‘Zack and Miri make a porno’ or “Kevin Smith makes a Judd Apatow film?” (Review)
Directed by Kevin Smith
Screenplay by Kevin Smith
Starring – Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson, Brandon Routh, Katie Morgan, Ricky Mabe, Traci Lordes and Justin Long
Many people in the online community and film fans alike know of Kevin Smith. I’ll even wager many of them consider themselves to be Kevin Smith fans. I know I do. I think he’s an incredibly talented screenwriter. He has such a knack for writing crude, yet moving dialogue. I’ll even stand by ‘Jersey Girl’ not being a terrible movie; I actually liked it for what it was. As many people as there are who know of Smith and are fans of his work, they are far out-numbered by those who have never heard of him. Kevin Smith is not a household name, and I don’t think he’ll ever reach that status. Kevin Smith has been doing what he does for a while now and it unfortunately it seems with the release of ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’ he is clearly envious of filmmaker, Judd Apatow. Smith always made crude films that had heart to them. Judd Apatow took that same formula and made it mainstream. Kevin Smith was making what we considering “The Apatow comedy” before Judd Apatow was a name. Apatow didn’t improve upon the formula, he just took it mainstream and obtained the type of fame that Smith still desires. Take note, I’m writing this and I’m a big Kevin Smith fan. By casting Apatow poster-boy, Seth Rogen in his new film, it’s almost as if Smith wanted to be part of the club and share the success. Instead of continuing on with this typical ventures that work for his audience he is trying to grab a piece of the mainstream success cake.
There isn’t another movie this year to be released with a truer title. ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’ is exactly what the title describes. Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) set out to make a porno in order to pay their overdue bills. The characters of Zack and Miri are the typical Kevin Smith slacker-type characters that after graduating high school stuck around town. Zack and Miri have been platonic friends since elementary school and are now roommates. Miri works at the mall and Zack works at a Starbucks-like coffee shop. They share a derelict apartment and car. They are both crass and open characters that are likable but they are characters you’ve seen before. Zack is the typical Seth Rogen arch-type, and Miri is the awkward-but-likeable slutty girl. Banks works in the role of Miri, and looks miraculously put together for someone living in near poverty conditions.
The amusing opening, where Zack and Miri attend their 10th-year high school reunion, features a notably hilarious scene involving Brandon Routh and Justin Long as an descriptively arguing gay couple. The crux of the story revolves around how Zack and Miri are going to pay their mounting electric and water bills after their utilities get shut off. Once the two hapless friends decide to set out and make a porn starring themselves and they must get their film financed. This is where Zack’s work friend Delaney (Craig Robinson) comes into play. Robinson is one of the most entertaining characters in ‘Zack and Miri’ as a married man who wants nothing more than to see another woman naked. Robinson also has some of the best lines in the whole film and steals nearly every scene he’s in. Rounding out the supporting cast with is the cameraman, Deacon (played by a very out of place Jeff Anderson who seems like the old man of the film contrasted against the younger a cast). And of course Zack and Miri can’t be the only performers in this production. Smith made an interesting creative decision (maybe not the best one though) casting actual porn actors in his film as amateur porn stars. Former pornstar Traci Lordes and current pornstar Katie Morgan both put on adequate performances. And no Kevin Smith film would be complete without Jason Mewes playing a supporting character and exposing himself.
For a film with a simple premise it’s only about the last 2/3 of the film that focus on the make-a-porn plot. Typically things are not as simple as they appear. When it comes down to the two life-long friends having sex on camera the out-of-left-field (but obvious) romantic subplot is introduced and we get the real conflict of the film, including an obviously placed song from the band ‘Live’.
The story is what it is. You can’t expect a lot from a film with “make a porno” in the title. Still, that doesn’t mean there should be lacking characters, especially for a Kevin Smith film. I love how Smith handles dialogue but here it felt sloppy and unoriginal. It’s a demonstration of how many conjugations of cock and balls Smith could create. There are some jokes that are just racially offensive for no good reason and others that fall short and don’t make sense. It’s puzzling for such a talented screenwriter to put out such hackneyed work. One of Kevin Smith’s strengths of creating dialogue is that he could have two characters talking about some of the filthiest things imaginable but he wouldn’t actually show it on screen. Here it seems as if he was too lazy to write that scene and just wanted to have one intense gross-out moment for people to walk away with. The gross-out moment in question revolving around Katie Morgan’s character you can see coming a mile away- it’s comical but not original and is one of the best “gross-out moments” in film this year.
With this cast being one associated with Apatow-produced comedies, where they improv large parts of their material, the dialogue feels stiff here. Kevin Smith reported that he has wanted to work with Seth Rogen since he watched ‘The 40 Year-old Virgin’, and I’m still skeptical of that statement. I think that was his way of casting a popular Apatow star to capitalize on his success. It’s arguable that by choosing to cast Rogen in his film instead of one of the typical actors he usually works with, Smith unknowingly set out to make a Judd Apatow film. I find Seth Rogen enjoyable but his one-note characters are getting old and I think he’s verging on over-exposure. ‘Zack and Miri’ wasn’t promoted as a Kevin Smith film because in the studios eyes it was undoubtedly a Seth Rogen film.
There was a time in Kevin Smith’s career where he kept pushing himself into new territory with each new film he did, and for whatever reason he’s lost that forward-momentum. ‘Chasing Amy’ and ‘Dogma’ each pushed Smith into new areas, but since those films he’s been playing it safe. Lately he’s simply stopped growing as a filmmaker. This pains me since I am a Kevin Smith devotee. I can’t drink the punch he’s serving this time around and say that this is a good film. It’s decent. That’s really about it. Don’t be fooled by the devoted, disillusioned Smith fans who say that this is one of the best films of his career. It isn’t. Kevin Smith is a filmmaker capable of so much more but he’s a filmmaker scared of leaving his comfort zone, which is unfortunate, because when he is brave enough to do that he creates his best work.
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