Eclipse of the Hunk?

• email this story
• read comments (52)
• post a comment
• 
  
  

A very significant revolutionary concept has been pushed repeatedly in films produced, written or directed by movie-comedy maestro Judd Apatow over the last three or four years, and I'm not sure it's been explained as throughly as it should be. The idea, admittedly old hat for anyone half-familiar with Apatow World, is that marginally unattractive guys -- witty stoners, clever fatties, doughy-bodied dorks, thoughtful-sensitive dweebs and bearish oversize guys in their 20s and 30s -- can be and in fact are the new "romantic leads" (for lack of a better or more appropriate term) in today's comedies.

Jonah Hill, Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Question is, what if this starts to manifest in realms outside Apatow World? Young teenage girls will always have a thing for the Zac Efrons and young Leonardo DiCaprios, but what if Hollywood, looking to follow Apatow's lead in reflecting the real-life shlumpiness of typical GenX and GenY guys, generally starts to divest itself of conventionally good-looking actors as far as the over-21 ranks are concerned? Has Apatow started something, or does he live (and create) in a world totally his own?

I got started on this after watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal, 4.18) last night. The star is the galumphy, heavy-bodied Jason Segel, and the first thing you seem him do is wiggle his breasts in front of a bathroom mirror. Not by shaking his torso, but in the same way people wiggle their nose or their ears.

I immediately went, "Oh, shit...I'm stuck with this dude for the whole film." Segel is an obviously bright guy with moderately appealing features, but he also has a chunky, blemished ass and little white man-boobs, and he could definitely use a little treadmill and stairmaster time and a serious cutback program regarding pasta, Frito scoop chips, Ben & Jerry's and Fatburger takeout. I don't relate to this shit at all, I was muttering to myself.

Judd Apatow

I'm not referring to the film itself (which everyone around me seemed to have a pretty good time with). I'm talking about the simple exercise of relating to a lead character during the first 10 or 15 minutes of a film and saying to myself, "Yeah, that's me to some extent...I'm sorta like that guy...I've been there," etc. If you can't do that, as I couldn't last night, the movie isn't going to work for you. Like, at all.

The success of Aptaow's comedies strongly suggests that most moviegoers don't have this problem. They're cool with schlumps getting the girl. Dramas are another matter, but in Apatow World, at least, moderately good-looking (or at least pleasant-featured) regular guys, neurotics or semi-smoothies who go to the gym every once in a while and maybe resemble the slightly fuller-bodied, not-quite-as-good-looking brothers of Matt Damon or Adrien Brody or Brad Pitt are totally out.

Taking their place are guys who look like real guys, which means almost never slender or buffed, and frequently chunky, overweight or obese. And usually with roundish faces with half-hearted beard growth, hair on their backs, man-boobs with tit hairs, blemishes, and always horribly dressed -- open-collared plaid dress shirts, low-thread-count T-shirts with lame-ass slogans or promotions on the chest, long shorts and sandals (or flip-flops), monkey feet, unpedicured toenails.

Dustin Hoffman, Katherine Ross in The Graduate

For better or worse, smart schlumps are the Cary Grants, Fred McMurrays, William Powells and Clark Gables in this very particular and restricted realm.

We've seen this phenomenon in six Apatow fims over the last four years -- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (in which the semi-grotesque Will Ferrell seduces Christina Applegate), The 40 Year-Old Virgin (withdrawn, socially immobile Steve Carrell emerges from shell, falls in love with Catherine Keener), Knocked up (stoner-slacker Seth Rogen beds and gradually builds a serious relationship with Katherine Heigl), Superbad (the incorrigibly nerdy Christopher Mintz-Plasse getts lucky with a hottie, Jonah Hill finds the real thing with a nice girl in Act Three), Walk Hard (John C. Reilly-as-Johnny Cash, scoring and relationship-ing over a 40-year stretch with relative ease) and the upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Segel losing a hot-blonde girlfriend, hooking up with a beautiful brunette in the same class).

