Zack and Miri Make a Porno - America Loves Porn
As a fan of Kevin Smith for many years I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never really felt that he was a very good filmmaker. His connection with me and probably most of his fans comes in the form in his ability to root around in the psyche of the culture of those of us in his generation, that pre-slacker generation slacker now pushing 40 that went through puberty in the 80s. He has the penchant for dialogue that Quentin Tarantino does if only Tarantino had grown up as a Star Wars/Comic Book geek.
Smith’s weakness has always been that his films are pretty rough and never very sharply assembled. The originality and freshness of his characters and concepts have always outshone his ability to direct and edit film or structure a script.
I was actually excited when he left the “ViewAskew” or “Jersey” universe behind after Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and was anxious to see how he would fair as a mainstream filmmaker. My excitement turned to dread when he finally released what I’ve come to regard as his “sell out” film, Jersey Girl. The film wasn’t horrendous, but it was a sub-par, feel-good chic flick that had the type of formulaic, paint-by-numbers script that Kevin Smith used to crusade against.
It was no surprise that after that, he came back to the Jersey Films to try to get his stock back up with his sequel to Clerks. Jersey Girl was poison to me, though, and I actually waited for DVD for Clerks II. I enjoyed it. It was a return back to Smith’s “good stuff” so to speak, but still the weakest of his films other than his “sell out” movie.
I’m pleasantly surprised to say that Zack a Miri Make a Porno dabbles with being Smith’s best work. It’s not as grandly ambitious as Dogma or as street-wise as Clerks, but somewhere in the middle of Smith’s all out assault on crude humor and a middle of the road romantic comedy he’s found a balance that works.
The plot is simple enough, two platonic high-school friends that share an apartment strike upon a scheme to catch up on their mounting debts by producing a home-grown adult film. At its worst, Zack and Miri is a vehicle for sex jokes, innuendo, and gross out gags, but it somehow works. I wasn’t rolling on the floor through most of it, but there did seem to be a chord struck with the audience I saw it with. It probably had more out loud laughter than any film I’ve seen this year.
Part of what greases –or in this case, lubes– the wheels of Zack and Miri is Seth Rogan. Rogan seems to fit perfectly in the mindset of Kevin Smith’s universe. In a way, a cruder more outspoken version of Smith himself. He also lends some heavy comedic acting chops that too often in Smith’s films seem to be lacking in lead roles.
Another refreshing nod for the Kevin Smith faithful is Jason Mewes, who’s played “Jay” in nearly all of Smith’s earlier works. Now out of that role, Mewes plays Lester, one of the actors that Zack and Miri hire to be in their porn flick. Admittedly, you will get to see much more of Mewes –several inches more– than you ever would have hoped, he’s genuinely funny and endearing outside of his only other real Kevin Smith film identity as Jay.
Ultimately, there’s a lot of comedy to be mined in the subject of pornography that give Zack and Miri plenty of material that hasn’t been tapped too awfully much in the past. The film is genuinely funny, and even though it falls a little too deeply into formula romantic comedy in the third act, it’s all a nice vindication for Kevin Smith. Top to bottom this is easily his sharpest made and scripted film to date. Granted, it’s not subversively “cultish” like the Jersey Films, but it delivers pretty well and is just tame and romance oriented-enough to make a decent date film in spite of one or two fiendishly funny gross out gags.
While it’s not busting the box office opening weekend—looks like it will end up in the 2 slot—this may be a break out work for Smith to push his comedic talents into a more mainstream following.
Three and a half out of five peckers up for Kevin Smith’s ode to amateur porn!
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Tags: Movie Reviews
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