Jody Hill
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Filmography
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Taxi Driver (1976)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
influenced Observe and Report (2009)
Themes Plot Characters
Regardless, Jody Hill’s comic twist on “Taxi Driver” hardened Rogen’s onscreen heart and Hanna-Barbera face for his most unexpected performance.
Plenty of people have already compared the film to Taxi Driver , and there seems to be no reason not to add to the pile; Hill's film is similar enough to Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader that it would be hard to believe that it wasn't his intent from the outset.
In a script that was reportedly inspired by “Taxi Driver,” Seth Rogen gives the best performance of his career to date as Ronnie Barnhardt, a bipolar mall security guard with serious mental issues.
Comparisons to “Taxi Driver” are quite apt, with Hill and Rogen instilling Ronnie with the same soufflé of psychosis that created an iconic screen antihero in Travis Bickle.
With admirably funkiness and bold flavor, Hill has made the anti-Blart...but at a time when we've seen seven mass shootings in a month, do we really need the comedy version of Taxi Driver?
The King of Comedy (1982)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
influenced Observe and Report (2009)
Characters Themes
He must be unhinged and pitiable, frightening and funny, morally repellent and yet identifiably human, something like Robert DeNiro's Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy.
But there may be echoes stronger still of The King of Comedy and the grand delusions of Rupert Pupkin.
There hasn’t been a worthwhile mainstream comedy as dark since “Bad Santa,” and you’d probably have to go all the way back to Martin Scorsese's “The King of Comedy” to find a dark comedy made with a higher level of controlled artistry.
Scattered amid the carnage are sly references to Miller’s Crossing (“Look in your heart”), Barry Manilow (whose hit “Mandy” was originally titled “Brandy”), and Goodfellas (the words “in the fucking oven you’ll go” are never spoken, but the implicit threat is there), as well as the best joke ever likely to be occasioned by a Chick-fil-A franchise.
The Art of Self-Defense (2019)
Directed by Riley Stearns
influenced by The Foot Fist Way (2008), Observe and Report (2009)
Themes Plot
Director Jody Hill’s feature debut, The Foot Fist Way (2006), took another approach to this martial-arts-as-codpiece conceit, leaning into the sad-sack cringe comedy of a hapless schlub throbbing with unjustified self-confidence.
In case it’s not clear, that big picture tone is “pitch-black comedy,” and it’s the general depiction of humanity and expressed philosophy that the film invites comparison to movies like Jody Hill’s The Foot Fist Way and Observe And Report.
This eccentric dark comedy is like "Fight Club" mixed with "The Foot Fist Way." It's delivered in a droll style wherein the characters' dialogue sounds like they're reading an instruction manual, and it sneaks up on viewers by eventually morphing itself into a compelling thriller.
It’s hard to extract much real satire from a movie that sometimes feels like Stearns self-consciously attempting push an amalgam of The Foot Fist Way and the “Rex Kwon Do” scenes in Napoleon Dynamite into more overtly malevolent territory.
However, it’s Hill’s wildly divisive, “psychotic mall cop” comedy Observe and Report (2009) that feels closer kin to TAOSD, at least in terms of its acidic, machismo-skewering ambitions.
In case it’s not clear, that big picture tone is “pitch-black comedy,” and it’s the general depiction of humanity and expressed philosophy that the film invites comparison to movies like Jody Hill’s The Foot Fist Way and Observe And Report.
…one of the prickliest things I’ve seen since the police-culture-eviscerating Observe and Report, in which Seth Rogen played a mall security guard who idolizes cops…
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Directed by Marielle Heller
influenced by Observe and Report (2009)
Themes
When 2009's "Observe and Report" came out, a controversy ensued about one scene where Seth Rogen's character has sex with Anna Faris , who is so wasted she is clearly unable to consent.
Any movie that worships Flash Gordon (�It�s so bad,� John accurately sums up, �but so good�) can�t be all bad, though Observe and Report used the film�s �Football Theme� to far better effect.
(One can only hope that they devoted an equal amount of energy to their third collaboration, Step Brothers, due out in July.)
Those ads are like suckering family viewers into a Kevin Smith movie by advertising that he did a voice in the animated “ Doogal ” or pitching “ Tropic Thunder ” to the crowds that really liked that family-friendly Ben Stiller in “ Night at the Museum ”.
His use of musicfrom the folksy, borderline-whimsical score by Joseph Stephens, to quirky choice soundtrack cuts by The Band, The Yardbirds, Little River Band, and City Wolf (performing a cover of The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?")indelibly services the images, photographed with flair and aplomb by cinematographer Tim Orr (2008's " Sex Drive ").