I finally caught Zach and Miri Make a Porno last week at the budget theater, but for various reasons, am just writing about it now. Let's hope I still remember everything I wanted to say about it.
I've never been a huge Kevin Smith fan. I've seen some of his films and found them to be funny, but not worthy of the cult status some people have placed upon them. His fan-base though seemed to be losing faith in though recently with a series of disappointing films. However, when I heard this one was going to star Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, I had high expectations and for the most part it delivers. Smith was smart in infusing some of the Apatow magic into his films by recruiting a few of his crew to star in the film. If nothing else, it guaranteed getting a few more people to watch the movie, who normally would have dismissed it.
Playing the titular characters, Rogen and Banks are great at playing the characters that they're familar with. Rogen works as the fat, schlubby, but likeable guy and Banks has that wonderful girl next door quality that still possesses a naughty side. They not only play their characters well, but they also work well with each other. While seeing Seth Rogen date Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up might have seemed a bit of a stretch, you can totally believe that he and Banks would be best friends (and maybe a little bit more) here.
One of the things that Kevin Smith does well in this and a lot of his films is create a realistic atmosphere. While Apatow may do a better job at creating characters and placing them in realistic situations, Smith provides settings for his films that seem authentic and gritty, yet also ordinary. Here, you really get a sense of the poverty and dire situation that these characters are in that would drive them to an outrageous idea like making a pornographic film for money. From the decrepit apartment, to the dead-end job at a coffee place, to the brutal cold of a Pittsburg winter; all of these things do a nice job of adding the layers needed to make the films' premise work.
Sometimes that realistic grittiness is taken a big too far. I was surprised as to how much sex was actually in the film, especially when it's being done by less than savory characters (including Smith regular, Jason Mewes). But there's one seen that is so disgusting that I'll forever have nightmares about it. I won't spell it out here, but you'll definitely know what I'm talking about when you see it.
That raunchy style of humor is found throughout most of the film, and for the most part it works. I found myself laughing throughout the movie and all the great one-liners. However, I felt that there were times where it was just raunch for the sake of raunch. A lot of it didn't feel organic or natural, but rather just an exhibition in filth. I found myself enjoying more the jokes that were clever observations on real life like Zack and Miri's conversation about Julia Roberts' Sleeping With the Enemy. Four-letter word rants can be funny, but sometimes in this film it can be a bit much.
Criticizing the film's dirty humor may seem hypocritical considering the praise I give to the Apatow films, which also typically feature a lot of r-rated laughs. But here's the primary difference and why this film, while good, doesn't match up to those. In a film like The Forty Year Old Virgin if you took away the dirty jokes, you still have a well told story about a man searching for love and friends that care enough to help him find it. If you take the dirty humor out of this film, you're left with a cliched romance that doesn't really tell us anything that we've haven't heard before.
And in that way, maybe this film really is like a pornographic movie. In both cases, you realy don't watch for the story, but rather for the sex, or in this case, sex jokes. Smith takes familiar tropes and just surrounds them with fresh faces and new jokes. If you laugh, then the movie works and if you don't, then it's a bust. Luckily, I did laugh, which is why I'll recommend this film. Unless you're really uptight and wouldn't appreciate the raunch, you'll likely find this to be a very funny film. It's definitely one of Smith's better efforts in recent years. If you're a fan of his films, you should definitely check it out. Grade: B+
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