For years it has eluded major Hollywood films. How is it that Judd Apatow and his rag tag group of geeks can wrangle up a film that is both commercial and critically successful? Is it their completely original premises? Not really. Do they completely kick convention in the face and bid adieu to film clichés? I wouldn't say so.
You see Apatow and Co. have a formula—a formula that seems to succeed every time he steps onto a movie set. His scripts take all the Hollywood clichés we have begun to groan over, and he personalizes them. We've seen all these things before; guy keeps secret from girl, girl finds out, gets mad, then they make up; or guy does something stupid, doesn't realize it, then girl gets angry, guy learns from mistake, and they make up.
This isn't new territory, but Apatow takes these conventions and roots them in a realistic base. Hollywood clichés exist because they happen to all of us, but what most films do is boil them down to their one sentence stereotypes and make them so pedestrian and dull, what Funny People does is it takes those premises and relate them to real people in real experiences with real internal conflicts.
Funny People tells the story of George Simmons and his privileged life. He has it all except friends, family, and that one girl who got away. When he learns he has a terminal disease, George decides he needs to make a change and takes a young comedian under his wing. I won't spoil more.
...more after the jump
You see Apatow and Co. have a formula—a formula that seems to succeed every time he steps onto a movie set. His scripts take all the Hollywood clichés we have begun to groan over, and he personalizes them. We've seen all these things before; guy keeps secret from girl, girl finds out, gets mad, then they make up; or guy does something stupid, doesn't realize it, then girl gets angry, guy learns from mistake, and they make up.
This isn't new territory, but Apatow takes these conventions and roots them in a realistic base. Hollywood clichés exist because they happen to all of us, but what most films do is boil them down to their one sentence stereotypes and make them so pedestrian and dull, what Funny People does is it takes those premises and relate them to real people in real experiences with real internal conflicts.
Funny People tells the story of George Simmons and his privileged life. He has it all except friends, family, and that one girl who got away. When he learns he has a terminal disease, George decides he needs to make a change and takes a young comedian under his wing. I won't spoil more.
...more after the jump
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