ROLE MODELS
2008
Written by Paul Rudd, David Wain, Ken Marino, and Timothy Dowling, based on a story by Dowling and W. Blake Herron
Directed by David Wain
Earlier this month, slacker auteur Kevin Smith made a bid for the mainstream with the very funny Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and now comes David Wain, someone both far more underground than Smith and yet far more willing to accommodate the masses. The results are better than one could have hoped for.
The plot, for one, doesn't exactly sound inspired: Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) go around to the nation's high schools pimping the energy drink Minotaur as a good alternative to drugs. Wheeler wears a bulky, furry Minotaur costume, shouting "Feed the beast!", and the two drive around in a tricked-out Minotaur Mobile. You get the idea.
Danny is loath to be reminded that he's been working at the company for ten years; he suffers no fools yet doesn't seem to realize that he is one. He hates anything common or ordinary, and after getting into a fight with a Starbucks employee over proper size labels, loses his lawyer girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks, a versatile actress also on screens in W. and the aforementioned Miri). Dejected and determined to self-implode, Danny's behavior at school assemblies becomes reckless, and he runs the Minotaur Mobile into a statue of a horse. Beth tells Danny and Wheeler that they have one of two options: They can do jail time, or they can help out at the Big Brother/Big Sister charity Sturdy Wings.
They choose Sturdy Wings, though they begin considering the advantages of prison soon after. Danny is assigned to spend time with Augie Farks (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a socially awkward teenager who comes to life only when on the foam sword battlefield of Lair, which is basically the love child of Dungeons & Dragons and a low-rent Renaissance Faire. Wheeler is hooked up with Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), a gleefully profane child who starts off their relationship by accusing Wheeler of sexual harassment.
Right now you're probably thinking that this either sounds like your usual Hollywood drivel, and a curiously outdated example at that, or you know the talent involved and are willing to put your faith in them. If you choose the latter, you'll find your faith very well rewarded. David Wain, as both director and co-writer--three others, including co-stars Rudd and Ken Marino, as well as comedy writer Timothy Dowling, all had a hand in the script--takes what could've been stiff and injects it with gloriously foul-mouthed energy.
Wain perfected a certain slapstick surrealism on his short-lived Comedy Central series Stella and has gained a cult following with films like Wet Hot American Summer and last year's religious satire The Ten. But now he's taken a big leap forward with a high-profile, formulaic movie that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser, and has the potential to draw in the same people who also didn't expect to be tickled by The 40 Year Old Virgin.
What all that means, basically, is that Role Models takes you through the motions without insulting your intelligence. The script takes itself seriously enough so that you realize what happens onscreen has some weight, and winks at itself often enough that its very predictability becomes something of a joke. Another thing that the movie has on its side is its R rating, something which seems and is intended to be at odds with its subject matter. Every vestige of its kiddie flick cleanliness has been obliterated by the filmmakers, and what could've been a night out with the family instead turns out to be a down-and-dirty good time.
Of course, the film would be nothing without its cast, and Wain knows that; the cast he's assembled is something of a Who's Who of the decade's funniest supporting players. Paul Rudd is, as usual, sardonic and witty, tossing off one-liners with an almost naturalistic ease. His pairing with Seann William Scott is surprisingly successful; after several years' worth of duds and flops, Scott is returning to the spotlight, and as someone who has never liked him before, I can tell you that this time he delivers. His goofy nonchalance is a winning complement to Rudd's cynical sarcasm.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb'e J. Thompson, as their youthful counterparts, are key to the film's hilarity: Mintz-Plasse manages to shed the weight of McLovin to create an all-new lovable dork, and Thompson is so shockingly foul-mouthed--and so dead-on with his timing--that it would be even more shocking if he doesn't turn out to have a long career ahead of him. Then there's Jane Lynch, in a class all her own as Sturdy Wings founder Gayle Sweeney, a former alcoholic and cocaine addict who doesn't hesitate to tell you just what she overcame and what she's still willing to overcome. Her dialogue is a series of circular riddles, high-strung Rube Goldberg machines.
As Role Models merrily bounces along to its requisite happy ending, Wain and his co-writers come up with yet another way to get around its predictability: By staging it as a foam-and-rubber swordfight replete with fake centaurs, an arrogant king, and a sneaky lass of a fair maiden. That approach sums up the movie's appeal quite well, overcoming every predictable obstacle by coming at it in a manner you couldn't even begin to predict. Oh, and being genuinely, gut-bustingly funny doesn't hurt either.
- Arlo J. Wiley
November 11, 2008
This piece was originally published on Blogcritics Magazine here.
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