Fridae

Judd Apatow is the hottest comedy director in Hollywood right now. The success of his The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Knocked Up (2007) proves he is one man who can combine penis jokes with a pro-abstinence/pro-marriage stance. He has a vulgar fratboy sense of humour, yet he is sentimental and morally conservative at heart. That’s a rare, rare combination.

His latest comedy Funny People shows him maturing as an artist. It is a multi-layered dramedy with complex characters and dirty jokes galore. But you leave the cinema realizing that penis jokes have come a long way since the Farrelly brothers made them de rigueur in the 1990s with gross-out comedies like Dumb & Dumber, There’s Something About Mary and Shallow Hal.

Funny People stars Adam Sandler (in his most nuanced performance yet) as a rich and egotistical comedian who suffers from a rare form of leukemia. The doctors predict he doesn’t have long to live, so he’s desperate to find meaning in his life before he kicks the bucket.

Enter Seth Rogen, a struggling stand-up comedian barely surviving from one paycheck to the next. Adam employs Seth to be his personal assistant, and Seth unwittingly helps Adam regain some form of perspective on his life.

Written, produced and directed by Judd, Funny People is his most ambitious film to date, and you’d have to laud him for reworking the comedy genre and taking it to a higher plane. Funny People surprises you with both its vulgarity and sincerity again and again. Then the last act hit you on the head with its unexpected profoundness.

Now that’s a rare, rare experience.