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"Knocked Up": Genuine, goofy and gross, but not gayWith all the praise being heaped all over Knocked Up, I thought I’d take a gander at the unexpected insemination comedy to see what all the guffawing was about. I had enjoyed director Judd Apatow’s first film, the sweetly silly The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and was therefore curious to see whether the reigning king of dork cool (a title he wrested from Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess) could avoid the dreaded sophomore slump.
All in all, I would have to give Apatow a "mission accomplished" thumbs up (but not in that premature-landing-on-an-aircraft-carrier’s-flight-deck kind of way). The first 15–20 minutes were perhaps the most continuous giggling I’ve done at a movie since, well, let’s just say a long time. The balance of genuine to goofy to gross was spot on. Those E! scenes alone made me "tighten" my stomach muscles with merry convulsions.
Of course, having said that, I also left the theater just a tad bemused. While the film was an entirely pleasant and intermittently hilarious way to spend two hours and change, I’m not sure I related to all the rapturous reviews. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t connecting to its supposedly pitch-perfect look at the different ways men and women view love, relationships and commitment. Which got me thinking: Maybe it’s a straight thing.
Let’s face it: As much as gay and straight relationships can be strikingly similar, they are still strikingly different. I mean, the film’s very conceit is one that would never happen in a gay relationship, barring some kind of scientific breakthrough or a detour into heteroville. There will be no, “I went home with this girl from the club and then 8 weeks later, oops, looks like we’re having a baby” moment for us. That doesn’t mean we can’t relate to the idea of needing to grow up quickly or face life-altering decisions, but that particular life-altering decision usually comes after careful considerations, lengthy planning and the purchase of a turkey baster.
Also, amid all the high comedy high jinks about pot, married life and Cirque du Soleil, I couldn’t stop thinking that Katherine Heigl is WAY TOO HOT for Seth Rogen. Interesting side note: Seth told Entertainment Weekly that he got his start in comedy playing a lesbian bar. Having said that, does he not look exactly like about six lesbians you knew in college? (Minus the facial hair, or not, depending on your circle of friends … )
At this point, someone will get mad and tell me how superficial I am and how looks don’t matter and how as evolved women we’ve moved beyond the physical. Of course, that is all true. I agree. Certainly, real-life odd couple pairings happen all the time. I believe women, in particular, tend to look for more than a pretty outer wrapping. We’re far more interested in the sweet confection that lies inside all that shiny tinsel.
Still, my objection to this beauty gap has less to do with the realism of a shlubby guy hooking up with a stunning woman than the fact that the shlubby guy hooking up with the stunning woman has become a distinct comedy subgenre. If you think I’m kidding, please see the leading-man careers of Jack Black, Kevin James, Jim Belushi, et al. It’s not even that these rotund funny fellas have found on-screen love with the Kate Winslets, Leah Reminis and Courtney Thorne-Smiths of the world that annoys me most. It’s that there is no similar chubby-to-hottie formula when it comes to the ladies. Can you think of more than five films or TV shows where a pleasantly plump gal gets a hunka-hunka guy? Let’s face it, even before Rosie O’Donnell became the world’s most notorious ex-Viewer, Hollywood wasn’t exactly lining up to pair her romantically with Brad Pitt.
And, while I’m on a roll, can I just add that if one more person in the film referred to Leslie Mann's character in Knocked Up as “old,” I was going to commit hara-kiri with a box of Junior Mints. The woman is 35. 35! My God, do women really start worrying that random men in clubs will no longer consider them doable when they’re 35? Seriously? I don’t know, maybe it’s a straight thing.
Submitted by on June 12, 2007 - 11:02am. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
I'll wait for the DVD
I'll put the $10.50 in my piggy bank and rent it from Blockbuster when the DVD comes out (probably before thanksgiving).
Correction
thanks for the correction
**spoiler warning!
D-Snark, ya nailed it: It's
Beware: Spoiler
Disclaimer: I have not seen this film.
I heard a review of this film on the radio last week, (I believe on NPR), and interestingly enough, it is a movie that the American Family Coalition seems to be embracing. As odd as it would seem that they'd support a film that begins with drunken sex, they apparently love the fact that it ends all nice and cozy, (and unbelievably), with them as a happy family.
Well, it IS a comedy afterall.
