Image via New York Post

So, where do you even start a review of a movie that stopped world news and got the attention of the President of the United States? Just focus on the movie, that’s the mantra. Just focus on the movie. Let’s see how far that gets us.

The Interview, the second film directed by writing duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, has caused a huge a stir (Damn! Broke it already!). When you see what all the fuss is about, you might realize that people are really good at getting offended before getting the full story. Political satire has been around since humans were grunting at each other in caves, so making a movie poking fun at Kim Jong-Un shouldn’t feel that radical. 

But let’s get back to that later. I don’t want this review to become about everything around the movie, rather than about the movie itself, because Rogen and Goldberg are smart enough to give us a lot to talk about. In The Interview, Rogen doesn’t smoke a single joint or crack a joke about his Jewish background. It is nice to see him leave his comfort zone, but luckily, he doesn’t venture too far away from it.

In The Interview, Rogen plays Aaron Rapaport, a producer on a light-hearted entertainment news show with a “gotcha!” spin to it. Host Dave Skylark (James Franco) is great at getting entertainers to reveal big secrets. He would probably make a great journalist if he only had a brain. While Dave is content with his work, Aaron dreams of doing something that is more important. When an offer to interview Kim Jong-un comes across his desk, he gladly accepts it. As satire of entertainment journalism, it works fairly well, as it gets to the root of every journalist who ends up focusing on the wrong part of every story.

The film gets off to a bit slow start out of the gate, but at 112 minutes long, this is a marathon, not a sprint, of a comedy. Most of the scenes before the film gets to North Korea focus on a sort of bromance between Dave and Aaron. If the film simply focused on that and had not taken the characters out of New York and into Pyongyang, then that would have been enough. However, Rogen and Goldberg have certainly said their piece about male friendship through movies like Superbad and This Is the End, so it is refreshing to see that The Interview focuses more on an unbreakable professional bond. Despite his status as one of the biggest comedy stars in Hollywood, Rogen is always willing to play the straight man. Franco, who is sometimes known as the self-serious artist, has no problem playing the nutcase. Both these actors play against type so well and mesh perfectly together.

The real scene-stealer here is Randall Park as Kim Jong-un. This is the kind of role that will probably land him a ton of work in the future. He gives the feared North Korean dictator the kind of three dimensionality you might not even see in an Oscar begging genre. He plays him as somebody who is really evil but also somebody who just want to be one of the guys. If the Golden Globes weren’t a complete fraud, then they would have nominated him for Best Actor.

Given the events of the past week, The Interview has been under more pressure than ever to be this mind-blowing satire that blows the lid off this whole Communist Cult of Personality thing. Bad news: it does not. Good news: that does not make it a failure. The idea that North Korea is a sad, impoverished nation under a shoddy facade of happiness is something that was covered excellently by Vice. The idea that Kim Jong-un just wants to please his dead father was basically assumed the moment he took power in Pyongyang.

Instead of hoping for the next Dr. Strangelove, let’s embrace The Interview for being a solid action comedy. While it does not top This Is the End, The Interview proves that Rogen and Goldberg are two of the best comedy directors working today. Cinephiles beware, with its hyper-kinetic violence and history-bending twist, The Interview takes more cues from Inglourious Basterds and Sam Peckinpah than Knocked Up or Superbad. This is not to say that they have abandoned all of their principles, just that they are exploring new territory.

The Interview also shows how much this pair knows how to write and film comedy. I appreciate the first half of this film even more after seeing how much of it converges in the grand finale. Normally, the use of pop songs in a film can be an annoying crutch, as if to profit off something that is already profitable. Here, the use of one certain pop hit helps to create a genius comedic sight gag. Some idiots tried to ruin it on the internet before any of us even got to see the film, but nobody was able to do the irony justice.

Years down the road, once the hype has dissipated, we might see The Interview in a completely different light. But if you are going to sit down to watch it, whether on YouTube or at your local art house theater, I beg you not to look at it as some courageous act of patriotism. Rather, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the sight of a grown man shitting his pants.

ABOUT THE ENDING (SPOILER ALERT DUH): Part of me really wishes the film ended with the image of Aaron and Dave sitting on that boat, floating out to sea. Look, I understand that you have to wrap everything up, and people would be furious if they didn’t get to see Dave finally write his tell-all while Aaron Skypes with his North Korean girlfriend (great way to bring back what seemed like a throwaway line). But that ending just seems too neat, and seeing everything in North Korea be tied up with a nice bow feels just the slightest bit contrived. So why not just have the two of them sitting on a boat together, wondering what the hell is going to happen next?

I only want to see this more now. Image via Screencrush

A few weeks ago, following threats from North Korea over the upcoming release of The Interview, Sony’s records were hacked and a shit storm commenced. What was once both harmless and hilarious in a voyeuristic way has now become a disaster that has nearly brought an entire studio to its knees. Oh, the hyperbole!

It all started when a steady stream of the leaked information was released by the media. Nobody seemed to have a problem with it at all. This week, after a series of hacked emails started to personally affect people’s careers, the backlash began. On Sunday, Aaron Sorkin penned a letter in the New York Times that mainly blames the media for distributing this stolen information and thus giving more power to the criminals who stole the information in the first place. You’re not wrong, Aaron Sorkin, but it seems a little convenient to post a critique of the media on the exact same day that your show The Newsroom, which is a critique of the media, was having its series finale.

