Judd Apatow
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Connections, in both directions
It’s lovely that Kelsey gets the requisite ferry scene, briefly linking “The King of Staten Island” to a cinematic tradition that includes Martin Scorsese’s “Who’s That Knocking at My Door” and Mike Nichols’ “Working Girl.”
Just as Freak and Geeks was also a betrayal of American working-class roots, these bridge-and-tunnel adult tough guys and blunt, gum-smacking women (“we’re the only place New Jersey looks down on”) recall the outrageous white stereotypes of big-haired Staten Island skanks in Mike Nichols’s phony Working Girl .
He lives with his mother Margie (Marisa Tomei) and refuses to commit to the local girl he’s sleeping with (Bel Powley, channeling “Working Girl”-style Staten Island swagger).
The Big Sick (2017)
Directed by Michael Showalter
influenced by The King of Staten Island (2020), Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009), Trainwreck (2015), The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005), This Is 40 (2012)
Characters Plot
Think Steve Carell in “ The 40-Year-Old Virgin ,” Seth Rogen in “Knocked Up” or Amy Schumer in “ Trainwreck .”
As a producer and writer he’s been involved in favorites such as “Freaks and Geeks,” “Anchorman,” “Superbad,” “Step Brothers,” “Girls,” and “The Big Sick.”
Over and over during the press tour for The Big Sick in 2017, I remember screenwriters Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon talking about how their producer Judd Apatow had kept hectoring them to make their script more real, more personal, to go with honesty over punchlines whenever in doubt.
Films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin or even recent comedies like The Big Sick tend to front load their first hours with their biggest laughs, so it’s initially a solid change of pace for the filmmakers to trust the audience’s patience and take a character-driven approach.
The concept may sound a little self-indulgent on its face, and those viewers who may question their overall interest in Davidson’s life story may scoff, but The King of Staten Island plays — if not quite as successfully — in the same confessional comedic territory as The Big Sick (another Apatow production!
I know this is supposed to be the Pete Davidson semi-autobiographical flick or whatever, in the same vein as Trainwreck or The Big Sick , but Trainwreck was Amy’s screenplay and The Big Sick was Kumail and Emily’s script.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
influenced The King of Staten Island (2020)
Making vivid use of Staten Island locations, DP Robert Elswit ( There Will Be Blood ), a first-time Apatow collaborator, shoots in a loose, fluid style, imbuing the frames with a scruffy, at times luminously nostalgic New York romanticism.
He shot Magnolia and There Will Be Blood , among dozens of other credits – and the writing is mostly warm and witty.
Moreover, the director enlists Robert Elswit ( There Will Be Blood ; Michael Clayton ; Good Night, and Good Luck ) as cinematographer.
Cinematographer Robert Elswit won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood , a very difficult shoot with gorgeous footage.
It speaks volumes that he’s hired the great cinematographer Robert Elswit here — Elswit, who has lensed most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, including There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice , as well as Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler , brings a lovely warmth to this one, making it feel more tangible, less shiny and clean than Apatow’s usual films.
It was shot by Robert Elswit, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of "Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood" and "Nightcrawler."
Superbad (2007)
Directed by Greg Mottola
influenced by The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005), Funny People (2009)
Themes
Apatow is the writer-director of "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," but "Superbad" -- for all its outrageous action and crude sexual content -- owes as much to such time-compressed films as "American Graffiti," "Dazed and Confused" and even Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" as to Apatow's previous work and such frank predecessors as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
His movies "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," on the other hand, dealt with superannuated Beavises and Butt-heads stuck in a state of loutish arrested adolescence.
He wrote and directed "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and produced this movie.
Having found myself unable to join in the unstinting praise heaped on anything touched by Judd Apatow—I sat stone-faced throughout The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and laughed sporadically during last year’s Knocked Up (not believing its supposed serious side for a second)—I approached this Apatow-produced film with grave misgivings and gloomy foreboding.
The reason this and "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (Apatow's previous film) strike such a chord with viewers is that the movies' basic premises are plausible and the characters are believable -- and yet they're hysterically funny, too.