Lisa
could someone who's seen it comment on this?
i have not seen the actual film either, but it's just interesting to me how the trailer (both the 18+ and normal versions) and the synopsis of knocked up both stay far, far away from any mention of the a-word (abortion), even while the whole movie is implicitly saying something about the issue (that it's a non-issue and doesn't even warrant any thought on the part of the characters). what they do say, though, is that it's an "unwanted pregnancy." what is the film's message, anyway? i know it's supposed to be a comedy, but it's definitely implying a shitloaf of political stances regarding birth control, abortion, and a woman's right to choose. perhaps the actual film will explain itself.
the people in the movie do
Ick factor...a 10!
Heigl with Rogen
My girlfriend was discussing this very movie the other day and why would they not pair up an average-looking woman with a hot man. I believe that if the movie showed an average looking woman having a one-night stand with a man and deciding to not have an abortion, it would seem as if she was purposefully "trapping" a guy.
As for whether men and women view love, relationships, and sex differently, in my experience - no. The only people I have known that follow the stereotypes are prone to conformity in general, and these people are still rare. Maybe I just live in a completely different universe than the people who write these movie scripts and books, but this difference depicted in the media just does not seem to exist in the lives of straight women and men that I know. Yes, many people I know may believe that women in general are different that men in general, but these same people always dismiss themselves and their friends as exceptions to the rule. This is not my field of study, but when the stereotypes don't apply to the majority of people I have known in my lifetime, I have a hard time believing in the stereotypes. I am sure others can post studies that contradict my experience...
I'll second you, though.
I have far more straight friends than I do gay friends, for whatever reason...yet the lives of NONE of these friends and acquaintances, even those of my somewhat conservative partly southern family, are reflected in these cultural cliches. And I've had the same experience you describe - even when these more conservative family members are willing to accept the media generated stereotypes as true in general, they will always admit that they aren't borne out in the lives of their own circle, but they each think that they are, somehow, the exception. Even when I lived in the south, I never saw these gender stereotypes around me.
Nor do I, as a native southerner, wish to stereotype the south, but it is, in some ways, more conservative. I just use it to emphasise that my experience isn't just because people in LA are different.
Couldn't agree with you more, actually.
Yuck.
I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.
I went to see this film last week, and left the theatre with my feminist politics on fire.
Did anyone else see the same movie?...
And at the risk of sounding alarmist - I found it completely inappropriate that there is a shot of Heigl's character's vagina (as she is giving birth) near the end of the film. The shot seemed out of place, objectifying, and creepy considering the target audience of this film.
Craptacular.
Yep, Very Yucky.
I agree with you, most
I agree with you, most passionately and wholeheartedly about the sexism part. This movie portrays and appears to support everything that I abhor about the supposed and highly stereotyped roles of men and women. I agree that it is funny, in parts, but I would not see it again.
About the vagina, they had to make a prosthetic one, due to a Catch-22 about the baby not being able to be shown because it couldn't receive a workers permit because it wasn't actually born yet... very strange. I agree though. To me it was just another way of trying to one-up the last film of this type.
hand it to the british-again
I totally understand the annoyance of always seeing the shlubby guy with the gorgeous girl, but never seeing it the other way around. On this one again I have to hand it to British TV, not only do they give us babes like Simone Lahbib, but they also have a much higher proportion of "real" looking women on their screens. They also have the only switcheroo couple I can think of which is Dawn French's character Geraldine Granger(its even a kind of dumpy name-sorry to all the geraldines out there) and her new admittedly dishy hubby Harry Kennedy played by Richard Armitage. They are adorable together and the christmas special that got them together was one of the funniest and best send offs to a series I've ever seen.
P.S.- Geraldine's full name is Geraldine Julie Andrews Dick Van Dyke Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cher-ree Granger how freakin hilarious is that-god I love that show:)
" P.S.- Geraldine's full
" P.S.- Geraldine's full name is Geraldine Julie Andrews Dick Van Dyke Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cher-ree Granger how freakin hilarious is that-god I love that show:) "
i love the show too.
incedentally i also love mary poppins/the sound of music/ julie andrews in general.
of course i also Love Being British!
~I've been watching your world from afar, I've been trying to be where you are, I've been secretly falling apart...~
Last Holiday
Queen Latifah and LL Cool J. Given that Queen Latifah is a lot cooler and hotter than Jack Black, et al. But that kinda counts.
