The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
Directed by Judd Apatow
Andy Stitzer has a pleasant life with a nice apartment and a job stamping invoices at an electronics store. But at age 40, there's one thing Andy hasn't done, and it's really bothering his sex-obsessed male co-workers: Andy is still a virgin. Determined to help Andy get laid, the guys make it their mission to de-virginize him. But it all seems hopeless until Andy meets small business owner Trish, a single mom.
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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).
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.
Occasionally, the movie rises to the level of, say, The Lonely Guy, thanks largely to Carell, who displays some of the mix of silliness and gravity of the early Steve Martin -- only without the smarm, never keeping a hipster's distance from the character.
It reminded me of “There's Something About Mary” - a movie that was not for everyone, but was so smart that I didn't care that I was laughing over fart jokes.
Think "There's Something About Mary" magnified tenfold ?
It tackles some taboo subjects with hilarious candor and has some of the best unthinkable physical humor since “There’s Something About Mary.”
The storyline is a cross between American Pie and There's Something about Mary.
It's closer in spirit to zany, good-natured films such as There's Something About Mary and The Jerk.
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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).
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.
Carell's performance vaguely reminded me of Paul Giamatti's grumpy turn as Harvey Pekar in the perfect "American Splendor."
If you watch his silent version of "The Ten Commandments," notice how the girl praying to the Golden Calf is gyrating provocatively in a bikini-like outfit before God strikes her down with leprosy.
It was nearly ten years ago since we had characters as perfectly realized as Andy, David, Cal and Jay when 1996 brought us both Beautiful Girls and Swingers.
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In "Shampoo" or "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", to take two examples, the characters were constantly in and out of the sack with either strangers or each other.
It's American Psycho with one fewer chainsaw, a picture that uses the theme song from "The Greatest American Hero" with the same kind of deadpan irony reserved for quiet references to collector culture and the kind of video gamer who owns a specially-designed chair expressly for that purpose.