturity in the genre, where female characters were as complex and believably flawed as male characters. .
This was on full display in Apatow's 2011 Bridesmaids, which proved that women can handle gritty comic duties with the same aplomb and determination as their male counterparts, and deservedly earned an Oscar nomination. Written by Kristen Wiig. and Annie Mumolo too. Not bad for a film whose centerpiece is the moment when the assembled cast graphically die of food poisoning as Melissa McCarthy, dressed in a designer dress, screams «It's coming out of me like lava!»
It was soon followed by Seth MacFarlane's 2012 film Ted, revolving around a friendship of sorts between Mark Wahlberg's immature slacker and a gruff-talking rude talking teddy bear (voiced, naturally, by MacFarlane). The film grossed a staggering $550 million at the box office, suggesting audiences relished the obscene words spoken by the soft toy.
However, after the incomparable success of Bridesmaids and Ted, the adult-themed comedy seems to have stalled. None of Apatow's subsequent films have been as critically or commercially successful, and would-be edgy sex comedies like No Commitment and Friends with Benefits, which grossed around $150 million each, proved harder to replicate in film. . a post-#MeToo environment where filmmakers and audiences are sensitive to anything that might smack of exploitation or misogyny. Ted's sequel collected significantly less than half of the original. There was no third film.
Maya Rudolph in Bridesmaids Photo: Alami
R-rated comedy hasn't completely disappeared (think of 2018's excellent and underrated Game Night, which eschewed sex in favor of a comic thriller plot), but it has proven harder and harder to sell. The 2018 film The Blockers, starring Apatow's wife Leslie Mann and revolving around three parents trying to stop their kids from losing their virginity at prom, was a modest success, but its $94 million gross was a far cry from American Pie. or «There is something like that.» Mary. Even Apatow's 2008 stoner comedy Pineapple Express made more money.
There are, of course, other ways to entertain the public. While the big-budget Tropic Thunder has been controversial since its release in 2008 and almost certainly won't be released today, it made a lot of money on release; almost $200 million to be exact. Sacha Baron Cohen has faded somewhat in recent years, so it's easy to forget what a phenomenon the first Borat movie was, combining the (male) nude antics audiences expected with a subversive and sly satire of race, ethnicity and America. myself.
In 2006, it proved hugely, ridiculously successful, giving millions of nerds the opportunity to say, «How cool!» and not be judged for it. Its 2020 sequel bypassed theaters due to its release in the Covid era, but still managed to grab attention with a scene in which Rudy Giuliani seems all too eager to be seduced by Maria Bakalova, the actress playing Borat's teenage daughter. It was bold, risky and controversial, and it worked; A testament to the film's success is that Baron Cohen subsequently announced that he would retire from acting for his own safety, saying, «I'm going to keep working on the script.»
However, the Oscar-nominated Borats and Tropic Thunders remain exceptional. In their place are far more films like The Blockers and Tramps, which may or may not get decent reviews but rarely linger in the memory. The chances of another real breakout hit coming from Animal House or Porky's seem almost nil in this genre, and it's not hard to see why. For all its professed liberalism and adherence to a socially conscious, even awakened, ideology, Hollywood remains a conservative place where the main goal is to make money from their pictures.
If offensive comedies don't achieve this goal, they will stop being produced and their writers and directors will switch to streaming services instead. Of course, Rob McElhenney — co-writer and star of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia — doesn't seem to have any regrets about giving up on movies altogether, though the superhero Deadpool parodies directed by his Wrexham FC co-owner Ryan Reynolds are among the few adult-themed comedies that make any money right now. In their place, we can expect more subdued and flashy comedy — PG-13 Barbie jokes, rather than the much more vulgar humor of The Joyful Ride or No Hard Feelings.
Oppenheimer's phenomenal box office success shows that audiences aren't put off by an adult film (and even a three-hour one), but they also understand what they're willing to pay money for to go see. Aside from the Barbenheimer phenomenon, 2023 is full of failures; superhero movies that no one cares about, another installment of a franchise that should have died years ago, and seemingly adult-oriented comedies that adults don't want to go watch, and even teenagers don't bother to sneak into minors anymore.
It would be easy to suggest that studios just try to make better films with obscure actors, innovative scripts and hungry directors. In the past, this formula has borne fruit over and over again. But now, with the industry fearful of stagnation and potential eventual decline, even this form of risk-taking seems to be out of the question. And it's a tragedy for everyone who cares about the future of cinema, and for those who just want to go and have a lewd laugh on a Saturday night.
Свежие комментарии