The Funny Lady

My daughter was home from college, celebrating her birthday over the holidays. She asked me to pick up "Baby Mama" for the party. I probably wouldn't have rented the movie otherwise. Although I decided not to crash a party of giggling girls, I watched the film before I had to return it. I'm glad I did. At first, I wanted to roll my eyes in disdain with the low-brow humor like Angie Ostrowiski crouching in a sink to relieve herself. But eventually, I found myself laughing out loud.

Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler was the funny lady in this film. As the uneducated crass Angie, Poehler pulled out all the stops. Equally as wonderful was Tina Fey as Kate Holbrook who played Felix to Poehler's Oscar in this odd couple match. After being named entertainer of the year for her Sarah Palin characterization + her Golden Globe & Screen Actors Guild award as Best Actress in a TV series for "30 Rock," Fey plays a totally different woman, Kate Holbrook, the overly organized executive able to handle the strangest of bosses, Steve Martin's new age executive Barry.

Michael McCullers who was the screenwriter for "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" has his directorial debut with this film. He lets the supporting characters shine. Holland Taylor who has twice been nominated for Emmys for "Two and a Half Men" does a great job. Dax Shepard who I saw in Let's Go to Prison (Rated & Unrated Versions) plays a good lout as Angie's boyfriend. Greg Kinnear who was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for "As Good As It Gets" back in 1997, plays the sympathetic boyfriend for Kate. Sigourney Weaver who won Golden Globes for "Gorillas in the Mist" & "Working Girl" plays the fertility businesswoman Chaffee Bicknell with a cold-blooded focus. Romany Malco does a great job as Oscar the bellboy, who gets in the middle of everybody's business. John Hodgman who has been on the "Daily Show" & numerous personal computer commercials has a funny cameo as a fertility specialist.

The most hilarious cameo is Siobhan Fallon-Hogar as the speech-impaired birthing teacher. While it's wrong to laugh at someone because of a disability, she plays the character with such conviction that I was hopelessly laughing in spite of myself.

"Baby Mama" succeeds as a comedy because of its funny script, good pacing, enough sentiment to make you care & excellent performances. Enjoy!

[Tuesday, January 06, 2009]

All in all, a pretty decent movie

It is a bit of a commentary on how few good comedies there have been in the past couple of years that this is, bizarrely, one of the best comedies of 2008. I'm tempted to chase a rabbit and ask precisely why Hollywood has gotten so bad at producing good comedies (though I suspect it has something to do with so many emulating the terrible comedies of the Apatow combine), but I'll instead say that while this is not at all a bad movie, it shouldn't have qualified as one of the best comedies of the year, though it did. All in all this was a fun, enjoyable film. It is just that there should have been many others as good or better.

I've seen over the years many of the Second City shows here in Chicago. Although the shows I've seen have featured many, many men and women who have enjoyed a great deal of success in comedy, on TV, or on film, in fact I can remember only three performers from the shows I've attended. First and foremost I remember Steve Carrell, especially his hysterical impersonation of Fabio. Second, I remember Stephen Colbert. Third, I remember Tina Fey. Interestingly, while I remember well Tina Fey, I do not remember Amy Poehler, although I definitely saw her. Still, it is great to see two of the people I saw together in a film, even if I remember only one of them.

This is good, but it isn't as good as Tina Fey's main gig these days, 30 ROCK. There are some good moments in the film, but few great ones. Both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were persistently funny, and there was also some humorous moments featuring Steve Martin, but while the film was good, I kept thinking about how upsetting it was that there weren't better comedies this past year. It all makes me wonder if 2008 wasn't one of the least funny years in the history of Hollywood.

2008 has, however, to go down as a great year for Tina Fey. In addition to her success on BABY MAMA, Tina went from success to success thanks to 30 ROCK, which was clearly the best comedy on television, and has a host of awards to prove it. She also won the Emmy for Best Actress. But her most valuable public service might have been in permanently deflating the hopes of Sarah Palin to be taken seriously by the American people. As one of the least substantial political figures in decades, Palin was extremely vulnerable to receiving her public comeuppance, but it was Fey who delivered it in the most devastating impersonation in recent (or for that matter distant) memory. If America hadn't given up on Palin earlier, they surely did the second that Fey, as Palin, proclaimed "Now it's time for some fancy pageant walking." How can Palin ever talk about foreign policy when Fey's words that "I can see Russia from my house" ring in our ears? I don't remember a comedian single-handedly ending the political career of a politician so completely (and yes, Sarah Palin's career is over -- if ever she tries to run for anything above governor of Alaska, Tina Fey will just trot out some more parodies and take care of that).

So, while 2008 was definitely the year of Fey, it wasn't a great year for film comedy. Nor was BABY MAMA the best place to see her strut her stuff. That would either be her Palin impersonations on SNL (along with Amy Poehler's unforgettable rap alongside the real Palin when the latter declined). Hopefully 2009 will show a rebound of the film comedy. As things stand, BABY MAMA is unfortunately about as good as we have for 2008.

[Saturday, January 03, 2009]

Witty and entertaining

If you are a fan of Tina Fey and/or Amy Poehler, you will enjoy this movie. Steve Martin also appears in the movie as Tina Fey's character's boss. It's a fun show and I thought it was great. It does have quite a few sexual references, so if that bothers you just be aware of that. That's the only possible downside I could think of.

[Friday, January 02, 2009]

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