What's happening here is more than just Apatow rewriting romantic movie mythology by selling variations of himself as sexually appealing. We're talking about audiences totally buying into the notion that guys who look like this actually do attract hot women of good character, go to bed with them, fall in love and all the rest of it.

Cary Grant circa 1935 or '36, painted by Kurt Kauper

Ten years ago female moviegoers, I believe, would have totally rejected this. Twenty or thirty years ago mainstream audiences would have walked out of theatres in confusion (if not disgust) if guys who look like Rogen, Segel, Hill or Mintz-Plasse got the girl. If filmmakers had tried to push this concept in movies of the '40s or '50s the House Un-American Activites Committee would have held Congressional hearings. If films of this slant had been made in the 1920s or '30s people would have seen them as tragedies or grotesque oddities in the vein of Todd Browning's Freaks.

When you think about it, the last time Hollywood said to the moviegoing public "hold on...guys who look like this can get the pretty girl and in fact do this in the real world" was 41 years ago, when the short, dweeby-Jewish Dustin Hoffman connected with Katherine Ross and bedded Anne Bancroft in The Graduate ('67).

Before that landmark Mike Nichols film male romantic leads had all been pretty much cut from the same three cloths -- traditional standard-handsome smoothies a la Cary Grant or Rock Hudson or Clark Gable, good-looking troubled moodies like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift or Frank Sinatra, or all-American sunny-personality guys like James Stewart or Van Johnson. Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock was something very new -- nice-looking but anxious, neurotic, not tall and of the Hebrew persuasion.

I don't know where else to take this idea or how to end the article, even, so I'll just kneecap it here and leave well enough alone. I only know that if I were a girl or gay and Jason Segel came up to me at a bar and tried to put the moves on, I would scrunch my face up and say, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

comment #1

rr3333 says ...

Just a crazy, wild guess but I believe Apatow's extended 15 minutes will end in 3 years ...

People will eventually tire of this schtick.

comment #2

rr3333 says ...

Jeff: You've been surrounded/hypnotized by hollywood types for way too long.

The real world is filled with the Jason Siegels and the Seth Rogen's (as in 99.9999999% of the population).

If girls were only searching for the Matt Damons, the world would be loaded with spinsters lamenting how they blew it in life.

comment #3

storymark says ...

So, Jeff doesn't relate to these normal guys, but does relate to Brad Pitt. That's hilarious.

comment #4

corey3rd says ...

It all goes back to Judd Apatow's relationship with Ron Jeremy.

comment #5

Gordie Lachance says ...

Yeah, I can't wait until Apatow's time is up, so we can get back to movies like Ace Ventura, Dumb And Dumber Zoolander and There's Something About Mary.

You know, movies we can identify with because everyone in them is retarded.

comment #6

Sean E says ...

Go easy on Jeff, guys. It's a real; concern. If Hollywood somehow becomes less shallow, less obsessed with physical perfection, there's a real possibility that Adonis-types like Jeff ( and myself) will no longer be valued as highly as they should be.

God, can you imagine being invited to a Hollywood party, and instead of a bunch of people like me and Jeff, you have to mingle with the likes of Jonah Hill or Jason Segel? (Shudder)

comment #7

George Prager says ...

It's a reaction against the rest of Hollywood, which would've thought the 1969 Redford as old and the 68 Raquel Welch as a used-up skank. At the same time, it fulfills the fantasie of Hollywood execs and agents, who look like Jonah Hill and want to date Katherine Heigl types.

comment #8

rr3333 says ...

Gordie: I like Apatow's stuff, and I hate the Dumb & Dumber flicks, but its a fact that the general populations taste in comedy changes every few years.

Back to Wells' comments for a sec: Adrien Brody?!?!??!?!? Is that your man crush for the moment? Boney guys with big schnozzes? Brody should be the leader of the McLovin crew for goodness sake.

comment #9

jason4235 says ...

Jeff, have you seen Freaks and Geeks? I'm not sure whether you'd relate to those characters any better, but that's where Apatow leads Rogen, Segel and James Franco got their starts.

comment #10

JD says ...

