Paul

Paul - Dir. Greg Mottola (2011)

Along with director Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost came to prominence in geek culture with their Channel 4 sitcom, Spaced. Their leap to feature films with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz was wildly successful. Having tackled zombies and cops, Pegg and Frost finally get around to tackling sci-fi with Paul, based on a script they wrote with Greg Mottola (Adventureland Superbad) behind the camera.

Paul makes it known right away who its target demographic with an opening sequence set at Comic-Con. Pegg and Frost are Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings, a graphic artist and science fiction writer, respectively. The best friends traveled to the United States to attend the Mecca of nerd-dom. They ogle the Slave Leias and get starstruck at meeting the robot from Buck Rogers ("…bidi, bidi, bidi."). Afterwards, Graeme and Clive embark on a bromantic road trip in a rented RV to visit famous UFO sites such as Area 51 and Roswell. Coming across a car accident, they are shocked to discover, Paul (Seth Rogen), an alien who has been locked away in a government facility since his spaceship crashed in the 1940's. Graeme and Clive agree to help Paul get to his mothership. Along the way, they also pick up Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), a Christian fundamentalist whose faith is shaken by the appearance of a creature from outer space.

The supporting cast is a tremendous ensemble of players that include Jason Bateman as a no-nonsense man in black on the hunt for Paul with a pair of bumbling FBI agents played by Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio. They take their orders from Sigourney Weaver, who appears for most of the picture as a hidden voice sort of like Dr. Klaw from Inspector Gadget. We also have Jeffrey Tambor as sci-fi author Adam Shadowchild and Jane Lynch in a tiny role (a little Jane Lynch goes a long way) as a diner owner. Everyone is good, but none more so than Wiig as both a comic foil to Paul and love interest to Graeme. Wiig takes a rather one-dimensional character in Ruth and makes her extremely likable. She also possesses tremendous comic timing shown off when Ruth awkwardly tries cursing for the first time and launches into a series of nonsensical profanities ("Well, ain't that a bag of tits.").

Seth Rogen may be suffering from overexposure as of late. While you certainly cannot fault the man for venturing out of his comfort zone, the results have been mixed at best (i.e. Observe and Report, The Green Hornet). Here, Rogen goes back to basics providing only motion capture work and his distinctive voice. His Paul pulls a 180 on the prototypical alien by turning him into a rude and gross little guy with a cigarette constantly in his hand. He's E.T. if he were a potty-mouthed, bulb-headed stoner from a galaxy far, far away.

Paul definitely has its weaknesses. As foreigners, Pegg and Frost go the easy route by portraying most of the Americans they come across as bible-thumping zealots or gun-toting rednecks. David Koechner and Friday Night Lights' Jesse Plemons a bit wasted as the latter. Some of the subplots don't pay off, especially the one involving Ruth's domineering father (John Carroll Lynch), which could have easily been cut from the film to tighten the plot. In the end, Paul will live and die by its geek chic sense of humor.

While Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz poked fun at genre conventions, Paul is more concerned with making specific references, many of which will go most everyone's heads. There are tons of requisite Star Wars gags with entire lines of dialogue quoted by various characters. One of the best features a country western band playing their version of the Mos Eisley Cantina song. Other iconic sci-fi flicks like Back to the Future and obscure ones like Mac and Me are referenced as are numerous Spielberg movies to the point where the director himself makes a voice cameo receiving story advice from Paul.

Make no mistake about it, Paul is a movie for geeks and by geeks. As someone who is steeped in the culture (I'm a Comic-Con veteran for nearly two decades), it's hard for me to say how mainstream audiences might take the film. Hopefully, they'll find Paul as hilarious and surprisingly poignant as I have.

Rating: *** (*****)

Adventureland

Adventureland - Dir. Greg Mottola (2009)


”We are doing the work of lazy pathetic morons.”

Miramax’s marketing campaign is misleading when it comes to the latest film by Greg Mottola, the writer/director of the raunchy Superbad. Mottola’s third picture is the semi-autobiographical, Adventureland, a much more mature and low-key coming-of-age tale. There are moments of slapstick and hilarity sprinkled throughout, but the meat of the story lies in its themes of love, heartbreak, and uncertainty. Thematically, it’s been compared to The Graduate, but I’d say Adventureland is more like Dazed and Confused filtered through the lens of Freaks & Geeks.

James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) has just graduated college with a degree in comparative literature. He’s looking forward to a summer long trip to Europe before beginning grad school at Columbia where he’ll study journalism. James has plans to become a travel writer. However, a wrench is thrown into the works when his dad takes a pay cut and they can no longer afford it. James moves back home to Pittsburgh where he’s forced to get a job. With no real work experience, the best he can find is a menial job at the local amusement park. Adventureland is run by Bobby (Bill Hader) and his wife Paulette (Kristen Wiig) who size James up as a games man. Transformed into a glorified carny, James is tasked with manning the booths of rigged games and appropriately doling out the cheap prizes.

James meets a variety of denizens at the park including an old childhood friend named Frigo (Matt Bush) who has grown into a crude and obnoxious man-child with a habit of punching James in the nuts at an inopportune time. Then again, I suppose there’s never an opportune time to get punched in the nuts. James also befriends Joel (Martin Starr), a lanky pipe-smoking literati with an affinity for Nikolai Gogol. But, the big one is Em (Kristen Stewart), a fellow games monkey he quickly falls for. Em comes from a damaged home. Her mother passed away and her father has remarried a cold, passive-aggressive (played by Reno 911’s Mary Birdsong). On top of that, she’s carrying on a clandestine affair with an older married man, Connell (Ryan Reynolds), the park’s handyman who tells bullshit stories about how he once jammed with Lou Reed.

Mottola’s script is an incredibly observant work exploring the relationships of his characters, each one well rounded and relatable. Eisenberg is used to playing these nerdy, awkward teens having played just those in Roger Dodger and The Squid & the Whale. Comparisons have been made between Eisenberg and Michael Cera. Though Eisenberg doesn't come off as glib as Cera, but he is more nuanced. The performances are strong across the board with SNL's Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig stealing every scene they're in.

If there are any complaints to be had with Adventureland, they lie in the third act which felt forced. It was as if Mottola just had to plug in the standard formula in breaking up the characters for the eventually tearful reunion. The resolution feels as if it were dictated by preset plot points and not the actual characters.

Rating: ***