Knocked Up

Just about once every decade a particular voice in comedy redefines the formula used to score familiarity points with an audience. In 1998, the Farrelly Bros. “gelled” Cameron Diaz’s hair and made way for an onslaught of doe-eyed dopey gross out comedies. In 2005, it was Judd Apatow and the now infamous chest waxing of a dorky Steve Carell. Setting aside the common fascination with uncomfortable body functions, it’s safe to say Apatow’s brand of homey, raunchy manchild with a heart of gold comedy is a whole different breed of film and it’s the leading influence on the world of big screen laughs in years. Losers everywhere are owning up to responsibilities and scoring with unfathomably more attractive women. This summer alone we’ll see the format repeated with The Brothers Solomon and the Apatow produced Superbad. The very best part of Apatow’s theatrical coming of age is that he’s a more talented and sincere filmmaker than many of cinema’s previous comedy trendsetters. Just as the world sighed a sad sigh at the sight of endless broad comedies and flat sequels to come, Apatow has swooped in and injected the genre with a shot of realism and an effortlessly appealing goofy sweetness. The guy's got a knack for writing films with all the drunken, macho stupidity needed to make mass audiences laugh and the kind of subtle, endearing drama that no one would ever expect from movies like these. Like it or not, the stoner comedy just became a viable art form.

The stoner in question here is Ben Stone (“Freaks & Geeks” alum Seth Rogen) who spends the bulk of his days watching R-rated movies with his friends and programming the precise times at which famous actresses can be seen naked into his up and coming website FleshOftheStars.com. His friends are played by a crew of Apatow faves from previous projects all of which use their own names for their character names which continually blurs the line between performance and spontaneous antics. The lineup consists of “Freaks & Geeks” stars Jason Segel and Martin Starr along with Jay Baruchel of “Undeclared” and Jonah Hill who made a cameo appearance in The 40 Year Old-Virgin. One night this motley crew of slackers heads out to a nearby club where Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl of “Grey’s Anatomy) is celebrating a recent promotion from E! Network intern to on-air talent. The bodacious blonde makes an unexpected connection with the funny, laid-back Ben and ends up drunkenly stumbling through a regrettable one night stand. Cut to 8 weeks later when Alison finds herself vomiting profusely during a James Franco interview and begins to consider the possibility that she’s pregnant. After checking and rechecking with every brand of home pregnancy test known to man, Alison accepts her fate and confronts Ben about the situation. It’s a meeting off two very different minds – she’s a responsible rising professional and he’s a happy-go-lucky putterer whose greatest challenge in life is refereeing intense matches of beer pong – but together they decide to have the baby and attempt to share a genuine relationship with one another.

As far as situational comedy goes, it’s a relatively safe setup, but Apatow dives so energetically into the material that it feels as wide reaching and original as the most elaborately conceived concept film. It’s nothing like the paint by numbers comedies we’re used to where you can kind of foresee what’s coming next by remembering back to familiar episodes of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” In the film, Apatow takes “Raymond” and every other emotionally flat piece of comedy to task for the way in which they desensitize their characters. No one ever really gets hurt in the world of sitcoms. Characters behave badly and get mad at each other but it all comes with such timed, rapid fire delivery that the basic frustrations of family life get dissolved as soon as the laugh track sounds. Knocked Up is not just one of the funniest films I’ve seen all year. It also cracks the American comedy wide open and messes around with its innards. It exposes an embarrassing awkwardness at the heart of the most well-intentioned actions and a deeply felt silliness to the most melodramatic moments of our lives. All sides of the situation are covered with integrity and hilarity from Ben’s fears of inadequacy all the way down through Alison’s worries about whether or not Ben is anything more to her than just an accidental baby daddy. Neither character is really right or wrong, good or bad. They’re just conflicting elements in a very messy situation in which no outcome can be easy. Rarely do mainstream comedies realize a situation this fully or consider their characters so carefully. It’s my greatest hope that more and more commercial studios take notice of the quality standard Apatow has established and start producing comedies even a fraction as masterful as this one.

Grade: A