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'Saving Silverman'
Ever since Hollywood discovered that teens and young adults were the nation's prime moviegoers, writes and directors have aimed at them squarely. The trend goes as far back as the Frankie-and-Annette beach movies. We've seen the prominent John Hughes flick's of the 80's -- Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club -- and more recently -- the much-superior Farrelly Brothers offerings. There were some good moments in Cruel Intentions and Election. The Naked Gun and Police Academy movies were sometimes hilarious, especially the first few.
There are classics (of the form) like Clueless and American Pie, and the occasional success aimed at both teens and young adults, like Something About Mary. The Scream trilogy was creepy, culturally self-aware and unswervingly satirical.
But quality varies: Save The Last Dance, a huge box -office hit, takes an awfully saccharine look at interracial dating, but manages to be mildly interesting. The semen-in-the-hair-scene in Something About Mary elevated gross to an art form, setting a standard it's hard to top.
Sugar and Spice, on the other hand, a clumsy effort at a cheerleader spoof released a couple of weeks ago, was simply pitiful and inane.
A hallmark of teen movies, especially guy ones, is that because it's the much-abused nerds who grow up to become filmmakers, those who are straight, conservative, attractve or popular get raked mercilessly and continuously.
One of the more successful teen subgenres is the "Dumb Buddy" movie epitomized in the modern era by Wayne's World, Animal House, and of course, the legendary late great TV series Beavis & Butthead, one of the bitterest attacks ever on the primary traits of male adolescence and on authority in general. Their unique spirits live on all over the Web.
Like them, Saving Silverman is profoundly stupid and pointless. A requirement of the Dumb Buddy movie is that it be offensive, generally via obligatory toilet jokes and gross-out scenes. Stars Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn, and Jack Black (who was apparently born funny, but isn't at his best here), are all eminently likeable, their unflappable good humor and haplessness pulling the story along, and the movie has four or five truly funny moments -- especially when the three perform together in their Neil Diamond tribute band. Diamond, a good sport in this movie, pops up several times and subjects himself to good-natured ridicule in ways most pop celebrities wouldn't.
In some ways, these guys are the friends we all wish we'd had. In other ways, we're relieved we don't. Biggs plays his usual role -- the decent, bumbling, horny guy (Darren Silverman this time) pining for somebody to love. Helped along by his doofy, hapless pals -- Wayne (Zahn) is a pest control worker, while J.D. (Black) can't keep a job at a Subway franchise -- Silverman finds his special someone in Judith (Amanda Peet).
Bad choice. Judith is a bitchy, controlling psychologist who sees Silverman as her puppet, herself the "puppet-master." Even worse, she reads books. "Don't make me be taking away your masturbating privileges," Judith warns Darren at one point when he dares to defy her.
The first thing she does is forbid Silverman to see his buddies on pain of losing all sexual privileges. This doesn't sit well with Wayne and J.D., who resent her manipulation of Silverman, her nasty treatment of them, and want to reunite him with his first and true love Sandy (Amanda Detmer), who is about to enter a convent. So the band decides to kidnap Judith, though she's a martial arts whiz. You can already foresee some of the sight-gag possibilities. here. The movie is strange, because it frequently turns mean-spirited. No matter how you play it, kidnapping and running people over just isn't that funny. And unless you're 12, the butt-implant operation will make you upchuck your Twizzlers.
One thing the Dumb Male Buddy movies show is that humor varies wildly, according to age and gender. Critics and adults will shriek (and not with laughter) at some of the stuff in this movie, but if you watch the kids in the theater, they will definitely be laughing. Humor hits people differently, something snooty and self-righteous critics of movies ought to keep in mind.
The movie makes no sense, of course. Silverman is the last guy on earth that a girl like Judith would spend five seconds with, and even the most loyal pals wouldn't go to the insane lengths Wayne and J.D do to keep them from hooking up. But Dumb Buddy movies are allowed to suspend the rules of reality. You're not going for coherence or realism, are you?
Dumb buddy movies exist to deal with scatological humor, adolescent security insecurity, jokes about who's gay, who's got the most testosterone, glimpses of breasts, other sexual sub-themes. Saving Silverman runs true to form, but on the low end of the spectrum.
The funny thing is, teen movies ought to be completely boring and annoying, but somehow, they aren't. Critics trash them, serious filmmakers shun them, intellectuals and serious people wouldn't dream of wasting 105 minutes on a movie like this. But hell, I didn't have a bad time. If you've already seen all the good stuff -- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Snatch, Shadow Of The Vampire, The Pledge and You Can Count On Me -- then go for it. But take your buddy along, not your girlfriend.
I got yelled at for saying this before. They expect you to filter this sort of shit if you don't care to see it.
Weird, I'm viewing at -1 and most of Jon's have been modded as troll or offtopic. How are you seeing them?
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enterfornone - logging in for a change
...get a real job, as ought to be obvious..But never blame the consumers?
jonkatz@slashdot.org
A teen-movie that completely avoids the usual type 1A Hollywood script for teenflicks is "Show Me Love" (or "Fucking Åmål", as the original, Swedish, title is); quite understandable, as it's not a Hollywood movie in the first place. Because the movie isn't in English, it might be hard to get by in the US (and indeed, most of the world), but if you do, it's definitely worth seeing. I know that there is a subtitled version available. IMDB entry here.
Different genre: Bill & Ted was funny and witty, and deceptively stupid, i.e., at second look it wasn't as stupid as you would expect. While I am far from the targeted demographic, probably more likely to be a target of such movies, I really enjoyed Bill and Ted, but found anything Mike Myers was ever associated with the be tediously unfunny. Needless to say, I haven't seen another teenage gross out movie since "Fast Times", which was good when trying to be funny but truly and deeply offensive when it tried to be a serious movie. Another difference, I would let my kids see Bill & Ted (though not the sequel... it's a little too mean in places), I wouldn't even watch most of these more recent films myself, even if I was interested.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Of course, who can forget the immortal "Hit me!" from Johnny Mnemonic?