I haven't seen Hairspray but I read Tracy ends up with Link (correct me if I'm wrong). And even if it didn't last: Carmen and Josh from Popular.
I've long been ranting to my friends about the chubby male to hottie female thing and the scarcity of the formula working the other way. I kinda keep note when I see the latter one.
Lesbian-ish indeed
Hairspray, Popular and anything with Queen Latifah in it are all decidedly lesbian-ish, so I wonder if this is a factor? Would straight people even have this conversation? I guess this brings us back to the AE hot 100 and all those straight guys who didn't understand our love of older or larger ladies.
Then again, I do have a friend who is Katherine Heigl's double and her husband is fugly (and he's not even smart, funny or rich!). Straight people -- I just dont get them.
how funny
I just rented the Holiday and spent half the movie thinking...Jack Black? Really? I liked her part of the story with the old guy so much more. the Jack Black story seemed way to forced because even he knew she was out of his league. he acted as if he knew he was the out of place element in the film. and my dear Kate could do so much better. '
Anyway, I haven't seen Knocked UP. I have been surprised at all the attention the movie has been getting.
Knocked Up
Just another one of the many things NOT to love about this movie. Wonder how well that played out home, since Mann is married to Judd Apatow, 40, the film's writer/director.
Well, he's the director at least. Journalist Rebecca Eckler is currently suing him for supposedly appropriating the story idea for this film from her book, Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-Be, so the writer status is to be determined.
I'm firmly on the hot chick/schlubby dude thing is getting really tiresome bandwagon. Then again, I'm still peeved that Gary Marshall bumped Kathy Bates out of the title role in Frankie & Johnny in favor of Michelle Pfeiffer, even though Terrance McNally had specifically written the part for Bates.
As for Queen Latifah, I'm not sure I would be able to consider her a good example of the female equivalent of a James Belushi or Kevin James. I have no problems picturing LL Cool J, or anyone else for that matter, being attracted to her. They paired her with Dijimon Hounsou in Beauty Shop and Henry Simmons in Taxi, and I had no problem with those matches either.
A better example might be Ricki Lake opposite Craig Sheffer in Babycakes, or opposite Brendan Fraser in Mrs. Winterbourne. Babycakes probably isn't even a good example, because the whole point of the movie was that the two were so mismatched by conventional standards.
Racist, sexist, homophobic, ugh
The 40 Year Old Virgin was decidedly racist, too. These films (and their TV companions) are not 'sweet'; they're backlash films about white men's anxieties about women, lgbt persons, people in other racial and ethnic groupings, and immigrants. It's not that these films deal with offensive subject matter or 'push the line' -- all that would be and can be great. And, lots of ultimately conservative, repellant works of art have been humorous, well-made, and so on. What's bothersome is the politics that's (1) in the film and (2) in the film's reception that makes it so offensive. Part of the latter point includes the inability of one to criticize the film without being called 'too sensitive.' I'm thinking of Sarah Silverman, whose fanbase seems mostly white males, as I write this. She says the most decidely racist and misogynist things but then gets heralded as someone who uses her comedy to draw irony to racism and sexism; pretty ironic, indeed.
haven't seen knocked up, but chiming in nevertheless...
I haven't seen this film, and I doubt that I will. There was a long piece about it (esp. focussing upon Judd Apatow) in the New York Times a couple of weeks. I read it on the internet, so I'm sure it's still accessible for anyone who's interested. I don't know why exactly I suffered through eight pages about a movie I don't even want to see, except that I think mainstream cinema is fascinating in terms of what is says about politics, and in this case, gender politics in particular. The piece was especially revealing in terms of showing what a boy's club Hollywood is. I'm sure I could pick that piece apart for a good twenty pages, but I'll refrain here and spare y'all.
Again, not having seen the movie, I'm a bit surprised that Dorothy Snarker (whose blog I regularly read and greatly appreciate--thank you, D.S.) gave it the positive review that she did here. I don't think any of this crap should be dismissed as a "straight people thing." It rather sounded like a cop out, an excuse to be polite where politeness is uncalled for. Anyway, it's certainly interesting to hear what others, especially those who have actually seen the movie, think. I look forward to reading more feedback.