But unlike his recent megahits "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," not to mention other recent buddy comedies such as "Blades of Gory," the movie doesn't require the suspension of disbelief that more high-concept comedies do.
Thus follows the usual misunderstanding and/or breakup scenes, and a few racing-through-traffic sequences, but thankfully the film winds up with something borrowed loosely from the Broadway play "Hair" that should not be missed.
Personally, I found the entire movie filled with the juice of the prune (apart from the musical finale, which mostly made me want to watch Milos Forman’s Hair).
With a title like The 40 Year Old Virgin (and with a marketing campaign that borders on genius), you know that, as with other "losin' it" pictures (Losin' It, Revenge of the Nerds , Hardbodies, The Last American Virgin , and on and on), the hero's going to get laid--most often to a fireworks accompaniment (or selections from Hair, as the case may be).
The Universal release, co-written by its star, follows the "8 Mile" template of unvarnished self-examination, only played for laughs as well as pathos.
My colleague Juilan Lytle wrote that The King of Staten Island is Pete Davidson’s 8 Mile.
Imagine 8 Mile if B. Rabbit’s secret dream was to franchise a TGI Fridays and you have some idea of the cognitive dissonance.
Una película cuasi autobiográfica como esta no necesita incluir tal detalle - no hay una foto sonriente de Eminem y su madre al final de 8 Mile - pero la elección tiene peso aquí.
The King of Staten Island is constantly battling with whether it wants to be a light comedic romp about arrested development, a la every Adam Sandler film not called Punch Drunk Love or Uncut Gems, or a gritty autobiographical story of one troubled manboy’s rise above his demons a la 8 Mile .
It's the "SNL" star's story the same way "8 Mile" was Eminem's story; Em played a version of himself who was not really himself but okay, it was himself.
Jade (1995)
Directed by William Friedkin
influenced The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005), The King of Staten Island (2020)
A fan of the absurd and the obscene, Apatow has thrown in plenty of little treats for the audience, including a dynamite reference to the William Friedkin thriller "Jade," and, when Andy tries speed dating, a view of the world's loosest top on a woman who could use all the covering she can find.
The screenplay is filled with small but perfect one-liners (as when Andy is advised to emulate David Caruso in " Jade ").
"Be David Caruso in Jade ," advises Cal, shortly after the waxing incident.
There's a priceless speed-dating encounter (ever experienced a moment when you can't look away?) and some unconventional dating advice ("Be like David Caruso in Jade ").
As if casting themselves in the belated sequel to Losin' It, Andy's flabbergasted colleagues become the architects of a sacred quest for nooky, which variously entails locking Andy in the store overnight while porn plays on all screens, waxing his chest hair, and tutoring him in the dark art of the pickup line; stoner Jedi master Cal (Rogen) at one point intones that oft forgotten command from the Zen handbook, "Be David Caruso in Jade," a bidding that Andy grasps with an instinctual, even mystical authority.
It’s one thing to have your characters relentlessly name-check well-known Hollywood figures (“be like David Caruso in Jade ,” Seth Rogen tells Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin ) and another to angle your cinema so far in the direction of art imitating life that it starts to feel less like a strategy and more like an obsession—one that’s yielded interestingly mixed results.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
Directed by Kevin Smith
influenced by The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007)
Characters
Having gone soft with Jersey Girl (which is looking better all the time) only to regroup by remaking Clerks solely for the diehards, Smith here rounds up Judd Apatow 's familiars (Rogen, Banks, Craig Robinson , The 40-Year-Old Virgin's Gerry Bednob ), pairs them with his own regulars ( Jason Mewes , Jeff Anderson ) plus Traci Lords , and puts "Porno" in the title.
