The comedy of the year

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2007)

Inside every great dumb gross-out comedy is a smarter film just waiting burst out of that film's womb. In the case of Knocked Up, we have a movie that presents itself in the American Pie tradition of fart gags and sex jokes, but that has aspirations to higher levels of cinematic purity. LEvels where it isn't just teenage boys who are given permission to laugh at the screen. Or indeed teenagers at all. Judd Apatow, the film's director, is more Woody Allen than Porky's revenge. His movie's are filled with observational humour, cultural and societal situations and questions of morality when pregnancy is concerned. How should a man finally "man up" when it is time to play the role of daddy-to-be, especially when his whole existence seems so peripheral, his claim to fame is a working part-time on a website that allows to find which movies your favourite actresses have been nude in?
Seth Rogen plays Ben, a podgy, unemployed stoner-slob who lives in an apartment with four other similar friends. When at a club one night, he meets Alison, a recently-promoted TV presenter, who is initially charmed by the lovable oaf. Several empty beer bottles later, they end up spending the night together, only to discover their real personalities the morning after. During breakfast, Alison soon becomes repulsed by Ben's oafish opinions and demeanour, and soon decides it is best to leave the situation as a one night stand. Several weeks later Alison discovers she is pregnant, and decides to keep the baby. Without much thought into how she might achieve such a feet, she decides to give Ben another chance, for the sake of the baby, to make a relationship work between them.
The great achievement of Knocked Up is that it is a comedy for adults, that has not been dumbed down for kids. Yes there are many crude jokes, similar to the filmmaker's previous effort - The 40 year Old Virgin. But the crudeness is shown up for what it is, and Ben's slacker routine is not glorified over Alison's sensibility. This is a movie where, like American Pie, the women have someone to look up to just like the men do. And a year in which American comedies have sunk so low that Will Ferrell is considered high-end, it is refreshing to see a new breed of smart filmmakers come out to give rebirth to the dumb comedy genre.