Five-Word Review: Dumb, Funny, Sometimes Cleverly Subversive

Rating: 7/10 (2 September 2016)

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have carved their own niche of American comedy films close to the Apatow brand but more crass. The roster that includes Superbad, Pineapple Express, and This is the End now adds Sausage Party, a decidedly adult-oriented comedy designed to offend and shock, insulting just about every race and belief imaginable. Little would you expect it could also make you think at times. A starry cast supports this animated riff on Pixar stories such as Toy Story, with the likes of Rogen, Edward Norton, Michael Cera and Kristen Wiig lending their voices to the story of sentient foodstuffs discovering that their 'gods' are actually humans who kill and eat them.
Sausage Party often feels like two films in one. On the superficial level it is a dumb, crass, raunchy sex comedy with talking, orgy- loving food characters to appeal to the same stoner crowd as Pineapple Express. On another level, it is an intelligent and well- observed social commentary with witty takes on current social issues related to religion, race, sexuality, and world conflict. This is the film's strength and flaw. The worst of the film is when it is being too dumb and juvenile, with punchlines extending to nothing more than a blurted profanity, a lazy racial slur, or a sex joke that would make a 13 year old laugh. Too much of the film is like this, and a probable sequel would be much improved by focusing up and being less immature.
Nevertheless, there's a lot that's funny in Sausage Party. Some of the parodies are on the nose - including excellent riffs on Saving Private Ryan, The Terminator, and, in one grotesque scene, Ratatouille. The situations the foods find themselves in are often very clever - a bagel and a lavash personify (foodify?) the Israel- Palestine conflict, and the main hot dog bun wants a bigger role in life than to just be filled by a sausage. Meanwhile, the voice cast is superb. Nick Kroll (Parks and Recreation's Douche, in a similar role) expertly plays a rapey gymbro character. Norton is unrecognisable as the Jewish 'Sammy Bagel Jr.', while Rogen, Cera, and Wiig are all stellar.
Overall it's a funny film that is worth a watch, and is a nice counterpart to similarly plotted animated films aimed at kids, such as Toy Story. It just feels like it could have been better at times; hopefully the sequel can combine this film's strengths with some improvements. 67/100