Low blows mainstay of subgenre

Mark Trammell, Features Editor
Published On: 11/11/2008

Smith, Wain return to gross-out humor with ‘Porno’ and ‘Role Models’

At this point, we’ve been so deluged with GFRCs, guy friendly romantic comedies, it’s hard to remember a time before Judd Apatow.

It seems like every other rom-com flick features gross-out humor and foul-mouthed protagonists, not to mention some sort of Apatow connection. While most attribute this to the ginormous success of “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” the truth is, the seeds for Apatow’s success were sown long ago, with the work of such pioneers of the genre such as the Farrelly Brothers (“There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb and Dumber”), Trey Parker and Matt Stone (“South Park”), and even the granddaddies of them all, the Zucker-Abrams team (“The Naked Gun” and “Airplane”).

Two other pioneers of the subgenre are now out to reap a little of the benefits for themselves, Kevin Smith and David Wain, via their new guy friendly romantic comedies “Zack & Miri Make a Porno” and “Role Models,” respectively.

Of all the aforementioned people, Kevin Smith is undoubtedly the most influential among them insofar as this new breed is concerned. After causing a stir at Sundance with his no-budget marvel of artful vulgarity, “Clerks,” Smith bottomed out with the underrated “Mallrats,” before bouncing back with the GFRC gold standard against which all others must be judged, “Chasing Amy.”

Though Smith jokingly referred to it as “science fiction,” being as how it dealt with a guy falling for a lesbian and actually pulling it off — at least for a while — the film was definitely a new take on the romantic comedies of yore.
This was no sappy fairy tale, it was messy and real and, for the most part, rang true, despite a dubious ending. Now that his take on the genre is the norm, Smith is back with “Zack & Miri,” the latest to try and challenge the Apatow throne as the ruler of the roost.

While Smith is overall very successful in his approach — he’s an old hand at this by now, after all — oddly enough, the film feels a bit like walking without moving. Smith is clearly in a holding pattern. He pioneered the GFRC subgenre, and some of those who reaped the benefits are clearly eager to help him out, as evidenced by the presence of Apatow regulars Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, and others, yet the end result feels overtly familiar.

“Zack & Miri” revolves around two practically lifelong platonic best friends, Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Banks), who live together in near-squalor. It’s easy to see why these two are just friends, Banks is luminous and sexy even in granny panties, while Rogen is, well, not exactly the guy you want to take home to mom, to put it mildly.

To buy them falling for each other, you have to have a logical reason, and Smith, in his own imitable style finds one. After the bills pile up to the point where the two have to burn trash in a bin in the middle of the living room to stay warm, they decide to do the unthinkable: Make a low-budget amateur porno together.

But of course! That Smith manages to deliver on the filth-aspect of the premise — down to graphic gay sex jokes and laughable porn premises (their initial porn is called “Star Whores” and features the likes of “Hung So-low”) — while still remaining an accessible romantic comedy at its core is a testament to his talent for such wildly disparate elements.

There are some truly hilarious one-liners and situations, such as when a drunken Pittsburg Steelers fan walks in on a porn shoot at the coffee shop where Zack works and is too drunk to get what’s going on, nonchalantly ordering a coffee as two of the stars go at mere feet away from him.

The Pittsburg, Penn., setting also makes for some clever in-jokes suitable for the Halloween release date, including references to the original “Dawn of the Dead,” and even an appearance by the FX master of that film and many others, Tom Savini.

Still, it all feels a bit too familiar. After the critical bashing of his well intentioned “Jersey Girl,” and the hilarious-if-somewhat-obvious return-to-form “Clerks 2,” Smith may be guilty of returning to the well one too many times.

Still, Smith deserves to cash in on all this GFRC stuff, and “Zack & Miri” is just good enough to recommend, though Smith may want to change it up altogether the next time out.

Given Smith’s lifelong fandom of comics, why not adapt a comic of his choice, or at least invent a comic-book-style film of his own? Now that might be fun, especially with the superhero stuff winding down in terms of what’s left to adapt.

Another early practitioner of the genre is David Wain, formerly of MTV’s underrated sketch-comedy show, “The State.” His cult classic “Wet Hot American Summer,” a spoof of summer-camp comedies like “Meatballs,” featured Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks before it was cool, way back in 2001.

Now he’s back with the hilarious “Role Models,” which stands out by virtue of its wacky, if not altogether believable premise.

Two buddies, Wheeler (Sean William Scott of “American Pie”) and Danny (Rudd, also a part of the Apatow comedy crew) get busted after Danny cusses in front of a group of students and encourages them to do drugs before proceeding to wreck his massive truck into the statue in front of the school.

The reason for his outburst? His girlfriend Beth (Banks) has just dumped him after he half-heartedly proposed marriage. Offered the dubious option of avoiding jail in favor of doing community service, the two are assigned to be “big brother” types to two misfit kids.

For Danny, there’s Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, forever known as McLovin from “Superbad”), a medieval-times obsessed nerd who role-plays with like-minded nerds in the park, and for Wheeler, there’s Ronnie (scene-stealer Bobb’e J. Thompson of “That’s So Raven”).

Of course, they all clash at first, but eventually bond. Though you can see the end coming a mile away, and the film follows the GFRC-formula to a fault, it benefits enormously from the unusual premise, which while ridiculous, at least brings something new to the table.

The Renaissance-Faire types are rife for satire, and yet, as a fellow nerd himself, Wain never crosses the line into being mean. He clearly empathizes with Augie and it shows in Wain’s execution of the situation.

Meanwhile, nearly everything that comes out of the hilariously foul-mouthed Ronnie is comedy gold. Ditto for professional scene-stealer Jane Lynch (also of “The 40 Year Old Virgin”), as the ex-con reformed drug-addict head of the “Big Brother” type foundation.

Only Banks is somewhat wasted, but it’s not really her story, and there are plenty of other options for Banks fans with “Zack & Miri” and “W.” playing to her strength within the same multiplexes this month. (What an agent this girl must have!)

All in all, “Role Models” wins by default for being consistently funny, but don’t count Smith out just yet. He’s just one inspired idea away from a true return-to-form.

In the meantime, he can at least take comfort in the fact that the subgenre he helped start has come into its own, and perhaps make a few bucks in the process.

This type of over-the-top vulgarity may eventually run out of steam, but you can’t blame these guys for striking while the iron is hot.

Besides, you could do a lot worse for date movies. “Made of Honor,” anyone? How about “27 Dresses”? Didn’t think so. For the time being, these two films will work just fine.

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