I saw a little of the TV show and thought it was too much tell and not enough show. You know, they say that a good story doesn't need narration.
The movie was much slicker, though. I real the autobiography of Chuck Jones, the creator of Bugs Bunny, and he defined farce as when the protagonists are strange, surrounded by normals. And comedy is when the protagonist is normal, but encounters strangeness. Strangers with Candy sits somewhere in the middle. Like a farce, its protagonist is strange. But the rest of the cast is strange, too.
Greg Hollimon was my favorite, playing Principal Blackman, who is constantly involved in trouble of his own making, and is constantly scheming. Stephen Colbert was great too, although I found Amy Sedaris' character, the protagonist Jerri Blank, a little too cartoony and annoying. The rest of the cast seems to hit precisely on the border where they are obviously lampooning (not to be taken seriously) but there is enough realism to the characters that you don't fall out of the movie (drop the suspension of disbelief).
So I was pleasantly surprised by this film, which is laugh-out-loud funny throughout. One objection would be the choice of Matthew Broderick to play an evil science genius... he plays it too seriously (just as Jerri Blank is played not serious enough).
My main problem with the film was the use of racial and homophobic humor. The gag here is that the protagonist is racist and homophobic and her actions shock others because they're so inappropriate. So we never really laugh at the racist jokes, but at the resulting social awkwardness. But... this is the protagonist we're talking about here. How can we root for someone who is so clearly messed up? I can root for a bad boy with a heart of gold, but ultimately I felt there was too much bad in Jerri Blank and not enough heart. Is it really OK to tell racist jokes if they say "oh, we're only kidding"? Who should see this film:
-- If you're looking for a light summer comedy, it's a better shot than My Super Ex-Girlfriend or You, Me, and Dupree.
-- But not if you didn't like the off-color humor in Austin Powers about fat people Because of the off-color jokes, the film could have been an 8 but I'll demote it to 6. It was genuinely funny, a compelling parody on high school.
The movie was much slicker, though. I real the autobiography of Chuck Jones, the creator of Bugs Bunny, and he defined farce as when the protagonists are strange, surrounded by normals. And comedy is when the protagonist is normal, but encounters strangeness. Strangers with Candy sits somewhere in the middle. Like a farce, its protagonist is strange. But the rest of the cast is strange, too.
Greg Hollimon was my favorite, playing Principal Blackman, who is constantly involved in trouble of his own making, and is constantly scheming. Stephen Colbert was great too, although I found Amy Sedaris' character, the protagonist Jerri Blank, a little too cartoony and annoying. The rest of the cast seems to hit precisely on the border where they are obviously lampooning (not to be taken seriously) but there is enough realism to the characters that you don't fall out of the movie (drop the suspension of disbelief).
So I was pleasantly surprised by this film, which is laugh-out-loud funny throughout. One objection would be the choice of Matthew Broderick to play an evil science genius... he plays it too seriously (just as Jerri Blank is played not serious enough).
My main problem with the film was the use of racial and homophobic humor. The gag here is that the protagonist is racist and homophobic and her actions shock others because they're so inappropriate. So we never really laugh at the racist jokes, but at the resulting social awkwardness. But... this is the protagonist we're talking about here. How can we root for someone who is so clearly messed up? I can root for a bad boy with a heart of gold, but ultimately I felt there was too much bad in Jerri Blank and not enough heart. Is it really OK to tell racist jokes if they say "oh, we're only kidding"? Who should see this film:
-- If you're looking for a light summer comedy, it's a better shot than My Super Ex-Girlfriend or You, Me, and Dupree.
-- But not if you didn't like the off-color humor in Austin Powers about fat people Because of the off-color jokes, the film could have been an 8 but I'll demote it to 6. It was genuinely funny, a compelling parody on high school.