Observe And Report: Delusional Heroes For Uncertain Times

“Give me ten men like Clouseau and I could destroy the world.”
-- Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus from A Shot In The Dark

“No, I'm not talking about that. I beat the shit out of some kids today. But it was for a purpose. It made me feel good about myself. It was like I did something constructive with my life or something, I dunno, like I accomplished something.”
-- Willie from Bad Santa

“The world has no use for another scared man. Right now, the world needs a fucking hero.”
-- Ronnie Barnhardt from Observe And Report

Adulthood and heroism are in short supply during these uncertain times. Stubborn righteousness and naïve idealism have left the United States Of America and the rest of the world with canyons of debt. In a time where escapism should be the highest priority at the multiplex, we have been delivered two unique films that are more commentary than escapist comedy. Jody Hill’s Observe And Report exists somewhere between Ben Stiller’s The Cable Guy and Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa. It is the second film in less than a week to suffer from poor marketing. The first film was Greg Mottola’s coming of age masterpiece, Adventureland. Observe And Report is being sold as a comedy. No one expects it to be family friendly as was the case with Paul Blart: Mall Cop, the surprise hit of the year so far. The comedic specter of Judd Apatow haunts both Adventureland and Observe And Report; both films eradicate the Apatow brand within the opening minutes. These films are different beasts; departures from what we have come to expect from a Judd Apatow influenced comedies. Adventureland was a painfully honest coming of age story. There are moments of humor, but the film is more cerebral than most. Observe And Report is a darker film. It represents a major change for Seth Rogen. We are so used to the lovable loafers he has played in Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express and Zach And Miri Make A Porno that we do not recognize Ronnie Barnhardt in Observe And Report where Rogen is playing against type-- always risky in this business, but sometimes it can pay great dividends. Henry Fonda in Once Upon A Time In The West or Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast are terrific examples of actors going against the grain. Denzel Washington played against type in Training Day, but some could argue that was only a warm up for his role as Frank Lucas in American Gangster. Judging from the trailers, one would not suspect that Seth Rogen’s Ronnie Barnhardt would be that much different than the previous characters he has played, but all of that changes minutes into the film. If you want to see typical Seth Rogen right now at the multiplex, I would suggest you go see him as B.O.B. in the highly entertaining Monsters Vs. Aliens. I never saw Paul Blart: Mall Cop, but you do not have to Columbo to figure out these are two different films. Seth Rogen is pulling a Robin Williams with Observe And Report. In 2002, Robin Williams desperately underwent a career transformation starting with Death To Smoochy, Insomnia and One Hour Photo. Williams wanted to cleanse of himself of such genial fare as Flubber and Patch Adams. In One Hour Photo, his Seymour Parrish is the antithesis of his beloved Mork from Mork And Mindy; talk about career changes. Observe And Report is a dark character study with moments of demented and uncomfortable humor. The film is a reversal of expectations that is willing to push the envelope. Observe And Report is anything but a light hearted spoof of the Die Hard films. Jody Hill’s film is a subversive comedy to end all subversive comedies.

Observe And Report is a furiously depressing and exhausting film throughout most of its running time. Jody Hill’s sophomore follow-up to his delightfully funny debut, The Foot Fist Way, may be one of the darkest comedies I have seen in years. This is a different kind of bleakness in tone from Greg Mottola’s Adventureland. Seth Rogen’s Ronnie Barnhardt is different from Jesse Eisenberg’s James Brennan. James Brennan is confronting the brutality of emerging adulthood in Adventureland. Ronnie Barnhardt is a different type of creature. In one sense, he is the typical man-child at the center of the many of these films. He is no different from the characters from Step Brothers, I Love You, Man, Role Models or even The Foot Fist Way. It seems that Jody Hill is making a dark parody of his first film, The Foot Fist Way, which featured a career making performance from Danny McBride as Fred Simmons, an incompetent martial arts instructor. Danny McBride does have a cameo as a drug dealer in Observe And Report. The big difference between Fred Simmons and Ronnie Barnhardt is likeability. Maybe, it is the way that McBride played Simmons, but I found a lot more empathy for his character than I do for Rogen’s Barnhardt. Observe And Report is a nastier and meaner film than The Foot Fist Way. I am almost tempted to say it is far more mature film in some ways. The characters in Step Brothers and Failure To Launch have it all together compared to Ronnie Barnhardt. Barnhardt is Rogen’s most daring role to date. He steps way out of his comfort zone in Observe And Report. Ronnie is the head of security at the fictional Forest Ridge Mall. He takes his job very seriously. Outside of the job, his life is empty and lonely. He has aspirations to become a police officer one day. His aspirations are hindered because he suffers from bi-polar disorder and refuses to take his meds. He lives at home with his alcoholic mother played to perfection by the always amazing Celia Watson. One wonders if Cloris Leachman was not available for the part. Ronnie has a severe crush on the make-up counter girl, Brandi, played by an underused Anna Faris. Brandi has no interest in him. Sadly Ronnie is too obsessed with Brandi to see that the food court barista, Colette Wolfe’s Nell, is interested in him. Nell is too nice for her own good. Sadly she is unfairly criticized by her boss (Patton Oswalt) for being lazy when it is only her broken leg that keeps her from doing more. Given the subversive nature of the humor in the film, it would not surprise me if she is named for Jodie Foster’s character in the film, Nell. Ronnie already has a full plate, but there is a serial flasher/pervert (Randy Gambill) on the loose who keeps exposing himself to all the female shoppers and employees at the mall. Catching the pervert becomes Ronnie’s main mission in the film. This criminal mission becomes Ronnie’s white whale as he exhibits a remedial Ahab-like zeal to catch the pervert.