While the idea that anything I write privately could be shown to the world terrifies me deeply, that doesn’t mean that I am not amused by any of the leaked information. On a purely objective scale, this has provided the most in-depth look at the movie industry in a long time. A lot of modern entertainment journalism is basically glorified PR.  Just look at the email chain between Scott Rudin, Amy Pascal, and several others regarding the planned Steve Jobs biopic. It shows that making a movie is hard and before anyone can even set up a single light kit, a bunch of producers, agents, and studio executives have to yell at each other for a while. This is a narrative we never see, and it is much more interesting than any DVD commentary where the actors pat themselves on the back.

Seriously, I don’t feel good about having seen any of this. In the end, the big names are going to be fine. Every celebrity who was insulted will have a box of chocolates and a Lamborghini waiting for them at their door step. However, I don’t know if I can say the same for many of the other people who would not make headlines that were impacted by this horrible cyber security attack. Show business is big, and there are countless production assistants, marketing directors, and accountants employed by Sony who are probably living in fear right now. But I am not a good person; I laughed hearing what everybody thought of Adam Sandler. I then laughed seeing Channing Tatum’s email about 22 Jump Street. And I laughed even harder seeing a powerpoint of themes in the Smurfs movie. Even Tropic Thunder couldn’t come up with something that good.

Maybe this all shows that there needs to be more transparency in Hollywood. That is not to say that all private emails should be made public. It just seems strange that a business filled with public figures should be so heavily guarded. I also don’t think it is completely fair to pin this all on journalists. Freedom of speech is endangered as is, and this whole event seems like another excuse to limit it. Let’s not use this as a way to forward agendas. Speaking of agendas, one actually useful piece of information this hack revealed: Sony’s close relation with the MPAA. Stopping piracy is a good thing, but seeing how close studios are to the ratings board worries me. You see, some of this actually is news that can start useful conversations.

This is all over the place. I have no idea what I am saying. This is a mess. Studio executive is turning against studio executive, and journalist is turning against journalist over our inability to just look away when some forbidden fruit comes to light. The hackers wanted chaos and in that regard, they have won. I think we all need to take a moment to give Sony credit. They are literally putting everything on the line for a bold and original idea. This kind of risk-taking doesn’t happen that often in Hollywood anymore. It is sad to think that after this, they might have to go back to banking on safer bets like Smurfs sequels so that hey don’t piss off anymore angry despots.

In the meantime, while the hackers cause chaos, let’s throw it back in their face. As the world burns, we can all just sit back and laugh at the fact that terrorists want to wage a war over a comedy that has a Guy Fieri cameo in it.

Here’s an interesting perspective on the leaks from Time.

Disclaimer: It has not been 100% confirmed that this leak has anything to do with North Korea. But…come on.

For the record, this poster is awesome. Image via Screen Crush

In response to the recent trailer for Seth Rogen’s upcoming The Interview (which looks amazing), Kim Jong-un released a statement from Pyongyang condemning the film. Okay, that makes sense, as I wouldn’t like a film about my death either. Then, he went so far as to call the movie “an act of war” and that America would be in big trouble if they supported it. It is probably important to note that Seth Rogen co-directed The Interview with Evan Goldberg, and it is probably even more important to note that Rogen is actually Canadian.

Rogen responded to the statement with a statement of his own:

His response is purposefully a little cheesy, but it’s also the best thing he could have possibly said to Dennis Rodman’s BFF. Seth Rogen is a comedian, and during a bad time, a comedian’s job is not to run towards the chaos but rather to laugh in the face of it. Laughter gives power to the powerless, because even the best comedian knows that they too are defenseless in the grand scheme of things.

I am not an expert in foreign relations, but I can tell you that North Korea’s regime is one of the most frightening out there, mostly because it is shrouded in mystery. While Bin Laden would release videos of himself ranting against the western world, Kim Jong-il would simply put on a pair of sunglasses and silently smile as his million man army marched past him. Forgive me for sounding like an idiot, but constructing a joke might be the closest thing we have to figuring out life’s biggest mysteries.

Something that struck me most about Kim Jong-un’s claims is that I feel like I have heard them before. That is because, like most things in life, South Park already did it. The genius two part episode “Cartoon Wars” from over two years ago depicted a scenario in which Family Guy  was going to show Muhammad. Al-Qaeda threatened retaliation, and once the cartoon aired, this is how they fought back:

Now, when I hear Kim Jong-un issuing a huge threat, all I can imagine is this, and it makes all of the fears of a possible World War III go away. Then I can go back to living my life and look at pictures of French Bulldogs on Tumblr. It is similar to how Team America forever associated Kim Jong-il with a mispronunciation of the word “lonely.”* Sure, Kim Jong-un could act on his threats, but I doubt he would kickstart the apocalypse over a comedy starring James Franco. Recently, John Oliver said in an interview that he didn’t fear calling out dictators, because they probably don’t watch his show anyway. The former part of his statement is true, but the latter may not be. After all, men like Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad may be morons, but they are also egomaniacs with too much power. I am sure they have somebody checking their Google Alerts for them.

This is exactly why we need people like Seth Rogen, John Oliver, and Matt Stone & Trey Parker. They drag these elusive figures down to a human level by showing what buffoons they truly are. Kim Jong-un probably fancies himself King Arthur, but he’s more like King Joffrey. So Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg: do not be afraid. You are not “gangster filmmakers,” but rather good men using comedy to perform a public service.

Oh, and this is probably the best free publicity that Seth Rogen could have asked for. Thanks to Kim Jong-un, The Interview will probably open number one at the box office. See? Even bad press that might lead to war can be used to increase revenue!

P.S. Kim Jong-il was famously a huge film buff who was obsessed with Hollywood movies. He even wrote a book on the subject, entitled On the Art of the Cinema, which you can buy on Amazon.

*Hey, Kim Jong-il never complained about that once. Also, Team America doesn’t get the credit that it deserves.