The funniest comedy troupe working in film deliver another winner

Rating: 7/10 (1 September 2007)

Judd Apatow and friends consistently prove that they are the funniest comedy troupe working today. Forget Ben Stiller, forget Adam Sandler. Please forget Dane Cook, and a seemingly endless troupe of un-funny comedians trying to make their way on the big screen. There have only ever been so few personalities that are just naturally and automatically funny. Charlie Chaplin. Buster Keaton. The Marx Brothers. Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Woody Allen. Seth Rogen. Paul Rudd.
What was so impressive about The 40-Year-Old Virgin is not only the entire cast's unique ability to be naturally funny no matter what they do, but also it's heart and sincerity. While taking a sort of high-concept, gimmicky idea in order to set up the situation comedy, 40-Year-Old Virgin does succeed admirably in featuring honest, convincing and just totally real characters that you always believe in. With Knocked Up, Apatow and crew go even one step further by creating a movie so unbelievably rooted in reality, it may has well just have been a documentary about a bunch of naturally funny people and how they deal with a simple, small-scale domestic occurrence: A one night stand-turned-pregnancy.
The film is surprisingly poignant and intelligent, featuring a fantastically real-world story of learning to grow up and accept responsibility. "Life doesn't care about your own life plans," the movie says, and within this lies the crux of just why Knocked Up is as sweet and poignant as it is. Rogen's Ben, while essentially being a personification of Rogen himself, does learn valuable life lessons and it is simply fantastic to see with what skill Apatow integrates this fictional character arc onto a non-fictional character (in a way).
That said, it is also, of course, total comic brilliance. Seth Rogen has really made a name for himself for one of the most naturally funniest performers working today - nothing he does ever feels forced, and judging by his character Ben's characteristics and history, one can easily see that Rogen is pretty much just playing himself in the movie. And he's got great taste too - t-shirts and movie discussions aside, the man has an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster hanging in the baby room. Brilliant! Paul Rudd also proves once again that he is comic genius.
In all, Knocked Up, along with The 40-Year-Old Virgin, just prove that there are some people in the word that are almost unfairly naturally funny. You see a "comedy" like Dude Where's My Car?, and you can just crystal-clearly see the massive difference between the forced, un-funny, cheap-shot comedy in the latter film as opposed to the real, intelligent and natural comedy of Apatow's ventures. I hope to see much more from these performers and filmmakers in the future. Because while Apatow's productions are funny enough (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, etc), it is his in his directorial ventures where he truly showcases an unprecedented knack of naturalistic, intelligent comedy. And it works fantastically well.