Funny People

[Gamblour.]

wish they'd stop using that lame ikea joke to end all the trailers

That was the first time I heard it and I laughed at it. I don't think it's in the other trailer.

[modage]

i was the 2nd person in the standby line for An Evening with Judd Apatow & Funny People screening.  i waited an hour and a half and didn't get in.

[modage]

Excerpt from Movieline Interview w/Judd Apatow

I heard somewhere that you brought James Brooks and P.T. Anderson into the Funny People edit bay with you as you were putting it together.
When I made this movie, I knew that it was very ambitious creatively, and I always ask people that I respect to see my movies and give me honest feedback, in addition to doing seven previews with real audiences. I do a lot of private screenings and screenings for friends. So this time out, anybody whose opinion I valued I showed the movie to, and there's no one whose opinion I valued more than James Brooks and Paul Thomas Anderson, and Cameron Crowe I showed the movie to. There were many people that were kind enough to tell me what they thought of where I was at, at that moment. Ron Howard gave me incredible notes at one of the screenings. I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot of people. Jay Roach also is always a go-to person that always has great perspective on all of these films.

But at the end of the day, you do have to decide what you would do, because even great filmmakers might go a different way with it. But it does give you a sense of if people are getting what you want them to understand. And people who make films, when they watch the movie, they're more aware of the levels that are being attempted.

Were there any significant notes that you took from any of these people that changed the outcome?
It's not that there was one note that was so specific. At the end of the process, Garry Shandling said, "I think the music cue starts at the wrong point in the last five minutes," and it completely transformed the last scene. Those types of notes can take the movie from working well to working great. Everyone gave me notes like that. James Brooks didn't go into the editing room, but Paul Thomas Anderson came in and sat with me as I made a couple very difficult choices about what to remove. He's a good friend of Adam's, and having seen the movie several times, had a lot of fantastic insight into what information was needed and not needed, and what was having an emotional effect and what was repetition.

Anderson having probably gotten the last, great dramatic performance out of Adam.
Punch Drunk Love is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's sweet and funny and I bawl my eyes out the last 20 minutes of it every time I watch it. I couldn't respect it more.

http://www.movieline.com/2009/07/judd-apatow-the-movieline-interview.php

[Stefen]

PTA & JA = BFF.

Good to see a respected filmmaker give props to PDL. That's always nice.

[SiliasRuby]

This is a really inspired film and Judd's best one to date. I liked it alot and it touched me personally. George Simmons is really a selfish insensitive jackass who is hard to love and while it has its flaws and its a bit uneven (and 146 minutes at that) it worked for me.

[john]

My favorite so far, too.

All films have flaws, the difference is whether they are intentional or not and this films flaws are inherent to it's accomplishments. It's long and a bit tangential. If it, occasionally seems unforcued, it's only to give a proper chance to humanize and fully color more of the supporting cast.

As successful as Apatow can be at an isolated gag (like the chest waxing in Virgin) it's wonderful to see him moving away from that. Even in Knocked Up, where the humor succeeds by being incidental, it's still magnified. Here, there are barely any traces of that.

The stand up performances do a great job developing the characters, as well. The succeed and fail beautifully.

Even with it's running time, this is the first film in a while I didn't want to end. As it concluded, it might as well have been the beginning of an entirely new act, I was that happy to spend this time with these characters... and it was a beautifully chosen ending.

SMALL SPOILER:

Apatow attended a screening for the San Francisco Film Society a couple weeks back and there was a Q&A afterward. My friend asked if it was hard to get James Taylor to say "fuck Facebook". Apparently Apatow had asked Taylor to say it, he declined, they did several takes and on the last one Taylor blurted it out. I'm glad he relented, because that was a pretty humorous little moment.

[modage]

I wanted to love it.  I didn't love it.

Funny People is a hilarious, dark, messy, sprawling, deeply personal film from Judd Apatow.  I had braced myself for a more dramatic film but was still surprised by how dark it was.  The film basically merges two distinctly different films together: one with Adam Sandler as a famous comedian who has a terminal illness and forms a friendship with Seth Rogen a fledgling stand-up, the other has Sandler trying to reclaim Leslie Mann, his former girlfriend.

Setting the first 2/3 of the film in the world of stand-up comedy, the story is made up almost entirely made up of narcissists.  All the characters are flawed and some are completely unlikable so I can see the desire to escape that world but the transition is not a smooth one.  As Sandler and Rogen take a road trip to reconnect with his former girlfriend, they become trapped in Mann's house and the film which had been moving along so quickly comes to a halt.  The supporting cast from the first half of the film virtually disappears as the film spends about 45 minutes on this doomed romance.

I admire Apatow for being so bold to make this film but I didn't love it.  While there is a lot to appreciate, I prefer the warmth of Knocked Up.