He is yet another version of the slackers that Rogen has been turning out since Judd Apatow cast him as one of Steve Carell's feckless friends in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
There's no Jay and Silent Bob (although Jay, Jason Mewes, does appear in another role), the film is more polished (Smith used to just throw his actors in front of the camera, but now seems to be making the effort to actually set up shots), and it even steals most of its cast from Apatow's movies -- from Rogen and Banks to supporting roles featuring Craig Robinson (Knocked Up), Gerry Bednob (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), and Justin Long (Walk Hard).
The foul-mouthed, pop-culture-and-sex obsessed guy-pals of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad are the spiritual children of Dante Hicks and Randal Graves in Clerks.
Seth Rogen, the brightest spark in Hollywood’s new-age comic circuitry (The 40-year-old Virgin, Knocked Up), is the bearded slacker who cannot pay the bills in the house he shares with platonic friend Elizabeth Banks.
Rogen is steady once again doing his young Albert Brooks thing, and Justin Long and Brandon Routh contribute memorable cameos, but Banks is the standout cast member, showing that she can add another dimension to her fun and naughty character from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."
She's Out of My League (2010)
Directed by Jim Field Smith
influenced by Knocked Up (2007), The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
Plot
In other words, they're about as unlikely a couple as we've seen since, say, Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl in "Knocked Up." Like Rogen, Baruchel is no troll, but he's hardly a heartthrob.
This young Canadian actor, part of the scenery in Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder, ascends to stardom as Kirk, a scrawny loser working at an airport, who’s laughed at by his buddies when “perfect 10” Molly (Alice Eve) takes an interest.
In League, the average guy is Kirk (played by Jay Baruchel , of Tropic Thunder, Knocked Up, and 2010's Sorcerer's Apprentice,) -- an unassuming "6" -- who works in airport security and one day, through a series of only slightly unbelievable events, finds himself meeting and dating the aforementioned perfect girl, Molly -- a "hard 10." Naturally, Kirk can't figure out why Molly is interested, so enter Kirk's knucklehead friends and family who offer no support, ridiculous advice, and eventually beat Kirk's self-confidence to a pulp... so much so that there's nothing left -- for Kirk or for Molly.
Likewise, Jay Baruchel, a standout in Knocked Up and Tropic Thunder, has the charm to navigate his role as Kirk — a 5 — past the implausibility of his high-school-graduate security guard's getting a gorgeous event planner/lawyer out of her underwear (that is, he would have if she'd been wearing any).
Recognizable for his roles in "Knocked Up" and "Tropic Thunder," Canadian-born comedian Jay Baruchel combines humble innocence with a knowing command of comic chops to inspire heartfelt laughs.
Baruchel is probably best known for his supporting turns in Judd Apatow films like Knocked Up (2006), although he made the greatest impression on me as a tragically self-deluded would-be boxer in Million Dollar Baby (2004).
The themes of male infantilization and boys without fathers that were deep and powerful in John Singleton’s urban-ghetto drama Baby Boy become a train wreck when hit by Apatow’s comedy shtick and brazen insensitivity.
Cedar Rapids (2011)
Directed by Miguel Arteta
influenced by The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
Themes Plot Characters
Though not as uproarious as “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” director Miguel Arteta’s consistently entertaining white-collar laffer could do for Helms what that film did for Steve Carell, albeit on a much smaller commercial scale.
Ed Helms, taking a break from The Office, channels his fellow sitcom cast-mate Steve Carrell from The 40-Year-Old Virgin here, and comes up with a similar character.
At the very least, it’s not going to make Helms an overnight star like “ The 40-Year-Old Virgin ” did for his fellow “Office” co-star Steve Carell , but while “Cedar Rapids” is never as funny as you might expect, there are just enough laughs scattered throughout its brisk runtime that it's not a complete letdown.
But a more apt comparison is to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."
PARK CITY -– (Premieres) Ed Helms lands a sturdy showcase for his trademark awkwardness and nerdy charms in "Cedar Rapids," a kind of delayed coming-of-age comedy about a sheltered innocent that in many ways recalls "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," the big-screen breakout of Helms' co-star from "The Office," Steve Carell.
Essentially, he’s Steve Carell from The 40-Year-Old Virgin, except that he sleeps with his seventh-grade teacher (Sigourney Weaver).