On a very fundamental level, I don't think Jeff understands irony. These movies aren't supposed to be about everyday situations, they're supposed to be about the complications of unusual matches, characters getting opportunities that are way out of their league, and the humor of them screwing these opportunities up, mixed with the sweetness of them occasionally doing things right and improving themselves a little bit. Also, you're basically criticizing average moviegoers for not being sufficiently superficial or deluded (on a beauty level, Jeff Wells identifies with Brad Pitt?). Ridiculous.

comment #11

DaysOfTaste says ...

I love this review.

comment #12

Dave says ...

"I immediately went, "Oh, shit...I'm stuck with this dude for the whole film." An obviously bright guy with moderately appealing features who also has a chunky, blemished ass and little white man-boobs, and who could definitely use a little treadmill and stairmaster time and a serious cutback on the pasta and the cheeseburgers. I don't relate to this shit at all, I was muttering to myself. "

Thus confirming for all we merry HE readers that Jeff doesn't have tit-hair on his moobs ;-).

A few points:
1. Jeff, you again misunderstanding the audience, sadly completely. Apatow movies are made for MEN, with some residual appeal to women. They're *male* wish fulfillment, not chick wish fulfillment.
2. Your failure to identify with the men in these movies says far more about you and who you are than it does about the (very large) audience for these films
3. Women still get romantic comedies with handsome men ALL. THE. TIME.-- who the hell goes to see Matthew McConaughey movies these days BUT giggly women hoping he has his shirt off for half the film? What else explains movies like 27 Dresses, or Without Reservations, or the career of Diane Lane?

Now, a more interesting argument can be made that the nature of male wish fulfillment has changed from "I want to be Cary Grant" to "I want to get the women that Cary Grant gets, without having to *be* Cary Grant." It's probalby a reflection on changing male attitudes on laziness, but it's also a reflection of the *real world*, where women DON'T go home to Cary Grant.

I'd say there are very few male actors today that inspire that kind of "I want to be him" wish fulfillment. Those that do-- George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington-- are rare breeds. But guess what, Jeff? They're also *superstars* because of it.

No man really wants to be a character that Seth Rogen plays. But many, many men are. We see ourselves up there in these movies and dream of getting the hot chick without having to change our farting, frat boy ways. How different is that fantasy from the studio-fed Harlequin knockoffs featuring bored housewives swept off to Tuscan villas? It's just the exact opposite side of the coin, and kudos to the likes of Apatow for inventing a market that never really existed before-- the "chick flick for guys."

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. I love the new format, but these comment boxes have GOT to go back. Too small, can barely read the text.

comment #13

scooterzz says ...

rock hudson, montgomery clift and van johnson..... well, that certainly worked out well for the ladies.....

comment #14

snoop says ...

I totally agree there’s something to the way Apatow is going about doing this stuff. Arguably it’s because usually the funny/amiable guys out there aren’t that great looking (this is often the case; think about it – from Woody Allen to Tom Hanks to Seth Rogan). I do think there are several men working proficiently in comedy who are attractive – Ben Stiller (who’s done tons of rom coms), the Wilson brothers, Vince Vaughn (usually). But the general rule of thumb is that truly beautiful men, just don’t work it well in comedy (Clooney and Pitt being an exception to this).

Still some further thoughts on your argument:

This is an improvement Hollywood has made in terms of allowing audiences to relate to their stars. Not very many people look like George Clooney, or Cary Grant and the rest of the icons you mention. Neither do you or I for that matter, and I would say most people would have a harder time relating to them instead of Steve Carrel and Seth Rogen (both of whom aren’t unattractive. In the normal world people like Carrel could get people like Keener… he’s way better looking then the guy from Into the Wild, why aren’t you commenting on him). I just think your whole view is skewed: I mean you’re the guy who sees no allure to Ellen Page, which is fine, because you’re x-years old and figure obsessed and she’s marketed toward a younger, less babe-obsessed crowd.