[SiliasRuby]

I think a reviewer I read on rottentomatoes captured this film really well in one sentence, 'Its as if George Carlin doctered a screenplay written by Ingmar Bergman'

[socketlevel]

i just saw it last night and kinda loved it, i think the on the road house scene runs a little long, but it's kinda an almost perfect, beautiful, sad and funny film that doesn't leave any tears.  cuz who says you gotta be blown away with either the sadness or jokes.  it shouldn't always be about bigger and more improved, because i don't think this film was aiming for the fences.  it works for what it is, and i think it's one of the year's best.

[Neil]

I think a reviewer I read on rottentomatoes captured this film really well in one sentence, 'Its as if George Carlin doctered a screenplay written by Ingmar Bergman'

I'm not sure what this means. But i think i would love this film as well...The movie is easily apatows best film.  Capturing real life in a sense that not many people can, or are able to do.  I definitely agree with john in the fact that the film works really well, just presenting life, and the humor that can be find in simple things. and the fact that there really wasn't some gimmick gag ( i suppose other than the stand up stint, which i feel on one hand was 100% appropriate). Socket  kills it, i agree. they don't play too hard or overdue the serious themes involved that way it doesn't take a turn towards 'melo drama' or whatever.

I do disagree with you however about it being a swing for the fences.  Judd really fucking swung for the fences considering his past works...now that rotten tomatoes quote is starting to make sense. However swinging for the fences doesn't mean sending the audience out with some some grandiose over improved whatever (refering to

it shouldn't always be about bigger and more improved, because i don't think this film was aiming for the fences

I just think breaking his mold gimmick gags with hipster humor in this way was a swing for the fences.

To me the previous apatow films had heart, just more humor, this had pure heart, and the humor is sprinkled on top.

any way. loved the fucking film. i'll come back with my gripes soon as i see it again, i'm just not sure about whole love issue ending...I suppose is fucking blunt real life though, so maybe i'll have very little cripes.

[socketlevel]

i see what you're saying and agree, i guess i meant swinging for the fences in a lustrous way.  it's not attempting to be THE funniest or THE most emotional, it's more organic which i like.

i don't know what hipster means where you're from, but in Toronto hipster and apatow never meet.  everything hipster lacks humor over here,  to be hipster in toronto is to be post-post modern and insecure...  they def don't have the authority or creativity for humor

just kidding

[Neil]

You are correct in that lack of just about everything including humor regarding any kind of "hipster" whatever. That was just a quick type and a misrepresentation about what i was getting at.

Judd is telling me either he's fucking hip or his characters are, and he uses his sets to prove it.  Granted, i have posters up in my apartment at the time, and will probably have these kinds of things hung up in all of my places of residence in the future, i just don't know if he's doing it to add "realness" or to pay homage.  But whether it's steadmen(sp?) Belushi, topher grace or whoever.  (Some of those from knocked up other from funny people) or whatever, might come close to being just kind of college kids me in the wrong way.  I get it, he's hip with the cool shit. I was kind of referring to that.  However typing all this out has made me pretty aware that 40 year old virgin didn't do much of that (did it?) and knocked up was supposed to give me a "college type" (or adolescent) view of things.  So maybe it works, and i just need to shut it

Point: Hipsters (whatever those/they are) are not funny.

still a fan of this film, and say people should see it.  and i think i have apatow poster envy   

[SiliasRuby]

He said in interviews that it was a homage and that he felt that aspiring comics would probably have those specific posters and pieces of art on the wall.

[MacGuffin]

Judd Apatow's 'Funny People' takes a serious risk
The director says he wants it to be as funny as his previous films, but deeper.
By John Horn; Los Angeles Times

The Improv was packed with prominent wisecrackers, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill among them. But as writer-director Judd Apatow was filming one "Funny People" scene at the Hollywood comedy club, the laughs were few and far between.

Apatow was more than halfway through principal photography last December, and like many scenes in his movie about a comedian's brush with mortality, Sandler's character George Simmons wasn't in a joking mood. Instead, he was having an uncomfortable encounter with his assistant, an aspiring stand-up named Ira Wright, played by Rogen.

"Really go at him," Apatow coached Sandler.

The 41-year-old filmmaker wanted Simmons to dissect Wright's comedy act, and Apatow didn't want the criticisms to be constructive -- they needed to be personal, cutting, egotistic. "George could never be more self-involved," Apatow said during a break in filming. "He never tells Ira anything that can help his act."

Apatow has become a self-titled Hollywood franchise thanks to exactly the opposite kind of behavior.

His hit comedies (Apatow directed "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and produced "Pineapple Express," "Superbad" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," among others) may be filled with raunchy dialogue, carnal quests and in-your-face nudity, but at their center are surprisingly sweet heroes and heroines.

