I recommend Observe and Report not because it’s funny (it isn’t really), but because it actually did remind me of such early Scorsese pictures like Taxi Diriver, Raging Bull, and especially The King of Comedy. Plus it also contains the first definitive proof that Seth Rogan can act.
Observe and Report is by no means a mainstream Seth Rogen comedy. It is a jet-black comedy about desperate and delusional people. It was written and directed by Jody Hill, who had previously made The Foot Fist Way, a movie about a bullying kung fu instructor played by Danny McBride. Like the main character in that movie, Seth Rogen’s mall cop (named Ronnie Barnhardt) is a none-too-bright aggressive and self-important asshole. He finds some purpose when a pervert starts flashing people in the parking lot, including the woman he has a crush on, a dimwitted ditz named Brandi (played courageously by Anna Faris) that sells cosmetics. What is Ronnie Barnhardt going to do? In his own words, spoken to a news reporter, he’s going to “Murder the M*****F*****!!!” And he means it. What becomes apparent very quick is that Ronnie is a seriously disturbed individual. Disturbed to the point that the laughs in this supposed comedy are quickly stifled and replaced with nervous tittering and incredulous ‘Did they just go there?’ knee-jerk reactions.
It sometimes amazes me whom the movies can make me empathize with. Ronnie Barnhardt is not a good person. He beats up skateboarders, he yells at children, he calls a Middle Eastern vendor Saddam Hussein, and I’m pretty sure you can classify what he does to Brandi as date rape. (I’m very surprised that scene is being treated as supposedly funny by the trailers. It’s not funny in the movie, and I don’t think it was really meant to be anything than the inevitable conclusion to a date between two very flawed people. If anyone is laughing, I think it’s simply not to cry. Which is what I believe is the natural reaction people have to most black comedies). But this movie also instills in Ronnie’s thick skull certainly noble, yet delusional ideas. Like Don Quixote he seems to be on some sort of incredible quest against imaginary forces. He’s sees himself as the guardian of all the very weak other people in mall. Who’s he fighting? Well, there’s the pervert and a robber, but his biggest enemy seems to be the actual police. Ray Liotta plays a cop who becomes Ronnie’s object of scorn simply because he steals his thunder by invading his jurisdiction. According to Ronnie he is completely incompetent. In reality, of course, it’s Ronnie who’s incompetent, but the guy is so far gone any polite attempts to explain that to him falls on deaf ears. So what Liotta eventually does is drop Ronnie off on an incredibly dangerous street corner in the middle of the night. This is where the movie first got scary because the story had instilled so much blind stupidity and aggressive stubbornness in this character that I thought it somewhat inevitable that Ronnie would get seriously injured or killed. And that’s when it hit me. I actually cared whether Ronnie would get killed or not. Somehow, Hill’s story and Rogen’s acting made me care about this guy. He certainly deserved everything he got, but I secretly wanted him to succeed and you know be happy.
Jody Hill must know someone like this because I sense that this movie isn’t entirely making fun of Ronnie Barnhardt. There is genuine concern for this guy. One scene is especially telling: Liotta tells Ronnie that he can’t be a cop because he failed his psychiatric evaluation. Another cop hides in the closet because he thinks it’s going to be funny. But seeing Ronnie’s dreams fall apart isn’t funny, it’s just sad, and the guy admits that as he leaves.
I compare this movie to those early Scorsese pictures because they all are candid and unflinching portraits about irredeemable people. The big difference is that Jody Hill is not as good a technical director as Scorsese is, but the picture’s heart is in the right place.
Until this movie Seth Rogen had never really played a character, only versions of himself. In a way this is the first serious role he’s ever had. I think it does an good job. Whether, like Adam Sandler who proved he could act in Punch Drunk Love and then went straight back to dumb comedies, it’s anyone’s guess if Seth does more roles like this. It’s good to know that he can though.
Anna Faris, one of my favorite actresses, is also very good. This is a totally fearless performance. I mean could Brandi be anymore of a stupid tramp. It just shows how delusional the Ronnie character is that he would be interested in her. As of right now, it’s the best performance by an actress this year. I’ve only seen three movies so that doesn’t say much. I’ll bring it up again if anyone else does a better job.
Another actor I’m fond of, Michael Pena, I didn’t even recognize until a long time after I left the theater. He plays Ronnie’s sleazy right hand man. I can’t believe this is the same dude who was in Crash and World Trade Center. He just seemed so noble in those films. He plays such an awful person in this movie it really is eye-opening. But hey I can say that about the entire film.
By the way, what is going on in the Great Basin lately. It seems like there’s a cinematic renaissance going on down there that excels in telling stories about desperate losers reaching for impossible dreams. In the past few years we have had Little Miss Sunshine, Hamlet 2, and now Observe and Report. I hate to say this about Arizona and New Mexico, but that godforsaken desert is the perfect location for these types of movies.
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