Outside of the In-Crowd – Why Date Night needs to be amazing
Courtney Enlow |
Well, friends, we made it. We have finally emerged from the darkness of the movie graveyard, that fetid period in cinematic time lasting from January through mid- to late-March. That horrid and frightening time during which no good movies are released, and we wander adrift in a sea of shitty D-grade rom-coms, not-great kids movies and movies that desperately needed to be released as far from the following year’s Oscar time as humanly possible.
It’s been a rough time. It’s been a painful, scary world filled with nothing but Valentine’s Day and Leap Year, Extraordinary Measures and Edge of Darkness. A time of desperately wanting to love Shutter Island and Alice in Wonderland and finding myself physically unable to do so. The darkness had settled and sometimes it was hard to imagine even a flicker of light to guide us out.
That light is here now, friends. It’s April. And April means it’s time for the good movies to come out again.
I am so excited for so many upcoming movies. Iron Man 2, MacGruber, Kick-Ass, Eclipse (just making sure you guys were paying attention), there are a lot of awesome movies coming out soon. But one movie in particular has a lot of pressure on it to be amazing, and that movie is Date Night.
Date Night, for those of you who apparently are too hipster to own a television, stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey as a married couple who find themselves caught up in dangerous mistaken identity hi-jinks. In addition to those two pillars of greatness, it also stars everyone else awesome in the world, including Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Kristen Wiig, Mila Kunis, Taraji P. Henson and my favorite McPoyle, Jimmi Simpson. Also, it’s directed by a man who appeared in the movie Zombie Nightmare, which made for a sweet episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. What I’m saying is there’s a lot of great happening right here.
I have the highest hopes for this movie to do well, and I’m sure it will. But take away the hope, take away the critical notices and take away anyone’s thoughts about it; I need this film to do well.
Tina Fey is my favorite human being. She is beyond the realm of “writer” or “performer” in a very special list of people like Neko Case and Robert Downey, Jr. who transcend labels like “favorite actor” or “favorite singer” and can only be described as My Favorite People Ever in History. I love Tina. I love what she is, I love what she does, I love all that she stands for. I love her. And it is so important that a movie she stars in do well.
Remember those ass movies I mentioned earlier, like Valentine’s Day and Leap Year? Yeah, those are apparently considered “chick flicks.” Those are what Hollywood gives women to watch. Somewhere along the line of Hollywood history, it was decided that women will only pay money to see a) a Type A bitch finally let her hair down and fall in love with the slovenly but handsome man for whom she feigns hatred, b) women fighting, be it over a man, over a wedding or over something else useless or c) someone getting cancer/a heart condition/terminal movie death disease and dying. That’s it. We like nothing else.
But not Tina. Tina doesn’t approve. That’s why she gave us Mean Girls. Mean Girls, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, is one of the single smartest movies about the high school experience ever made. It was funny, it was sweet, it was the best kind of bitchy, and it was awesome. When Lindsay Lohan eventually dies in a big pile of cocaine and restylane, the tabloid obits will credit her with making that movie great. She, of course, had nothing to do with that. It was all Tina.
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Baby Mama was pretty awesome too. A bit disappointing, but its disappointing bits rang of studio interference. Like they wouldn’t let this studio picture have all the 30 Rock-level strangeness she’s so great at. But for all its flaws, it had something so necessary: two funny female leads.
If Date Night does well, maybe studios will back the fuck off and let Tina do whatever she wants. And with that could come a snowball effect of talented female writers getting to make their movies their way. And good god is that overdue.
I reject the notion that women really have a hard time finding a man just because they’re career-oriented. I reject the notion that all any strong woman needs is a care-free manchild to free her of her frigid ways. I reject the notion that my gender only matters as a worthwhile demographic when the main character is desperately searching for a man to fulfill her, and more than anything on earth I reject that heinous notion that has plagued woman-kind for decades: that women aren’t funny.
Fuck that. Kill it, Tina. And when you do, may Steve Carell be the first to say that the film’s success is completely shared and earned by both of you.
Courtney Enlow is a writer living in Chicago and working as a corporate shill to pay the bills. You can contact her at courtney@hobotrashcan.com.
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Word on all the bad movies that have come out lately. Although Greenberg was pretty good and that came out within that timetable. I know it’s aimed at the hipsters cuz of Noah Baumbach, it co-starring super-indie film actress Greta Gerwig, and its music being supervised by homeboy from LCD Soundsystem or Plasma Sonystereo or whatever, but that movie was a great character study.
BTW, I think women are hilarious. It’s most women stand-up comedians that are the problem. There are a handful that are great but there just seems to be so many that still covet the Elain Boosler Award for Meh-ness.
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Be warned, Courtney. Killers, starring Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl, still looms on the horizon.
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AMEN. Tina Fey is my hero – women are hilarious and talented and 30 Rock is the best show ever and I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE.
Ok, done freaking out.
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NO. Just NO.
Shawn Levy, the dude from Zombie Nightmare? Responsible for some of the worst comedies of the past decade. Seriously. Look up his filmography. It’s more odious than his spaghetti-slinging Zombie Nightmare character. This will not end well, if past experience is any indicator.
As for Tina Fey, I feel like I’m still suffering from a bit of an overload of her. Tina, like all people with an ounce of talent, must be taken in heavily moderated doses. Too much, and the joy is just plain sucked out of their performances. Steve Carell is also suffering from this in everything else he does outside of The Office. At the very least, the next time either of them makes a movie, I would advise them not to start with Shawn Levy at the helm.
I won’t go so far as to wish failure on this movie, but I will expect it. Too many of the things that should be working FOR it, are likely working AGAINST it. But who knows? I’m skeptical, but I’ll obviously wait before passing judgment. Dur.
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I liked this article Court and you know that I too love Tina Fey. That woman is one of the funniest women in the business and Steve Carell is the male version. I’m looking forward to this movie and am positive that it will not let us down.
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Steve Carell is a funny actor, but I think he works best in an ensemble cast or when his lead needs to fit his acting style. He’s had some winners (40 y/o Virgin, Dan in Real Life, Lil’ Ms. Sunshine), but he’s had a few losers too (Get Smart, Evan Almighty). I’ve not seen it yet, but Date Night looks like it is headed for the loser category. Steve does not have many dimensions to his acting; he is really only good at awkward and dead-pan. All of his characters seem to channel Michael Scott from The Office.
Tina Fey is just an absolute horrible actress. Much like Steve Carell, all of her characters seem to channel the same archetype: awkward and deadpan. The difference is, Steve Carell makes it work while Tina Fey just makes you sad. She is a talented writer (Mean Girls), but I don’t think her delivery is any good. I get the impression that someone gave her a shot at acting, but then no one worked up the nerve to tell her she sucks. If you look at her acting career, almost everything she’s done has been tied to Saturday Night Live’s creator, Lorne Michaels. She must brew one hell of a cup of coffee or is AMAZING on the casting couch.
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There is no such thing as a favorite McPoyle young lady
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