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Yes, but the Prisoner is a cult-classic tv show that will always remain one of my favorites, while Saving Silver man is....
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Actually....I think he's picked exactly the right movie...
/. readers was not teenaged boys....especially these days..
I would be very suprised if the single largest group of
Just look at the posts for this story (browse at -1) if you want proof....
Advanced users are users too!
Scanning through, there's already a few posts that discuss how this isn't Slashdot material. Let me continue.
/. even if I could. Why? It's not the right audience.
I enjoy slashdot. I read it daily. I'm not a Linux nut, and some aspects of the tech information go over my head. That's fine. I expect that. I enjoy the pop-tech news, the neat gadgets, and industry news from both the linux and non-linux sides. I even enjoy the occasional movie review of a tech themed movie.
But "Saving Silverman"? I know it's sunday morning here, and there's not much else going on. But I can read movie reviews anywhere. This isn't even a tech themed film - just as Jon described, it's a dumb buddy movie - anyone going to see it pretty much knows what to expect. I'm glad Jon chimed in with all sorts of pop culture references to make his review look like a college essay. That's great. I majored in American Popular Culture in college. I wrote a lot of papers describing the social spects of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the implications of the future in Blade Runner. But I wouldn't post either of those to
While this post isn't unique, I hope Jon reads it: I enjoy your writing style and the points you have to make on most things. But the TV ads, Roger Ebert and my college pop culture classes taught me all I need to know about dumb buddy movies, thanks.
The Good Reverend
Then I guess neither Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure nor Wayne's World were Dumb Buddy movies? Both were really funny without any toilet humor or gross-out scenes.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Forget Katz's review of the this movie, check out Mr. Cranky's instead - and while you're at it, check out his review of Antitrust too... all too accurate.
We all know that crap is king
Give us dirty laundry!
I must say, Jon Katz isn't that bad. I mean, seriously, he was a journalist before most of the trolls here were born. If you had any sense you'd realize that he has to be considered talented by most of the public. Wired and Rolling Stone don't hire people without talent.
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Crudely Drawn Games
Try Plastic instead. You'll be glad to know that Shoeboy is already active on the site!
sulli
RTFJ.
This is slashdot. Its readers have neither "buddies" or "girlfriends".
And why the homophobic attitude ? At least one in 10 slashdot readers prefers not to have any luck with a member of the same sex.
And at least one in 100 is female.
I feel slightly cheated by the people who are Slashdot. There is nobody with more talent and insight than the wonderful Jon Katz, but unfortunately he's occasionally lowered to reviewing movies like this. Jon Katz is a genius; if his talent must be wasted on doing movie reviews and not writing general treatises, than the movies should be at least movies his caliber. He should have been reviewing Cannibal or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon something with more soul and intrigue than the downright distusting piece of film which is Saving Silverman. Hell, even Finding Forrester would have been a better choice.
Jon Katz, your brilliance and talent cannot be understated, please do not let us languish without another piece of magic from your pen? I want more insights into the world of privacy, sociology and the soul... I could do without the movie reviews.
Please Jon Katz, I love you so much, please hear my plea. Please? Are you out there?
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You can't imagine how much I really do love Jon Katz.
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You can't imagine how much I really do love Jon Katz.
(I filter all non Katz stories).
Yes, you are dead on..Spade is right up there, as was in Search of Farley..
Actually good point about Martin and Lewis..they were buddy movies, but skewed much older...more slapstick comedy, less settings in real life (relatively)
jonkatz@slashdot.org
No mention of Farley and Spade ??!! Tommy Boy, Black sheep et al were the only true "dumb buddy" movies in recent years !! Fat man in a little coat from Tommy boy was their "finest" hour. All the rest you mention are just evidence of "dumb" humour movies. When it comes down to it, that Disney movie with Spade and Goodman - i think it was called "In search of Farley" - was the last Dumb buddy movie ? Waynes World, Dumb 'n Dumber, Pie etc. all included dumb buddy moments but the plots ranged widely over the "Gross out" Comedy genre. Didn't Jerry Lewis make a career outta this ?
I don't know how Katz does it, but every sunday he reviews the exact same movie that I had gone to see. I only see one movie per weekend so it is kinda creepy.
Anyway, I saw Saving Silverman this weekend and I have to say that I haven't laughed out loud at a movie that hard since American Pie. Sure it was based on absolutely silly plot twists, but what I found redeeming about it was that it didn't try to rectify or explain the idioicy. Instead, it embraced stupidity with a wholehearted bliss. Nothing in the movie is meant to be taken seriously. I mean come on, the Nun factor was completely random and entertaining (lets bust out some power squats!).
To me, it seemed that this movie was completely outside of reality. It seems to be written from an adolescent boy's subconscious. All of his fears: marrying a psychotic psychologist, discovering that he's gay, being fired from subway, having coach shit in your yard, all of these are caricatures of fear, and damn funny at that. I will admit that the movie had some obvious crutches at points (the way silverman and sandy fall in love for no reason, when he jogs 30 miles to the convent to get sandy and she just up and forgives him, etc.) that show obviously bad editing/writing, however, I am willing to suspend my critic's hat for an hour to roll on the floor at cursing nuns and Neil Diamond.
The only thing I hated about this movie, was the two rows of 13 year olds behind me. Jeezus.
One more thing, at the end, did you notice that the movie ended but noone got up to leave? I was seriously getting weirded out. The credits were rolling, Neil Diamond was singing, but noone in the theater moved to leave. Crazy.
Deterrence is the art of producing, in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack! - Dr. Strangelove