Romantic comedy leads have often been average looking, non-threatening Joes. Adam Sandler has been dipping into the genre for years, and he’s average looking (admittedly he’s aged well and has begun taking care of his body, but come on). John Cusack is the reigning king of these movies for the past 10 years and Tom Hanks was a master at it back in the 80s and early 90s. Both pretty normal looking. Others who’ve traveled the romantic comedy path: Michael Keaton, Dudley Moore, Billy Crystal, Albert Brooks… the list goes on. The star of the best romantic comedy of all time (arguably) is Woody Allen, a not so attractive guy. As a result, this doesn’t seem to be that shocking, and I do think people would’ve put up with these leads back in the 70’s through 90s (at least). And your belief that the last time that this happened was The Graduate is just absolutely short sighted.

One more thing: When was Brando exactly playing leads in romantic comedies. He was a heatthrob no doubt, but that’s not what were talking about here. Keep in mind that it took forever for heartthrobs like Mel Gibson and Will Smith to finally do ONE romantic comedy, when people like Hanks, Sandler and Cusack were doing several a piece.

comment #15

mitchtaylor says ...

It seems that the real problem here is not that the dudes are schlubs, but that the girls still have to look like paragons of beauty in order for the movie makers to believe they're desirable.

comment #16

tophertilson says ...

It's an extension of teen sex comedies, in which nerdy losers get the hot girls. This goes back to the 80's at least. These characters are just those characters out of high school, done with college and working in the job force.

I like Apatow's movies, I guess. But what does it say about society that former teen fantasies are now adult fantasies?

comment #17

Arran says ...

There really needs to be lines between the comments when you post. It IS rather hard to read.

I do find it sad that hyper-smart, super-fit, chiselled Jeff is finding less people to relate to in movies these days. We should ban fat and ugly people from the screen. No one wants to look at that!!!! They're unattractive and smell funny!!!!

comment #18

businesstoolz says ...

Jesus Jeff, this seems to be a running thing with you. So fucking what if someone is a little overweight. In what way does this affect your life? Get over it man. You know, actually talking to some of the human beings in Starbucks instead of blogging about how much you hate them just might do a world of good for you. Or maybe instead of spending the summer taking snap shots of the east village (dahhhling) make a trip to take snap shots of east Buffalo.

comment #19

UnChien says ...

As long as we're talking about big guys getting the hot chick. Phillip Seymore Hoffman grinding away at Marisa Tomei in Before the devil knows you're dead was semi-disturbing also.

comment #20

Mark says ...

Give equal time, Jeff, and admit that the playing field may be becoming more even. I mean last year's major breakthrough featured an 11-year boy in the role as desirable highschool jailbait. How did Jason Bateman keep a straight face in the dance scene; did they use a split screen??

And now this summer, in two MAJOR releases, Christian Bale will feign attraction for Maggie G, and Chris Noth for SJ Parker.

comment #21

televisiontears says ...

It's kinda hilarious to call wish fullfillment on Apatow. Have we forgotten that he's married to the stone fucking sexy Leslie Mann?

I'm trying not to give this redundantly spiteful post on "low-thread counters" too much attention, but I think Snoop summed it up really well. This is not a recent trend. As long as there have been romantic comedies, studios and filmmakers have been trying to cast leads who are easily identifiable to *average* people.

Snoops post pretty much negates any semblance of an idea that Jeff was going for (if there was one to begin with).

comment #22

Josh Massey says ...

Adrien Brody?

comment #23

BTS says ...

Maybe Judd is just paying it forward...ya know, he's a chubby, normal guy, scores a babe like Leslie Mann. His movies are all at once How-To's for the Un-Clooney's and cosmic Thank-You's to whomever has blessed him so...

comment #24

Dave says ...

You know, if I ever had the chance to meet Jeff, the one thing I would tell him, the one piece of advice?

"Stop looking at the world only through your eyes."

I've read HE for years. I'm pretty familiar with the current group of HE regulars, as well as the type of readers who come here.