A different formula

"Funny People," opening Friday, incorporates the trademark Apatow pageant of F-bombs and penis jokes, but its central character is scarcely as likable as his other central characters: In fact, Simmons is a misanthrope. Faced with a potentially terminal diagnosis, Simmons attempts to reevaluate his narcissistic life and the people he has wronged with very limited results.

It's a curious, pricey ($75 million) departure for Apatow, and more than a few people in town have called it his "Jim Brooks movie," a reference to the director of "Terms of Endearment."

"Funny People" represents an awkward marketing challenge for Universal Pictures, in the midst of a lackluster stretch that includes the outright bust "Land of the Lost," the fast-falling "Brüno" and the expensive but modestly successful "Public Enemies."

Early "Funny People" reviews have been sharply polarized, and not as favorable as the notices for the director's "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," both of which grossed more than $100 million in domestic theaters. Universal hopes the film could gross as much as $25 million in its opening weekend (right between "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up"), but positive word of mouth will be critical to ensure the film plays for more than a few weeks.

Universal's "Funny People" marketing campaign has not shied from the film's blood-disease plot line.

"Our establishing trailer did not attempt to hide it in any way, shape or form," said Adam Fogelson, the studio's marketing and distribution chief. "We haven't tried to avoid the fact that he's been diagnosed with a terminal illness -- or that he's been told he's actually going to be fine."

The studio's 30-second television spots tell a slightly different story. They have been focused more on comic banter with Sandler, Rogen and Hill. "We're definitely showing the breadth of the cast," Fogelson said. "But we also have spots that show what it's like to be at the top, and what it's like to be at the bottom."

Back on set at the Improv (where Sandler performed early in his career), Apatow was looking at what it's like to be in the middle.

Rogen's Wright, having served (and been beaten down) as Simmons' assistant, was trying to establish his own stand-up act. A steady stream of prurient gags wasn't wowing the crowd, and one bit about his testicles might have been stolen from another comedian. Simmons told Wright he had to stop telling the joke.

As cameras rolled, Apatow shouted out lines of new dialogue.

"Who is your audience going to be?" Simmons asked Wright, parroting Apatow's improvisation. "People with weird-colored penises?"

As Apatow's story has it, Simmons had been a talented performer who made a string of commercially successful but insipid movies, including one in which his adult head was digitally added to a baby's body. Simmons lives in a palatial compound and has casual sex with random women. But he has no real friends, and no direction.

When he is diagnosed with a potentially fatal ailment, Simmons returns to stand-up, delivering a tortured set about mortality. Wright, who's next on stage, ridicules the act. Rather than be offended, Simmons invites Wright into his life -- or what passes for it. With Wright's encouragement, Simmons tries to atone for some of his past and present behavior, but the results are not inspiring.

"It's a mentor story," Apatow said as his crew moved on for another shot. "It's a disease movie. It's a coming-of-age movie. It's a movie about trying to restart an old romance. It's 11 different movies rolled into one."

Apatow said the movie was vaguely inspired by a stroke of luck that might have saved his own life. He had bought a new home but procrastinated about moving in. During the Northridge earthquake, the chimney and roof crushed the unoccupied master bedroom.

"And I thought, 'Now I'm really going to appreciate life,' " Apatow said. "And I did for about 10 days. The tendency is to go back and be normal -- the way you always were. Sandler's character doesn't know how to lead an emotionally healthy life. So he starts making a series of terrible mistakes."

Unlike "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," those errors don't involve harmless missteps like having a hairy chest waxed. The blunders in "Funny People" include alienating loved ones, attempting to ruin a marriage and treating the one person who cares about him -- Wright -- despicably. "It's a demented 'Tuesdays With Morrie,'" Apatow said, comparing the film to the inspirational bestseller about a terminally ill man. "What if you couldn't learn any of the important lessons?"

Funny and serious

The comedy club setting was similarly inspired by Apatow's early career, when he wrote jokes for Garry Shandling, Jim Carrey and Roseanne and Tom Arnold. The filmmaker was also Sandler's roommate for more than a year in the 1990s, and "Funny People" opens with a shaky video of a much-younger Sandler and Apatow making crank phone calls from their apartment.

Apatow said making sure "Funny People's" tone consistent was among his greatest hurdles.

"It's a challenge to make a movie that is about some of the more serious aspects of life while trying to make it just as funny as the other movies I've worked on," Apatow said. "You're always terrified of making a bad movie -- the humiliation is too much to bear -- that you always try your hardest. Everything I work on is something I want to see.

"I'm trying things I've never tried before," he said. "I'd like this to be funny as anything else I've done, but to go a little deeper."

[pete]

I liked this movie a lot.  I would disagree with the posters thing earlier because his characters aren't really represented by what they wear or what kinda stuff they like - they are represented by the jokes they tell and the career/ romantic decisions they make.
I liked it a lot.  I'll write more about it.