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[DVD REVIEW] The Amateurs |
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Written by Sean T. Johnston
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Feb 24, 2008 at 05:08 PM |
Title: The Amateurs
Release Date: February 12, 2008
Studio: First Look Pictures
Rating: 7.5 of 10
 The closest thing to pornography your conservative girlfriend will watch with you.
Had it not been for a well-placed commercial in front of a recent trailer at the movie theatre, I would never have known about this witty little gem from first-time director Michael Traeger. The movie begins as Andy Sargentee (Jeff Bridges), struggling with a mid-life crisis following his recent divorce, is painstakingly trying to devise the latest in a long string of failed get rich quick schemes. Not much happens in the town of Butterface Fields, the sleepy “Every Smalltown USA” that Sargentee lives in, so his ill-advised ploys have a way of sucking the local gentry in with him. Andy decides that an amateur pornographic film production will be the solution to his financial and existential crisis. Soon after he, and his band of affable, yet misguided cohorts raise some money and begin the task of producing the film.
It’s a classic blind leading the blind on a fool’s errand story. You have a community college dropout whose one English class makes him “Screenwriter/Director” and the pubescent Movie Store clerk who becomes the movie’s Cinematographer. But somehow this hodgepodge of naïve oafs combine their seemingly miniscule talents to complete something so outside of their comfort zone, despite their overwhelming personal shortcomings. Kudos to Ted Danson as “Moose” the closeted, yet obviously and overwhelmingly homosexual who gives the movie their producing everything he’s got despite being visibly ill at the thought and sight of heterosexual intercourse. He insists on maintaining the illusion to his friends that he’s straight, regardless of undeniable evidence to the contrary. His constant overcompensation and awkward male boasting make for a lot of hilarious scenes.
With this film you’ll get your fair share of cheeky sex jokes and a lot of charmingly outdated and made-up euphemisms. But The Amateurs goes a bit beyond the cheap laugh and derives its comedy from the awkward situations and personality quirks of the characters. Jeff Bridge’s self-reflexive narration gives the movie a more Annie Hall kind of direction and adds a great deal of additional comedy to transitional scenes.
If you’re looking for a good laugh that’s a few steps above the American Pie brand of sexual humor, which features a talented assortment of proven character actors and comedians, I would highly recommend The Amateurs. You’ll have to think about a few of the jokes, but not hard enough so that you’ll miss the next one. It has a funny and engaging innocence that drives you straight through to the end, despite getting a bit off-track and touchy feel-goody in the last minute or so.
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