If there's one trend that is blindingly obvious to anyone who care to read, it's that the "low thread count" thing isn't just terribly old, it's not just terribly insulting, it's also very, very wrong.

We're not a tyranny of the majority, Jeff. We are trying to *tell you something*, as people who like to read you, who enjoy your hard work and excellent film reporting and (yes) even your cultural and social observations.

But if there's one thing that unites your readership, regardless of political affiliation, it's that you really should find a way to err on the side of OPPOSING insular West Coast elitism.

Not only is it inaccurate-- which makes you wrong-- it's also tawdry and unseemly, and frankly, beneath a reporter as fucking brilliant as you are.

That, and of course, your lousy inability to accept that the word "spoiler" should go in the first paragraph of your spoiler posts. But one crusade at a time ;-).

comment #25

D.Z. says ...

I got a couple chances to see sneaks, but didn't bother.

Anyway...

Jeff: 'I only know that if I were a girl or gay and Jason Segel came up to me at a bar and tried to put the moves on, I would scrunch my face up and say, "Are you fucking kidding me?"'

He doesn't look that bad. Now if it was one of those dudes from Animal House or Bachelor Party, it'd be a different story for me.

rr: "The real world is filled with the Jason Siegels and the Seth Rogen's"

Only when you go to a bar or bowling.

"If girls were only searching for the Matt Damons, the world would be loaded with spinsters lamenting how they blew it in life."

Do LiveJournals count?

comment #26

Richardson says ...

I don't think Apatow invented this. What about Elliot Gould in the '70's?

comment #27

Jay T. says ...

I think this is really just film catching up to advertising... how many commercials have some schmuck with a hot woman, thus attracting you to buy said product? The same could be said of this trend in film...

comment #28

BurmaShave says ...

That's a strong contender for the strangest and most obsessive thing I've ever read. Good god, do you not remember Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Walter Matthau, Charles Laughton, John Goodman, Jim Belushi, Karl Malden, Chris Farley, etc? Adam Fucking Sandler?

This is especially ironic considering if you watch HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Jason Segel certainly has the most leading man potential of anyone in the Apatow stable.

comment #29

christian says ...

This post is so mind-boggingly stupid I can't begin a retort. I would suggest Jeff that you leave Hollywood and go Elsewhere for awhile. Y'know, to engage with reality. All that Starbucks is making you sour.

comment #30

dangovich says ...

I think this genre is better understood in terms of Jewish identity. In fact, "Jew gets the shiksa" is more accurate than "schlump gets the hottie" in describing these movies. Virtually all of the examples you mentioned involve that premise, and even the ones that don't were written by Jewish writers (i.e., 40 Year old Virgin). I think this is a reflection of a growing ease with being Jewish in America. In the old days, Jewish writers were more likely to adapt their ideas to fit WASPy leading man. There was a real fear of a movie coming off as "too Jewish." (there still is, to some degree). How many Jewish romantic comedy leads can you think of before The Graduate?

comment #31

George Prager says ...

We're forgetting George Segal.

comment #32

christian says ...

And Gene Wilder.

And why did Anne Bancroft marry Mel Brooks?

comment #33

scooterzz says ...

i believe cary grant was jewish...so was danny kaye, jerry lewis and tony curtis (to name just a few who didn't conceal the fact)......

comment #34

erniesouchak says ...

I agree with MitchTaylor. This would be a "revolutionary" concept of the women in Apatow's films were as schlubby as the men, but they never are. It's the ultimate loser-guy wish fulfillment and doesn't speak to ANY kind of female fantasy.

comment #35

JonQuixote says ...

10 years ago, the big Romantic Comedies featured, in the role of Leading Male...

Ben Stiller
Adam Sandler (twice)
Tom Hanks.
Robin Williams

10 years before that...
Well, Hanks and Williams were still around. But the Ben Stiller roles were being played by Billy Crystal. The Adam Sandler roles by Bill Murray.

Exactly what is Apotow doing that is revolutionary and "of this time" again?

comment #36

dixiedugan says ...

Wasn't there a discussion about just this same thing when Knocked Up was released?