Revenge of the nerds
I saw the piece you're referencing -- if you mean the Sharon Waxman article -- and it deserves a good sound dissection. The whole "comedy mafia" theory and its ripple effect on the tone and content of most of the comedy coming out of Hollywood today is really fascinating.
I also like the point that what started out as comedy rooted in a revenge of the bullied premise, a noble effort to put the power in the hands of those of the nerdish persuasion who were so frequently maligned and bullied, so to speak, has now evolved into pretty much the same type of thing they were originally railing against.
The persecuted have now become the persecutors, only now the targets are gays, women and other minorities.
I'm paraphrasing widely, but only because I wasn't smart enough to copy the article and now I'm too cheap to give the NYTimes $5 for a copy and too lazy to go to the library to look for one.
Stapler Antics
Boring
Not since Epic Movie have I been so utterly bored out of my mind. And all it does is make me dislike straight people even more, men in particular.
When she calls my name, I turn and in that instant I lose my heart. This is the love of my life.
- Kate Mulgrew
wow, you guys are angry. *SPOILERS*
ladies, take it easy. it's a comedy aimed at raking in the young straight "dude" type of crowd. lots of pot headed college guys love this movie. is it realistic that the GORGEOUS intelligent successful and all around lovely character that Heigl plays would ever really fall in love with the chubby slacker pot head character Rogen plays? No, it's not realistic at all. And in real life, her charatcer would probably give more thought to having a "shmashmortion at a shmashmortion clinic" as they say in the film. But it's a sex/family comedy, it's supposed to be kept to around 2 hours in length, and considering the target audience, they had to have the super hot babe end up with the shlubby but generally nice stupid guy.
and as for everyone who said stuff about the mean things he said at the hospital: yea I totally agree, that was bad bad stuff to say. but come on. she made him walk 3 miles to the hospital. and she turned down his marriage proposal. people say mean stuff when they're hurt and exhausted. fact of life.
I dunno, I'm not saying it was the greatest film ever made, but it was entertaining enough and had lots of close-ups of Katherine Heigl. and I'm not talking about the crowning close-ups. which, btw, were gross, I admit, but I think that part at least was supposed to be somewhat realistic, like an actual birth. and that's what it looks like, folks.
i was really bored
I felt like i needed to smoke a joint to enjoy this movie. had maybe a couple parts
that i thought was funny. I just kept saying have the baby already. Jeezzzzzzzzz.
i laughed the most at an ugly baby and that is just wrong wrong wrong. heeeee
Love is blind and sometimes stupid
Come on..
I don't know how you guys even found the time to see so much wrong with the movie. I think I was in too much of a daze watching Katherine Heigl to notice all the "horrible" thing mentioned! I loved the movie, it was stupid funny, but definatly one of the best stupid funny movies I have seen in a long time. Also Kahterine Heigl looked absolutly amazing throughout the entire film. I usually dont enjoy the funny straight movie either.. such as 40 year old virgin and Wedding Crashers which every single one of my straight friends adore..but this movie kept me laughing the entire time. I say definatly see it if you havent!
I've thought Seth Rogan was
I admit it...
I went for Katherine Heigl. And she didn't disappoint. Because well, gee. Does she ever? Maybe I forgot to laugh since I was too busy wiping the drool off my chin. Maybe not, although there was a good deal of drooling. My guess is that it was actually related to the intense lameness of some of the jokes.
Earlier posts already touched upon what I found to be the most troubling aspect of the movie: it's negative attitude toward abortion. Notice how the only people that advocate an alternative option are 1) an irresponsible and unemployed pothead 2) a "frigid" sister 3) an unsympathetic and vaguely obsessive-compulsive mother. Yeah. Not the best lineup.
Political agenda aside, Katherine Heigl is still mad hot. And dude, I (definitely) got my $9 out of the viewing experience.
i saw this saturday night
Honestly, I wasn't that impressed by this film. Yes, it was funny...but contrary to what everyone said I def was not peeing in my pants because it was so funny. I would also have to agree that she is way to gorgeous for him... I mean I'm sure we've all had an "oops" night but seriously! The fact that he admited to being 23 in the movie was a little weird for me to grasp the concept of having a child...I mean geez I'm 23! I don't know... but one thing is for sure she def was a distraction for viewers :) Oh and yeah, it was pretty gross...one part inparticular.
It's all fun and games until you fall for a straight girl!