Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids is a wedding comedy from 2011. The main character, a thirty-something named Annie’s (Kristen Wiig) life is falling apart. Despite her love for baking, her retail cake shop failed miserably, leaving her finances in bad shape. She now works a dead-end job as a jewelry store clerk, which she loathes. She is also forced to share an apartment with two bizarre roommates, who don't respect her personal space. On top of that, she is in a dysfunctional “friends with benefits” relationship with misogynistic Ted, who treats her solely as a last-resort sex partner. The only positive aspect of her life at the moment is when she finds out that her best friend Lillian of 16 years is getting married. Annie is initially happy for her, however, soon things take a turn for the worst when Annie starts to become overtaken with jealousy. As Annie observes Lillian’s wedding party, she feels inferior.  The other bridesmaids are all wealthy and married, both things that Annie is not, and she envies this. One of the bridesmaids in particular, Helen (Rose Byrne), really gets under Annie’s skin, and competition for Lillian’s affection and attention ensues.

As Annie seems to be losing the competition for being crowned Lillian’s maid of honor at every turn, another positive change enters her life in the form of police officer Nathan Rhodes. She becomes infatuated with him initially, however eventually gives up on the relationship due to the other failures in her life. As Annie continues to try to one-up Helen, she keeps pushing herself further and further away form Lillian. She suffers a mental breakdown, and struggles to turn her life back around, since she has left a train of ruins. However in the end, she is able to make it up to Lillian, as well as Rhodes, and the wedding party is brought closer together as they finally learn to co-exist peacefully.

The Comedy of Judd Apatow

There is nobody I can think of that can make people laugh the way Judd Apatow can.  As a director, producer, and writer of many hit films like The 40-year-old Virgin, Anchorman, Knocked Up, Bridesmaids, and most recently, This is 40, Judd has become a comedy juggernaut within the industry.  His success in this particular genre is one for special recognition, for comedy is no easy task to conquer.  You must have a good well thought out script and characters.  You must have good actors who have comedic ability for the specific part that will carry the jokes or comedic moments throughout the film. Its not as easy as it sounds, which is why you hear of so very few comedy actors/ actresses, and directors.  So how does Judd Apatow do it? What makes his films so continuously successful? 

Life is Comedy

“I’m just trying to tell the truth about, you know, the struggle of-- being alive is funny, it's just inherently tragic and also hilarious--in a fun way and in a sad way. That seems to connect with people.” - Apatow

Judd doesn’t make comedy just through jokes, he finds comedy through life struggles dealing with things like family, relationships, work, and even death.  His stories are made to relate to real life struggles of the average person’s life and to do the things in life most of us want to do or say but cant out of social expectations.  He uses touchy topics that are generally not funny in reality but uses that drama to turn it into something that is acceptable and hilariously funny. Life and it’s unfortunate dealings are his main mechanism.  It gives us something that feels real, and makes light of otherwise sad/bad things in life. Here are some examples:

The 40 year-old Virgin

The title alone is enough to grab your attention. 40?...Virgin?...What! Most cant believe those two things are in the same sentence. It brings comedy all its own. Based on the journey of a 40 year-old guy named Andy (Steve Carell) to finally lose his virginity through the help of his friends, he struggles to find a girl and or find one of his liking, and his ignorance and awkwardness about sex becomes comedy gold.  Steve Carell embodies the character so perfectly as well as contains the necessary comedic talent, his timing and expressions brought the character and great writing to life.

Knocked Up

A drunken one-night stand that was generally supposed to stay that way unexpectedly takes a turn as Alison finds out a few weeks later that she is expecting.  The couple isn’t shy of the usual cliché you see in many movies and on television. Alison is tall, thin, blonde, smart, and successful, while Ben is a lazy, overweight, stoner who lives with his no-good friends and does nothing but sit around all day and they must find a way to work it out together.  As a journalist on the brink of a career break through with E! News, Alison is now faced with a whole new challenge as she must deal with telling her brand new employers her situation, as well as personally with dealing with Ben and her new reality of a baby on the way. This unlikely love story paves way for comedy as it is sweet, but not too sweet, and unrefined but not too raunchy, but is simply honest and realistic. The movie shows struggles with relationships, commitment, trust, getting old, and growing up which most, if not all couples, come across at one point or another. Also, it is the dirty humor and profanity, of which Judd is known for mastering, that sets the fuel to the fire that makes this movie such a comedic hit. 

This is 40

A sequel to Knocked Up, we are brought inside the life of Pete and Debbi and their struggles to keep their family together. Their sex life is strained, their kids hate each other, their businesses are failing, and they are on the verge of loosing their house.  As you can imagine with these deep scenarios, Judd made this into one of the best comedies yet.  Its very realistic, yet its one of those movies that takes things two step further solely for the comedic effect.  And Melissa McCarthy makes an appearance, so no explanation needed there.  Nothing is held back, in fact you get the sense of that straight from the beginning when it opens with an argument about Viagara. Its candid, funny, and emotional, all at the same time. It is a unique twist on the average middle-aged couple and family and highlights every aspect you could possibly imagine.

Judd has the ability to know what is too little and too much without pushing it too far.  He breaks social barriers of society by voicing scenarios through his characters that many people wish were acceptable in real life. I really enjoy his films and look forward to his new projects. 

Who Said Women Werent Funny?

After seeing the very funny movie Bridesmaids featuring Kristen Wiig, star from the hit comedy show Saturday Night Live, I knew this film would have an interesting yet big impact on the entertainment industry.  Kristen’s character Annie, as well as her co-stars Melissa McCarthy (Megan), Maya Rudolph (Lillian), and Rose Byrne (Helen) together create such an ensemble in which each characters’ uniquely developed personalities contributed to the recipe of comedy perfection.  With comedy expert and producer Judd Apatow and director Paul Feig also on the team, this film lead to break several barriers in terms of social norms specifically in terms of societies perception of women.  It relieves the always perfect, put-together image we are so used to seeing on the big screen and portrays the very vulnerable, more unguarded reality through frequent profanity and scenes relating to unusually spoken about or seen bodily functions if you will.  Nonetheless, this movie has become the foundation for women in comedy for future productions and even current movies such as The Heat.

            Also directed by Paul Feig, The Heat, takes us to a whole new level of comedy.  I can honestly say I have never seen a movie more funny than this one.  The jokes and sarcasm are endless and the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy is brilliant.  Id recommend everyone to check it out because I guarantee you will laugh at one point or another.  The characters, of which they play, are quite unfiltered and keep surprising you with clever remarks from opening scene to finishing credits.

Bridesmaids

When I first saw that there was a new bridesmaid-theme movie coming out I decided I would not be caught in that theater. I was actually thinking it was going to be like that movie with Raven Simone...

But then my friends convinced me to go see it.

It is basically the female version of the Hangover...but honestly I laughed more than I did at the guys and their Las Vegas antics. From the trailer you can see how it is a romantic comedy, but it proves itself to be one step above the rest with the wedding dress and airplane scene.

What makes this movie so great for me was that it was full of fantastic female comedians. They own their roles and hit the nail right on the head every time. Maybe this is a little bit of the feminist inside of me peeking out, but I LOVE seeing women pull off a comedy like this.

It also gave me some hope for SNL. Even though the show is pretty far from it's glory days in the 1970's, they still have some amazing talent working for them. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolf absolutely kill in in this movie, and in almost all other roles I have seen them in. It was so refreshing to see a romantic comedy take such a perfectly hilarious twist.

If you still have not seen it, I highly recommend it.

:)