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About Jon
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Let’s go to the movies! I love the movie experience, study what happens on the screen and am writing about it to help you with your movie going decisions. Hopefully something in the blogging of a film’s big elements – screenwriting, cinematography, directing, acting, visual effects, sound, and editing (and sometimes automobiles) – will help movie fans discern where their entertainment dollars should go. I’ve been blogging about movies on 99x.com since April 2008 and have been listening to 99x since moving to Atlanta in 1996. I’ve worked on the Olympics and short films that have appeared at Sundance and other film festivals in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. I have a Master’s degree in film from Florida State University and regard film school as one of the best experiences of my life.
I currently live in Atlanta with my wife and two labs; love baseball, music, family and friends, good food, and of course movies. Just to blog down thoughts from an eyewitness perspective I avoid reading other movie blogs or reviews on a new release until I’ve posted my own. All references to box office results or cast and crew are culled from boxofficeguru.com, boxofficemojo.com, or IMDB.com. Wikipedia is not used in the writing of this blog. Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/jonlamoreaux for additional movie updates.
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Jon's Movie Blog
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Jul
30
Written by:
Jon Lamoreaux
7/30/2010 11:17 AM
 Coincidently, when the last Steve Carell film Date Night was released earlier this year I was more eager to write about my pre-screening of Kick Ass. Here on the eve of Dinner for Schmucks, starring Carell and Paul Rudd, I’m more impassioned to write about a recent screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a genre bending film of similar graphic book origins like Kick Ass recently getting buzz from San Diego’s Comic Con. But that will have to wait until August 13th (Please Note: Scott Pilgrim actors Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman and Pilgrim director Edgar Wright will be appearing at Criminal Records on August 10th from 3PM to 4PM). It does beg the question though, in light of thunder-stealing hipster friendly films like Kick Ass what demographic does the future hold for Steve Carell? Is he being pigeon holed as a comedian playing it safe, destined to perform in films that take the fewest risks when reaching out to a larger audience? I say no. Not yet anyway as you’ll see in Dinner for Schmucks, a silly but heartwarming, human interest comedy that tugs on your sympathies much the same way a Judd Apatow film might. Or an old Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin film might. Carell plays Lewis to Rudd’s Martin so well that the film almost seems nostalgic. Some of it is a mess, no doubt but to director Jay Roach’s credit, director of the Austin Powers films and Meet the Parents (2000), this familiar but insufferably sweet, gag fest of a movie is like eating spaghetti with your hands—once you get the sauce on you and let yourself go it makes the rest of the meal easier to enjoy.
The Story: Tim, played by Rudd, is an analyst dreaming to fill a vacant executive position at Fender Financial but must pass the test, so-to-speak, by coaxing a person of dissimilar “social significance” to a dinner that celebrates the abnormal; a dinner that allows his boss and the executive boys’ club to make fun of idiots. Barry, Carell’s version of Rain Man, Napoleon Dynamite, and Julius Kelp from The Nutty Professor (1963), crosses Tim’s path by accident, literally, and the two are inseparable much to Tim’s chagrin. Tim’s girlfriend stirs the plot by telling Tim she doesn’t like the dinner idea, and on more than a few occasions walks into a well placed misunderstanding usually the origins of which Barry is to blame. We experience a Comedy of Errors so to speak until the long awaited dinner event…and I do mean long awaited as Roach saves the best for last and delivers the comedic feast of the film’s title at an hour and twenty minutes into the film. It seems well worth it as four or five additional special guests like Barry, one of them Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover (2009)), vie, unbeknownst to them, for idiot of the night.
The Goods: Truth is Rudd’s co-workers played by Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek (2009), Thirteen Days (2000), Double Jeopardy (1999)) and Ron Livingston (Office Space (1999), Swingers (1996)), among others, are the odd ones here in that they care so much about the “little” people that they portray themselves as boring rich guys, similar to how fat cats like Mr. Potter from It’s A Wonderful Life (1939) were portrayed during The Great Depression. They’re the ones sticking it to the average guy so they can boost their own image and try to impress like-minded clients who turn out to be idiots themselves. One of the strongest elements of Dinner for Schmucks is that it makes the term “idiot” proportional by giving everyone an opportunity to look like an idiot. At the most opportune moments in the film then, it is Barry who becomes the normal one. Much of it due to Carell who does a magnificent job portraying a sort of odd fraternal twin to the character of Michael Scott he creates on The Office. Carell who put in an Oscar worthy performance in Little Miss Sunshine (2006) shines in moments where he is at his most nerdy best and in moments of realization where he learns of Tim’s motive for the dinner invitation. Director Roach’s choice of hair style, color and fashion of dress for Carell’s Barry is outstanding. Carell needed this change for the role since most of what we know of Carell is what we know of Rudd which is to say they represent themselves repeatedly as nearly the same characters from film to film. It’s refreshing to see Carell do something different in that respect. And Rudd, well he’s just straight man of the new millennium.
The Beatles’ Fool on the Hill opens the film and sets a good natured, child-like tone with flutes, piccolo and recorder type instruments along with other unusual sounds found in Beatle songs like Good Morning. These instruments, though different in nature to the more predominant “normal” instruments guitar, bass, drums, create a theme for Barry and make us aware that even funny sounding toy-like instruments can make beautiful music.
The Flaws: But did I mention it’s too long? I thought a flaw might be the length of the film which is surprisingly almost two hours; anything over 90 minutes is usually hazardous terrain for a comedy. The movie grew on me, however, and had me laughing hysterically in a few scenes to a point where I didn’t want it to end; I wanted the film to continue and move on to the next Barry adventure and with sequels maybe it might. Watching Carell explore new territory with his strangely confident mouse taxidermist Barry is compelling. Like I felt I was part of the gang bringing guests to the party, entertained just watching these lovable oddballs be their curious selves. If part of the fun of Dinner for Schmucks is gazing at people considered handicapped by their idiocy, whatever any one person’s perception of that might be, then how are we expected to dislike the bad guys when we are doing what they do? At what point do the antagonists become the idiots? It’s when we discover Barry’s not such an idiot that Rudd’s employer looks immoral. Adding to that is Rudd’s story in the film, one that nearly deflates the first hour. When Carell is absent from the screen so is the film’s levity and joy.
Tim’s girlfriend Julie played by Stephanie Szostak (The Devil Wears Prada (2006)) drives the conflict for Tim in the film. She’s disappointed in his cruel dinner plans with Barry and though he tries to cancel for her she keeps catching him in compromising positions, most if not all instigated by Barry’s man-child curiosity and social short comings. At times it’s annoying, the angry girlfriend threatening to leave, staying with a male art client of hers (she’s a curator). Tim tries to explain but she doesn’t seem to want to understand. My thoughts are, why even try? Adding to Julie’s air of righteousness are scenes of improbability where coincidences are mistaken for plot twists.
The Call: I’m slightly biased because I’m a fan of Carell and Rudd and if you are too you’ll want to spend the ten and enjoy the laughter. Or, you could save it for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Expendables, or The Other Guys. Or work it into your August budget and see all of them, which means you might have to skip a few dinners out once or twice. But I say spend the ten on this Dinner just to see a suburb comedic performance by Steve Carell.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of crude and sexual content, some partial nudity and language. Running time is 1 hr 50 minutes which is normally 20 minutes too long. It could use some trimming but the length allows some jokes to really play out. Pairing Galifianakis and Carell is genius. Emmy award winner Roach will also be directing the upcoming Austin Powers 4. Look for it in 2011.
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