Hey, I find Seth Rogen very attractive. If a guy came up to me in a bar and had the ability to make me laugh, it doesn't matter what he looks like. That's the guy I've been with for almost twenty years anyway.

comment #37

Adonis says ...

You feeling ok, Wells? It's not rocket science that awkward, unattractive teens and unattractive males of all ages want to see unattractive guys get all the hot women.

Apatow is revolutionizing the world with his "fat guys and weird guys get hot chicks" routine..."

Bill Murray always got every hot piece of ass in every film he did, etc.

The issue is just that Young men demand hot women. Repeat: Beautiful Women Only. Even in Ugly Betty, they took a pretty chick and made her ugly. Anyway, Apatow's films are indeed boyhood fantasy... for some reason Jeff doesn't quite get this.

comment #38

MilkMan says ...

I think Jay T. hit the nail on the head as to why these movies are so in right now: because they're feature length beer commercials. Everyone assumes that ads are behind the curve in our culture, but au contraire mon frere, ads are the motherfucking vanguard. Read your Thomas Frank.
And let me know when the most beautiful women start dating guys that look like Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen. Have you seen a pic of Rogen's real life g.f.? She's a woofer. Case closed. Resume your fantasy lives.

comment #39

The Winchester says ...

If it wasn't for a slightly passing resemblence to Seth Rogen, I would never have a date. I'm telling you, Wells, the ladies love the funny guys more. (And the slightly wounded fellas who won't leave them for their hot friends). Regardless, when these movies reach their prime, I'm gonna be out of luck for awhile.

So go see Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks in...

I'm kidding.

comment #40

thegreatmags says ...

Jeff is SOOOO hawwwt

comment #41

K. Bowen says ...

I'm find nerdy guys getting hot girls completely believable. A) Because I know some. B) a lot of semi-nerdy high school girls tend to become well-appointed, elegant professional women as they grow into their thirties. That is something that you suspect about Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up. She's gorgeous but kind of an awkward geek at heart.

I never found Knocked Up's One NIght Stand difficult to believe. He's funny, he's interested, she's horny and in the mood for a good time. That said, I find it very hard to believe that Heigl would tie her fortunes to him. Most of the women I know in the above-mentioned categories date the nerdy men because they' are successful. That's Rogen's fatal flaw, and why Knocked Up is a fantasy. .

comment #42

Seen K says ...

Rogen's girlfriend...

http://tinyurl.com/yoylnh

Sure, she's got a faint Dawn Weiner thing going on, but hardly a "woofer."

comment #43

Aguirre says ...

jeff, between the circa 28 DAYS LATER posts where you went on about how your penis compared favorably to that of cillian murphy, your constant fat-bashing, this tired and absurdly detached post that infers you have the physique of a spartan... your barbarian take on the democratic race your reluctance to see / cover any truly challenging films (the time is now for a BLIND MOUNTAIN post), your childishly defensive retorts to the posts that dare cross you, and your recent admission that you're a cinematic plebeian at heart... you sometimes come across just like the Neanderthals you so often decry. i love this site dearly, but with your passion for the industry your poor-man's anthropological reports seem like a waste of your gifts and my time. i'm beginning to think that i come here more for my insight of your character than your insight of... whatever your rabid mind wanders to.

for what it's worth, i've seen FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and i found the unrelatable element of the protagonist's character to be his infantile nature rather than his strictly average physique. most apatow heroes are of a substandard intelligence that their creator attempts to cloak in an innocent glaze of immaturity, but i think it's no accident that his best film - THE 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN - features his only well-minded frontman (though an argument can be made that the superbad boys were with it for their age). that being said, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is effin hilarious and easily the funniest american comedy since SUPERBAD.... which isn't saying much.

comment #44

sunny says ...

Adrien Brody is hot, ok?

Love the new format.

comment #45

jesse says ...

