Product: Funny People
Rating: 5.0
Brilliant movie, and much more complex material for Apatow
This film is remarkable for just how much it blurs the lines of reality in the service of fiction. Apatow and Sandler have have been friends for a long time and lived with each other for awhile on the comedy scene. The movie opens with vintage footage on his offtime from the Ben Stiller show. That being said there are certain things known to be different from Sandler and his character, but you do wonder how he feels about the negative aspects of fame and fortune. I would say most of those things are true for him, but he enjoys it more. The other younger characters are there to show you the way it is from the ground up and Apatow has interesting things to say about it. Jason Schwartzman's character says so much about ambiguous nature of fame that's out of your control. He's made a rich man by doing clearly bad work, created by bad writers, but in the service of supposedly being hip and socially conscious. What's he to make of it, though, when he's rewarded for being terrible and consenting to it. It's hard for people who even recognize this, to not become conceited and that's exactly what happens. The film makes an interesting rumination on things people hardly consider when trying to make it in show biz, you take what they give you, not necessarily what you want. Technically, it makes that statement about life as well and for those who don't find it funny even though it does achieve that, if you go back it does make that statement repeatedly. I enjoyed it from front to back.