It speaks volumes that he’s hired the great cinematographer Robert Elswit here — Elswit, who has lensed most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, including There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice , as well as Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler , brings a lovely warmth to this one, making it feel more tangible, less shiny and clean than Apatow’s usual films.
It was shot by Robert Elswit, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of "Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood" and "Nightcrawler."
This down to the great work of cinematographer Robert Elswit, who was behind There Will Be Blood and Nightcrawler .
The King of Staten Island is no mere stoner comedy, though, nor are the battles between Scott and Ray echoes of Meet the Parents or Anger Management.
Jay Roach, of the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents franchises, now directs political dramas, as does Adam McKay, who moved from Will Ferrell silliness to The Big Short and Vice.
The awkward combination of gross-out gags and an almost sugary tone is no surprise, coming from writing/directing team Bobby and Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary), and the crude humour and raunchy dialogue will delight fans of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen (admirers of The 40-Year-Old Virgin will not be disappointed).
This latest bit of naughty cinema never matches the heights of Judd Apatow’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin or the Farrellys’ own There’s Something About Mary, although it comes close in a few scenes.
Bridesmaids (2011)
Directed by Paul Feig
influenced by The King of Staten Island (2020), Funny People (2009), The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007)
Though I can think of a handful of Apatow-produced movies I enjoyed more (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Superbad,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek”), “Bridesmaids” is likely to be one of the best comedies of the year.
What works best in this routinely shot and directed film adheres to commercial formula but lollygags enough to make the behavior and interactions fresh, as was the case in previous projects from the Apatow stable such as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "Superbad."
This raucous comedy was produced by Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) and successfully transposes his "bromance" formula to the world of women: Wiig plays a depressed loser whose lifelong friendship with pal Maya Rudolph is threatened when the latter gets engaged and another of the bridesmaids starts angling to be maid of honor.
"Bridesmaids," co-written by Wiig and Annie Mumolo, proposes, in part, to do for girl-bonding comedies what the likes of " Wedding Crashers " and " Superbad " did for guy-bonding comedies, and " The 40-Year-Old Virgin " and " Knocked Up " did for rom-coms.
But it's also true that his films, which include " The 40-Year-Old Virgin " and " Knocked Up ," have an appealing emotional nakedness (to go with the other kind of nakedness).
Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up ) has long been praised for his almost mystical ability to create raunchy films that also exude real heart, but also equally derided for making them almost exclusively for and about men.
Other filmmakers have taken their shot over the years, "Punchline" and "The King of Comedy" come to mind, yet no one has gotten it quite right.
Of course, characters and dramas built around the anger that fuels the funny constitute a venerable black-humor subgenre: W.C. Fields reveled in the muck, and the jolting movies The King of Comedy and The Entertainer made art out of the emotional contradictions of professional comics.
This Four Horsemen of Lazy-ocalypse wobble in the same cinematic circles as New Jerseyans Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) of “Clerks” (1994) fame, but the Empire State boys carry even less conviction and pride than their out-of-state brothers from other mothers.
In last month’s Empire , Judd Apatow said that he increasingly wants to hit the tone of the films that shaped him — most notably the work of Hal Ashby ( Being There , Harold And Maude ) and James L. Brooks ( Terms Of Endearment , Broadcast News ).
The combination of unapologetic vulgarity and semi-obscure pop culture references pretty much sums up the level of wit at work -- think the gang in the early bar scene in " Knocked Up ," only more bitter and not quite as smart -- and again, not good.
It’s difficult to watch Horrible Bosses without thinking that the filmmakers are looking for increasingly outrageous ways to walk through the door thrown open by raunch masters such as Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up) and Todd Phillips (the Hangover movies).
In last month’s Empire , Judd Apatow said that he increasingly wants to hit the tone of the films that shaped him — most notably the work of Hal Ashby ( Being There , Harold And Maude ) and James L. Brooks ( Terms Of Endearment , Broadcast News ).