Pineapple Express
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (David Gordon Green, 2008)
** (Worth seeing)
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is funny but ultimately disappointing. And disappointing in what is ultimately a fairly unpleasant way: using anonymous, disposable Asians to choreograph an empty, violent third act shootout that undermines the better part of the film's effort to populate an action comedy with recognizable human beings. It's not that I think those involved lacked the courage of their convictions--the parts of the film that suceed do so quite consciously--rather that they failed to keep things weird through and through. Unable to work out the denouement for the plot thread on which they've strung many a delightful scene, they fall back on the inhumane source material they've thus far endeavored to transcend.
I think part of the problem lies in how producer Judd Apatow's particular gifts don't translate especially well from television to the movies. What was great about Freaks and Geeks and (perhaps, more importantly since we're specifically talking about commercial comedies) Undeclared revealed itself through both series' open-endedness and how story developed through incident and character rather than plot. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP both succeed (to the degree that they do) as films in that their resepctive premises are strong enough to support a long film despite the makers' disinterest or lack of aptitude with regard to plot. As cinema, there's little one can say for either beyond that every shot appears to be in focus. Their truths are delivered via improvisation and ensemble performance rather than mise-en-scene or montage.*
*Which reminds me, I'd like to see an Apatow/LaBute collaboration. It could be the callow, young male equivalent of Spielberg and Kubrick's A.I. with Apatow providing emotional connection and LaBute the moral ideas.
With this film David Gordon Green joins Jake Kasdan and Greg Mottola as one who has failed to make a film under Apatow's auspices that has much in common with their great debut films. I've enjoyed each of Apatow's productions but I would trade them all for any one of GEORGE WASHINGTON, ZERO EFFECT, or THE DAYTRIPPERS. Still, none of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, WALK HARD, or SUPERBAD represents a personal filmmaker going so far off the rails as Linklater's dreadful FAST FOOD NATION.
The script's failings aren't far removed from its successes. One wishes Green would have invested himself to make this film as weird an action comedy as ALL THE REAL GIRLS (another watchable and not bad film one wishes were as good as its best moments) was a romantic comedy. Though one has sympathy for young men succumbing to temptation given the opportunity to blow stuff up real good.
Had someone encouraged Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to keep the Asian rivals to Gary Cole's drug enterprise off-screen and kept Rogen and James Franco's characters at the center of this film but on the fringes of the plot elements that precipitate their exodus the film could have done what it does best for its entire running time. Similarly, Rogen's girlfriend is used fairly well even if only to fill in his character** and Ed Begley Jr.'s cameo is quite amusing. However, once she's isolated from Rogen, her character falls away to no real consequence.
**These are young men's films to be sure. The limitations implicit in that are not simply the faults of the young men making these films. Though I'd like to see Apatow use his current influence to produce films made by women, he's far from the only man failing in this regard and many of those who are similarly failing don't make films as engaing as Apatow's.
Certainly PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is a cut above SUPERBAD (which quite clearly betrayed its adolescent beginnings) both in terms of craft and emotional maturity. Both Rogen/Goldberg scripts are very identifiably written by young men and, though charming, more about movie fantasies than life. If experience and confidence encourage them to develop their craft, I could envision them writing something equal to CALIFORNIA SPLIT. They're very good wtih character and dialogue. As mixed as my feelings are about SUPERBAD and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, Michael Cera's performance in the former and Franco and Danny McBride's work in the latter is to be cherished.
I still think the best film Apatow has produced in the wake of THE 40-YEAR-OLD-VIRGIN's success is the one most tangential to his gifted repetory company: Kasdan's THE TV SET. That film, portrait of both Kasdan and his TV mentor Apatow, is still a minor film compared to ZERO EFFECT. (Though one can't overvalue the joy of a (sadly) rarely glimpsed these days good performance from Duchovny.) Bear in mind I still haven't seen FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL.
