'Saving Silverman'

Saving Silverman is the newest Dumb Buddy movie targeted squarely at the people who see more movies than any other demographic sub-set: adolescent boys. Borrowing heavily from the ground-breaking spirit of Wayne's World (every third word is "dude") and other teen and young adult sexual-coming-of-age grossout pictures, it's bountifully stupid, but does have things to recommend it. Interesting how these movies vary wildly in quality. Unless you're into this genre, you can safely skip it. Spoilage alert: plot is discussed, but believe me, it doesn't matter. Talk about the genre and post your own reviews.

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.

Comments

Saving Silverman

[roberjo]

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.