Though Jeff is obviously (a.) indulging in a personal tic he will never get up and to a lesser extent (b.) baiting those who get half-justifiably, half-unaccountably annoyed by this tic, I think the main thing is he's asking the wrong questions. As a goofy-looking nerd myself, obviously I have no problem with someone who looks like Seth Rogen or Jason Segel getting the girl in the movies. They're funny (well, Rogen is -- and I found Segel hilarious on the Apatow TV shows, but I do have questions about his strength as a leading man; his best work on TV has been playing creepy and/or, yes, infantile dudes; I'm not sure he has the warmth that Rogen can summon in a pinch).

What bothers me, at least a little, about some of the Apatow-and-company movies is how the female characters conform to the same silly beauty standards that the males flout.

In the individual movies, this has been justifiable: Catherine Keener was a great character and match for Carell in 40-Year-Old Virgin (and not *unbelievably* hot; just attractive, and her character actually got to say and do some funny stuff); the mismatch was part of the joke and the point of Knocked Up; etc. But I am wary of it becoming a trend: the goofy guy and the bland, beautiful girl. I felt like the girls in Superbad, while adorable, were a little closer to "regular" beautiful than, say, Mila Kunis or Katherine Heigl. Apatow loves employing Kristen Wiig; why not make her the actual "girl" of the piece and not just a side character? Or, I dunno, someone less conventionally "hot" like Maggie Gyllenhaal (maybe she wouldn't sign on for one of those movies - but someone in her league). Anna Faris, maybe? She's cute but not a traditional knockout.

Comedians are never going to be hired for their looks... but fair play, the women in these comedies should be a little more Linda Cardelinni/Freaks & Geeks, a little less Mila Kunis/That 70s Show (no slag on the Kunis performance which I haven't seen yet).

Again, it's not something I've felt is a real problem so far... but a trap Apatow and company could easily fall into.

comment #46

calraigh says ...

The sexiest men in the world are funny men. This is a maxim that millions of women swear by.However seeing as I don't find Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill or Judd Apatow attractive AT ALL and at best moderately amusing(I went with my girlfriends to Knocked Up and Superbad of my own volition and we all laughed around 3 times in each film)I can conclude they are neither hot or funny.And the world has gone mad.Sooner or later Apatow fever will dissipate and people will realise that they spent quite a lot of money going to see 'heh heh' movies that they won't remember next year.The 40 yr old Virgin was funny though.Hence Steve Carell's continued popularity.Believe it or not, he is regarded as hot.See how it works?
Jeff, no mention of the actual movie yet?Would love to hear your take on Russell Brand who is literally the most attractive man in the world.And hilarious.And dresses well.And is shooting 'Bedtime Stories' with Adam Sandler at the moment.He IS hilarious.

comment #47

D.Z. says ...

christian: Speaking of Wilder, he'll be at the Grove on Monday.

ernie: Frumpy chicks rarely get along with disheveled guys.

calraigh: Carrell might be "hot", but I don't buy him with Hathaway in Get Smart.

comment #48

christian says ...

Wilder at the Grove! Holy Shit, I'm there! Seriously.

comment #49

vp19 says ...

Can't we have romantic comedies written for adults of both genders, not Apatow frat-boy "raunchy but sweet" romps or karoake-laden shopgirl "princess" fantasies?

comment #50

calraigh says ...

I must clarify-I don't think Carell is particularly hot but he is regarded as such.Cute is maybe a better adjective and attractive certainly.
And to vp19-in an ideal world.As long as studios want teenage boys in the cinema and think women want the drivel they serve up, it'll be this way.

comment #51

gansibele says ...

Well, well, Wells, this is certainly reaching for preposterousness. Less than Hollywood attractive actors have always been the NORM: Wilder, Sellers, Lewis, Murray, Ackroyd, Hanks, Williams, Crystal, Carrey, Sandler, Myers, Stiller and above all Chaplin. It's the Grants and McCounagheys who are the exception.

Turn in your film critic card.

On the other hand you have managed to condense all your phobias in one post. Bravo.

Reality check time, man. The mirror is obviously not working.

comment #52

gruver1 says ...

Wells to to Aguirre: So you're overweight, huh?

Post a Comment