** (Worth seeing)
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is funny but ultimately disappointing. And disappointing in what is ultimately a fairly unpleasant way: using anonymous, disposable Asians to choreograph an empty, violent third act shootout that undermines the better part of the film's effort to populate an action comedy with recognizable human beings. It's not that I think those involved lacked the courage of their convictions--the parts of the film that suceed do so quite consciously--rather that they failed to keep things weird through and through. Unable to work out the denouement for the plot thread on which they've strung many a delightful scene, they fall back on the inhumane source material they've thus far endeavored to transcend.
I think part of the problem lies in how producer Judd Apatow's particular gifts don't translate especially well from television to the movies. What was great about Freaks and Geeks and (perhaps, more importantly since we're specifically talking about commercial comedies) Undeclared revealed itself through both series' open-endedness and how story developed through incident and character rather than plot. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP both succeed (to the degree that they do) as films in that their resepctive premises are strong enough to support a long film despite the makers' disinterest or lack of aptitude with regard to plot. As cinema, there's little one can say for either beyond that every shot appears to be in focus. Their truths are delivered via improvisation and ensemble performance rather than mise-en-scene or montage.*
*Which reminds me, I'd like to see an Apatow/LaBute collaboration. It could be the callow, young male equivalent of Spielberg and Kubrick's A.I. with Apatow providing emotional connection and LaBute the moral ideas.
With this film David Gordon Green joins Jake Kasdan and Greg Mottola as one who has failed to make a film under Apatow's auspices that has much in common with their great debut films. I've enjoyed each of Apatow's productions but I would trade them all for any one of GEORGE WASHINGTON, ZERO EFFECT, or THE DAYTRIPPERS. Still, none of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, WALK HARD, or SUPERBAD represents a personal filmmaker going so far off the rails as Linklater's dreadful FAST FOOD NATION.
The script's failings aren't far removed from its successes. One wishes Green would have invested himself to make this film as weird an action comedy as ALL THE REAL GIRLS (another watchable and not bad film one wishes were as good as its best moments) was a romantic comedy. Though one has sympathy for young men succumbing to temptation given the opportunity to blow stuff up real good.
Had someone encouraged Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to keep the Asian rivals to Gary Cole's drug enterprise off-screen and kept Rogen and James Franco's characters at the center of this film but on the fringes of the plot elements that precipitate their exodus the film could have done what it does best for its entire running time. Similarly, Rogen's girlfriend is used fairly well even if only to fill in his character** and Ed Begley Jr.'s cameo is quite amusing. However, once she's isolated from Rogen, her character falls away to no real consequence.
**These are young men's films to be sure. The limitations implicit in that are not simply the faults of the young men making these films. Though I'd like to see Apatow use his current influence to produce films made by women, he's far from the only man failing in this regard and many of those who are similarly failing don't make films as engaing as Apatow's.
Certainly PINEAPPLE EXPRESS is a cut above SUPERBAD (which quite clearly betrayed its adolescent beginnings) both in terms of craft and emotional maturity. Both Rogen/Goldberg scripts are very identifiably written by young men and, though charming, more about movie fantasies than life. If experience and confidence encourage them to develop their craft, I could envision them writing something equal to CALIFORNIA SPLIT. They're very good wtih character and dialogue. As mixed as my feelings are about SUPERBAD and PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, Michael Cera's performance in the former and Franco and Danny McBride's work in the latter is to be cherished.
I still think the best film Apatow has produced in the wake of THE 40-YEAR-OLD-VIRGIN's success is the one most tangential to his gifted repetory company: Kasdan's THE TV SET. That film, portrait of both Kasdan and his TV mentor Apatow, is still a minor film compared to ZERO EFFECT. (Though one can't overvalue the joy of a (sadly) rarely glimpsed these days good performance from Duchovny.) Bear in mind I still haven't seen FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL.
Labels: 40-year-old virgin, david gordon green, freaks and geeks, jake kasdan, james franco, judd apatow, knocked up, pineapple express, seth rogen, the tv set, undeclared
posted by Bret LaGree at 19:10
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