So after having bought and moved into a house over the past couple weeks I’ve had plenty of time to reflect and such. I’ve also had tons to do, of course, which has taken away from my movie-viewing time. Being able to sit down and watch four to six films a weekend is tough when you have much more responsibility and the whole “nesting” thing to accomplish as well. The downside of owning a place is now I can’t pawn the responsibilities of doing stuff in it to someone else; home ownership sucks like that.
Time has to come from somewhere and as such it’s killed all my viewing time for film. Thus I’ve been trying to catch up as well as see some new releases. Which is why I wandered into 21 and Over this past Friday before venturing into The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Pitch Perfect was good enough that I’m willing to venture into something else starring Skylar Astin. Plus it has Miles Teller in it and after Rabbit Hole he’s definitely an actor I’ve been following.
Travis didn’t enjoy the film but I did; this is probably one of the four or so films of 2013 he and I will disagree on vehemently, of course, as I thought it was wonderful. But this isn’t a column about the film per se; that’ll be below because I was too busy this week to watch a DVD. But the one thing that I thought was interesting about the film was that for a genre comedy involving college it immediately moves into the top tier of the genre as far as I’m concerned. Why?
Because there aren’t any good films about college, that’s why, outside of a few handful.
There’s a reason why there are so many more films about high school that are of significance as opposed to those about college. High school is a universal experience and everyone goes to it, even if some of us don’t complete it or enjoy it. Before college there are so many different things about life that are universal; it’s an awkward age for sure. My friend Corey once remarked that we, as human beings, aren’t really fully formed at that point.
We’re “raging puss bags of hormones and bad intentions” or something along those lines, as he would say.
High school is a defining experience for a lot of us because the decisions we make between the ages of 14-18 define a lot of how we live the rest of our lives. The mistakes we make as children, and as young adults, wind up influencing us in ways we don’t realize until we’re much older in life. Whether you loved or hated high school, or somewhere in between, it’s a universal experience
College isn’t. Not as many people go to college after high school, though the number has grown, and as such the tropes of college aren’t nearly as universal as those of high school. There’s no Breakfast Club to be made about a group of college miscreants. By setting your film in a college you immediately shrink your audience of those who’ll be able to really appreciate and indulge your film.
It’s why writing about college, and making films and television shows about it, is so difficult. Not everyone has the same experience, especially in an era where things like online and for profit universities are sprouting up as significant alternatives for people to get degrees and whatnot. The traditional university experience is changing, and changing radically. As such 20 years from now the way people go to college is going to be significantly different than the traditional method I endured.
It’s why making a film about college is so much more difficult and why after Animal House and PCU there are a handful of films that are good but not great that make up the “elite” of the genre. Even if you do a Top 10 list there aren’t a lot of entries that’ll make you think they belong on any Top 10 list of any other genre.
A Movie A Week – The Challenge
This Week’s Film – 21 and Over
Travis hated the film so I went in expecting it to be awful. Shockingly enough I didn’t agree with his assessment, which you can read here.
I thought it was a pretty good comedy and I enjoyed it very much. Astin and Teller are two friends visiting a third at his college on his 21st birthday. It’s essentially The Hangover on a college campus as three friends have to explore the nature of their lifelong friendship over the course of one booze-fueled night. Read Travis’s review if you want to know more about the basics, et al, but it’s a film that embraces the R-rating and runs with it. Throw in a couple of young stars that have chemistry with one another and a fairly cogent script and you have what’s probably the best film of the first quarter of this year so far.
It’s worth the view … but find a matinee showing as it’s not a brilliant comedy. Just a good one.
What Looks Good This Weekend, and I Don’t Mean the $2 Pints of Bass Ale and community college co-eds with low standards at the Alumni Club
Admission – Tina Fey gave up a kid for admission. Paul Rudd wants her to get him accepted into an Ivy League school. Shenanigans ensue.
Skip it – I like the cast and the pedigree but so far the film hasn’t made me want to go see it. Awful trailers are usually a good indicator of how bad a film is.
The Croods – Nicolas Cage and his Neanderthal family explore life outside the cave.
Skip it – This is what happens when Nic Cage has to pay the IRS.
Olympus Has Fallen – Die Hard in the White House.
See it – The Die Hard formula is usually pretty good enough for government work no matter where it’s applied.
InAPPropriate Comedy – Movie 43 but with Rob Schneider.
Skip it – Any film that goes out of its way to tell you how offensive it is probably isn’t all that funny.
Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz brings his trademarked irreverence and offensive hilarity to Twitter in 140 characters or less. Follow him @ScottSawitz .
