TIFF 2008: ZACK & MIRI MAKE A PORNO
ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO
(USA, 2008)
Written & directed by: Kevin Smith
Cast: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Brian Halloran, Jason Mewes, Brandon Routh, Traci Lords, Justin Long, Katie Morgan
Before I begin: Kevin, enough with the Star Wars. Look, I'm as big a fan of the Classic Trilogy as anyone of a certain age, but peurile jokes about Princess "Lay-yah" were probably doodled in countless Scribner notebooks well before Empire was released (I know they were in mine...thank goodness for the pre-digital age, where everything lost is justly so...). Hell, you already gave us that hilarious debate over the Rebel Alliance vs. The Empire's independent contractors in Clerks, schtick about Jedi mind tricks in Mallrats, and cast Mark Hamill as a villain (complete with lightsaber) in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. Time to move on...have you looked at the box-office receipts for The Clone Wars? The rest of the world (and presumably, much of your fan base) has...
Recycled jokes and moth-ridden pop culture references aren't the only problem with Smith's latest attempt to expand his cinematic horizons--while he was too busy writing unfinished comic book sagas (which I'm still stewing about, obviously) and thesping opposite the likes of Jennifer Garner, Bruce Willis, and the cast of Degrassi: The Next Generation, along came Judd Apatow and his killer brood to declare themselves the new kings of raunch comedy and the Red Band trailer, and make Jay And Silent Bob's stoner schtick seem as dated as an old Cheech N' Chong LP . But committed fans who have lamented Kevin Smith's bold (and after a decade-plus, terribly familiar) statement that he was abandoning the "Askewniverse" for good will breath a sigh of relief (or whatever) at his latest foul-mouthed farce, which true to form, layers on the scatalogical gags and arch dialogue around a soft, sentimental centre.
Twentysomethings Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Banks) are best friends since childhood who share a ramshackle apartment in a blue collar hockey town. While each is bright and good-hearted, neither has set the world on fire, career-wise, with Zack slumming at the counter of a chi-chi coffee shop. Suffice to say, the monthly demands of rent, food, and hydro are taxing, and their platonic relationship doesn't generate much heat to get through the long Pennsylvania winters.
At their miserable 10-year high school reunion, Miri discovers, among other indignities, that she's become the YouTube phenomenon "Granny Pants" thanks to a slacker's cell phone camera, and the happiest alumni (Routh and Long, who almost steal the show) have found notoriety as gay porn stars. Zack gets the idea to exploit her celebrity status as a viral video star for their financial gain, given that their utilities have been turned off and eviction looms. They'll make their own skin flick, he offers, because 1) if everyone's seeing Miri's ass for free on the web, why not get paid for it? and 2) "everybody wants to see everybody else naked, even if it’s two nobodies from the mid-west". Zack pursuades his workmate Delaney (The Office's Robinson) into coughing up some seed money (his tax refund courtesy of Dubya, which he'd planned to blow on a plasma TV), enlist Deacon (Clerks star Anderson) to work the camcorder, and hire a few adult "professionals" for authenticity (Lords, Morgan, and Mewes). Their opus will be entitled "Star Whores", sort of a latter-day Flesh Gordon, with a ready-made audience and lots of sequel potential.
...until the ramshackle building housing their set and equipment gets demolished.
Undaunted, Zack moves the production moves to his employer's digs, and an entirely new scenario is concocted. But Zack and Miri's cavalier friendship is tested as the shooting day of their debut coupling approaches, and Zack grows resentful of Miri's decision to "perform" with another cast member...
(Cripes--"seed money", "shooting day", "member", even "concocted"...somehow, the more I try to verbally dance around the subjects, the more I sound like a hormonal 14-year old...)
By the time the gang moves the production to the coffee shop for an after hours shoot, we're back in Clerks 2 territory, with a scatalogical "backdoor" gag that will replace any lingering trauma of that film's biker dude attempting to mount a goat. I'm not sure why Zack and co. set out to make a "real" porn programmer of the Vivid Video/Jenna Jameson variety, with deliberate bad acting and stagey production values--wouldn't it have been more timely, and accurate to Zack and Miri's demographic, to have gone for a homemade sex tape ala Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, Paris Hilton, or (gawd help us) Fred Durst? The laughs are solid, sure, but much of it smacks of discarded scenes from Boogie Nights.
The Monroeville, PA location affords Smith the opportunity to mine some nods to another George..."Romero", with a visit to the infamous Monroeville Mall (the Maceys is still there!), a local hockey team named "The Zombies", even a Tom Savini cameo. But the film owes it successes to the familiar presences of Smith's rep company--acerbic Halloran and the inimitable Mewes, neither stretching here--and the Sid And Marty Kroft-ish charm of the competition's MVP Rogen, who takes some of the preciousness out of Smith's sometimes too-precious verbal melees--although I laughed the loudest at the cameo from another Apatow alumnus, 40 Year Old Virgin's Gerry Bednob, here again required to deliver a hilarious profane diatribe against his slacker staff.
Some years ago, Smith after the epic closing chapter Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, he attempted a more dramatic venture with Jersey Girl, until any hopes of an image change were squashed by the Bennifer/Gigli fallout, tainting the good-natured effort with a Ben Affleck backlash and forcing him to remove J-Lo's scenes, only to have the film die a quick death. So he was back with Clerks 2, an equally enjoyable-but-unremarkable confection that, for reasons I can't imagine, was awarded an 8-minute standing ovation at Cannes...
Zack And Miri is more spirited and less guarded than Jersey Girl, and has thus far avoided the controversy of his ambitious anti-Catholic romp Dogma, although I'm sure once it's released there will be those bluenoses who will call for its destruction based on the title alone (and despite his past battles with the MPAA, Smith was able to secure an "R" rating for what might be his most gloriously profane screenplay thus far). The inevitable sex scene between the two leads is undeniably sweet and touching (thanks largely to the natural chemistry between the leads, since Smith, by his own admission, isn't much of a director), and the overall tone benign enough to calm those less liberal-minded viewers who only know Lords' work from her John Waters films and Melrose Place appearances.
Unfortunately, the film never recovers from a third act detour into a series of painfully drawn-out relationship spats played out at top volume, to the annoyance of the porno crew, Monroeville's citizens (living and undead), and certainly this viewer. Smith should've studied the competition a bit more closely--the film could've used a lot less Chasing Amy, a little more Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd...
©Robert J. Lewis 2008
