Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Contemplating Kevin Smith’s career after watching his latest comedy, a continuing theme is starting to emerge in Smith’s work, at least in his better films. It’s front-and-center in his new film, which- in an odd case of truth in advertising (at least when it comes to the title; the abbreviated TV spots are another story…)- is about two life-long friends who make a porno to pay the bills. Already, you can see the dilemma beginning to emerge- can friends have sex, and remain friends? As Smith has shown all too well throughout his career, sex can complicate things…
..and in here, we see another crystallization of Smith’s running theme, in how issues of sex can fuck with your head. Think about it- in “Clerks” the first back in 1994, Dante (Brian O’Halloran) gets thrown for a loop when his girlfriend confesses to having blown 36 others guys besides him, and twelve years later (in Smith’s underrated sequel), sex played an equally-complicated role in Dante’s future when a trist with his hot Mooby’s manager (Rosario Dawson) lead to some hard choices between a safe future and an unpredictable one. And lest we forget, there’s Smith’s “Chasing Amy” back in ’97 (still his best film), where Holden (Ben Affleck) wasn’t phased by Alyssa’s lesbian leanings before they hooked up, but a kinky experience years before the two even met leads him to mess things up and lose his love when he takes some sage advice from Silent Bob (Smith himself) the wrong way.
This leads me, finally, to Zack and Miri. In a run-down berg outside Pittsburgh, Zack (Seth Rogan) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have a blue-collar life living together and working at menial jobs- he works at a Starbucks-esque coffee shop, she works elsewhere. They’re in a bit of a financial rut, though; the bills are piling up, and the utilities are being turned off. At their 10-year high school reunion (on Thanksgiving, no less), they start talking to people, mostly the same boring people they were in high school, with the same dumb jokes. But as Miri is trying to hook up with hot jock Bobby Long (“Superman Returns'” Brandon Routh, in a hilarious cameo), Zack starts chatting up Brandon (Justin Long), a slick Hollywood type who’s actually a gay porn star who came back with Bobby- turns out they’re lovers onscreen and off- and recognizes Miri. Turns out a couple of punk teens got some video phone footage of Miri stripping down to her “granny panties” while getting ready for the reunion (which Zack put an end to with his bare ass), and has since posted it online, where it’s become an instant sensation.
After the reunion, Zack and Miri and getting drunk when they have an idea- capitalizing on their ‘net success by making an amateur porn film. Zack’s logic is flawed (no, I would not want to watch Rosie O’Donnell fuck if it was available; I don’t care how well-known she is), but after the heat is turned off, Miri relents, and with some seed money ponied up by Zack’s co-worker Delaney (Rogan’s “Pineapple Express” co-star Craig Robinson)- offered a producer’s credit and an opportunity for free titties as an auditioner- and some quick hires for a cast, they’re off to make their porno…but they aren’t quite prepared for the hard times ahead (pun intended).
This is only Smith’s second film not set in his “Askewniverse,” which includes the “Clerks” projects (yes, even the underrated and short-lived TV show), “Mallrats,” “Amy,” his 1999 hot-potato “Dogma,” and 2001’s farce “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (arguably his funniest movie). The first was 2004’s “Jersey Girl,” which I think I’m the only person who enjoyed it. I have a feeling more people are gonna like “Zack and Miri.” This is Smith’s smartest and strongest script since the one-two punch of “Amy” and “Dogma,” and it shows that Smith isn’t just a one trick pony. OK, there’s still the vulgarity of a spree of dick-and-fart jokes that Smith is well-known for, but did you see the title? Were you expecting anything else?
If Smith hasn’t matured in his humor, his storytelling has shown a steady maturation, or at least a return to form in the “Amy” vein. While Zack and Miri have talked about the risks of making more of their on-camera fucking more than it is- they’ve been friends for so long, how are they not gonna get some emotional blowback?- it’s not hard to see for anyone on set that their moment on film is more than just a “business” arrangement for either. Delaney- whose marriage has devolved into your run-of-the-mill fight fest at this point- sees the ramifications quickly. As does stripper Stacy (actual porn star Katie Morgan, in a surprisingly touching performance, although I’ll admit to being more interested in touching her…sorry) and party girl-for-hire Bubbles (Traci Lords; yes, THAT one). And don’t forget director of photography Deacon (Smith regular Jeff Anderson, as smart-ass as ever) or Lester, the well-endowed man from the street played by Smith’s hetero life-mate for all-time Jason Mewes (aka Jay of Jay and Silent Bob), who has a speech near the end that had to make the Silent Bob behind the camera grin while writing it (and grin wider as Mewes delivered it onscreen with unlikely heart).
But the movie wouldn’t work without Rogan and Banks, who have officially moved from stars-in-the-making to just plain stars in the past couple of years (he in Judd Apatow flicks like “Knocked Up,” “Superbad,” and “Pineapple Express”; she in not only her scene-stealing turn as the kinky bookstore worker in “40 Year-Old Virgin”- her first pairing with Rogan- but also in noteworthy roles in the “Spider-Man” films, “Seabiscuit,” and just a couple of weeks ago as the current First Lady in Oliver Stone’s “W.”). Rogan still shows some of the smart-ass wit that has made him an effective second banana in some films (“Virgin,” “Superbad”), but Zack gives him a chance to hone some of the everyman appeal he hit out of the park in “Knocked Up” and “Pineapple Express,” while Banks has a sparkling personality to go with her spank-to good looks as Miri. She also has a well-honed every-person quality that Smith exploits beautifully after her and Zack do it on a pile of coffee beans. The change for both of them is immediate, and even as the run-of-the-mill fight and reconciliation takes place onscreen, we’re with them every step of the way to get together. Smith’s approach to humor- like Apatow, who let’s face it had the way paved for him by Smith’s success- may be more juvenile than the likes of Woody Allen, Ivan Reitman, or other comedy masters past, but as we’ve seen in his best work, his ultimate humanism and love for his characters is just as evident. He’s still got as dirty a mind as the man whose characters have riffed on blowjobs, donkey shows, and shit demons in the past, the same geeky fetish for “Star Wars” and comic books as he’s flaunted in films’ past, and the same level of “work with your friend” nepotism that critics have razzed him for before, but so long as he’s making us laugh, who cares? The surprise he has in store in “Zack and Miri” is that ultimately, past his potty-mouth wit, you will care.
