If the contemporary landscape of cinema is getting increasingly more depressing with every year, it might have something to do with the industry desperately trying to hold on to its obsolete vision of its own purpose. I have no clue if the buzz around THE INTERVIEW last fall was engineered or by who, but it sounded pretty fucking silly to me that a nation going broke trying to become a military power would actually start a cyber war with an actual one. It seemed like something scripted by Eric Bischoff at a Starbucks, on a $50 laptop. It seemed too much fun to be serious. Was THE INTERVIEW that movie who would turn the corner into the 21st century, for Hollywood?
It's an earnest comedy sure, but it doesn't live up to its innovative ambitions.
Dave Skylark (James Franco) is an eccentric television character, that would be best described as Anderson Cooper and Dr. Phil's bastard child. He became an icon by interviewing celebrities like Rob Lowe and Eminem, about their secrets. His producer Aaron (Seth Rogen) loves the steady gig, but secretly longs to create more important content. When Dave finds out on the internet that Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is a die-hard fan of his show, they set up and interview with him to be broadcasted live from Kim's compound in Pyongyang. Even if they are facing extreme criticism from other journalist, Dave and Aaron go on with this project, that may or may not involve a last minute CIA-planned assassination plot.
I guess there is no way around the political question. Because THE INTERVIEW isn't unwittingly political, it tries hard to be. It's not the first movie (or even the first comedy) about the Kim family, so it's not like there wasn't an easy blueprint to replicate. But no, THE INTERVIEW gets annoyingly political at times with its two American protagonists, filled with freedom and jokes, fighting for the lives of people who are never portrayed on screen. Dave and Aaron are basically fighting for the idea of oppressed people, fake grocery stores painted on concrete walls and plaster fruits. It doesn't fully commit to comedy like TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE did and doesn't commit to its own politics, trapping the movie in an uncomfortable in-between.
That guy playing Kim Jong-Un made me forget at times that he didn't look anything like the real thing.
THE INTERVIEW actually commits to comedy by segments and when it does, it's actually an earnest and efficient comedy, granted that you can withstand the vulgarity of male bonding moments. Over-the-top parts are not particularly difficult to play and have often been the redeeming grace of bad actors, but James Franco shines as Dave Skylark. He delivers his lines with a boyish energy that would pry a grin off a mortician's lips. There is one scene actually where he compares the act of killing to the money shot in porn, which is a joke that would've fell flat without Franco's energy and the contrast Seth Rogen' quieter, most subtle character, but the joke surfs a fine line and got me laughing out loud. Believe me, I was the first surprised about that.
The internet has changed the way the world works. Information is accessible to everybody, 24/7 if they have a smartphone. Whenever I'm with friend and we're wondering something, I pull my phone from my pocket and say: "Let's Google this bad boy." THE INTERVIEW is another movie pitting America against a foreign power (albeit it is pretty conceptual), and lazily portrays one of the most fascinating, disconnected political regimes on Earth. It's a comedy that works whenever it sticks to what it does best, but that comes off as flat and sometimes narrow-minded with the themes it actively tries to engage. THE INTERVIEW is decent, but it has fed off the hype. It wouldn't have fell into oblivion without all that press related to the Sony security leak.