Simultaneous the most clever and stupidly obscene movie you might ever see

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2016)

Only Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Jonah Hill could come up with something as ingenious and totally stupid as an animated film that imagines what would happen if food was self-aware and learned of its true purpose.
Rogen and Goldberg – along with Hill and all their other pals, you know who they are – have long owned the the stoner comedy market, and "Sausage Party" is their most ambitious means of pedaling drug and dick humor to their audience yet. At least the sheer amount of creativity required to bring this film to life provides a satisfying balance to its excessive and pointlessly foul parts.
In "Sausage Party," all the foods at the ShopWell supermarket believe their destiny is to be chosen by the gods (humans) to be taken to "the great beyond" past the sliding glass doors, where they'll be loved and cared for. For hotdog Frank (Rogen) and bun Brenda (Kristen Wiig), who sit next to each other on the shelf, the opportunity to be chosen together means they can  yeah. But when a returned jar of honey mustard (Danny McBride) starts screaming that it's all a lie, he sends Frank and Brenda – and some other food friends – on a quest for the truth.
The supporting characters include a constantly bickering Bagel (Edward Norton doing his best Woody Allen impression) and Lavash (David Krumholtz), whose arguments dip a bit far into Israeli- Palestinian conflict territory, a deformed hotdog named Barry (Michael Cera), a sexually questioning Taco (Selma Hayek), a Douche in the literal and figurative sense (Nick Kroll) and a few non- perishable foods who take hits from a kazoo to numb them from the truth. Our heroes journey to various aisles from the nightlife in the liquor section to a saloon full of Mexican foods.
Rogen and Goldberg, who co-scripted with "The Night Before" writers Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, are clearly after a parody of Pixar films, which often build clever, unseen worlds. (There are even a couple direct references to the animation giant.) In many instances, "Sausage Party" manages to capture that same degree of imagination, only they twist it to their perverted purposes.
A key component is matching the level of visual artistry as those films is the hiring of animation directors. Conrad Vernon is one of the trusted names at DreamWorks Animation ("Shrek 2," "Monsters vs. Aliens"), while Greg Tiernan has directed a couple dozen "Thomas & Friends" videos. The two know the techniques that create the look and feel of a film on this scale and can sell this kind of concept to an audience. Doubtless they enjoyed employing their skills to delinquent ends.
How one can be so simultaneous impressed and disgusted by the cleverness of a film is easily the crowning achievement of "Sausage Party." It's as relentlessly creative as it is relentlessly abhorrent. It even has a feel-good message as it descends into obscenity. Ultimately, however, most movies this outrageous don't even have half as many good things that can be said about them, which makes "Sausage Party" among one of the better ones by default.
~Steven C
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