Ronnie is a bully in no uncertain terms. He preys upon the weak. This is a far cry from his Officer Michaels in Superbad. He bosses his security detail around, his rent-a-cop underlings, who make Beavis And Butt-Head look like the deadliest Navy SEALS. Michael Pena plays Dennis, his heavily lisping deputy. The rest of the detail consists of John and Matt (John and Matt Yuan), twins who should make you feel less safe while you shop. What we see here is how inept Ronnie is as their boss. He is clueless to what is going on around him. This comes into to full play when Ray Liotta’s Detective Harrison comes onto the scene to investigate the serial flasher as well as other crimes at the mall. It seems I have seen a lot of Ray Liotta lately. Between this, Crossing Over and Battle In Seattle, I feel I know him all too well. It is Liotta’s casting that plays the best opposite Rogen’s Ronnie. Jody Hill has inadvertently made the greatest and most demented remake of the original Pink Panther films. Forget the awful Steve Martin remakes; this is how it is done. While many have said that Ronnie Barnhardt shares a kinship with Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle, I have to say he comes across as a nasty spiritual brother to Peter Sellers’ Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the original Pink Panther films. I see the Travis Bickle connection, but I seriously doubt Ronnie Barnhardt would have ever made it home from the Vietnam War the way Travis Bickle did. He might not have made it out of Basic Training given his insane performance in the police training sequence of the film. Clouseau was a clueless, bumbling twit, but was steadfast in his clumsiness. He never had any idea what was going on, but at least he was a pleasant person. Barnhardt on the other hand is just as clueless, but has an inherent meanness to him that makes him out to be Clouseau’s long lost evil brother. In many ways, Detective Harrison is filling in for Herbert Lom’s Chief Inspector Dreyfus. Harrison cannot believe the audacity of this rent-a-cop. It is to Liotta’s persona that he created in such classics as Something Wild and Goodfellas allows him to make Harrison play so well off against Barnhardt. Anna Faris’s Brandi is a shallower, bitchier version of Elke Sommer’s Maria Gambrelli in A Shot In The Dark. Jody Hill has created the perfect Clouseau for our darker times. Ronnie Barnhardt is as delusional as Clouseau ever was and he is as determined to solve the case on his terms no matter what the cost. To Dreyfus, Clouseau was a walking doomsday weapon. Clouseau was nothing compared to Barnhardt; he could undo the whole fabric of the universe. Yet, Clouseau and Barnhardt both possess a dangerous stubbornness-- Barnhardt even more so. Yes, insurance companies got nervous whenever Clouseau was on the case, but then again, they got nervous around Leslie Neilsen’s Lt. Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun films. Ronnie’s stubbornness and blindness to the world around him is creepy and unnerving at times. He is a cross between Tommy Lee Jones’s Pete Perkins in The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada and former President George W. Bush. He parades through the mall making his rounds like a half-witted Gary Cooper in High Noon. He is like a meaner version of Jason Lee’s Brodie in Mallrats as he tours the mall. In retrospect, Mallrats, as well as Clerks, was uplifting social commentary on working in retail. Within Ronnie’s rounds, we see a certain level of disdain with the people he is supposed to be protecting. He does not like anyone, not even himself. The only person who gets any level of respect is the object of his desire, Brandi. Skateboarders and fellow mall employees feel his wrath. With the exception of Ronnie, no one is happy in their jobs at the mall. It is a devastating social critique not only on mall culture, but on the status of America’s service industry. When Nell confesses to Ronnie that she cannot meet her medical bills with meager funds from her job, we understand something is rotten at the bottom of the American Dream. This film, along with Adventureland, is pitch perfect social commentary on working in retail.

Anna Faris is one of the funniest actresses working in comedy today. She is the “true daughter” of Goldie Hawn. She has a natural comic grace that goes a long way. No one else could have played Shelley Darlingson to such perfection in The House Bunny. If it was not for her playing Cindy Campbell in the Scary Movie series, they may not have worked at all. Yet, like Goldie Hawn, she proved she could do more than comedy as well; Faris was revelation in Lost In Translation as well as May and Brokeback Mountain. She showed another side of her comic gifts in Smiley Face. I think she is grossly underused in this film as Brandi. She does what she can with the part. She plays the part as a trashy variation of Goldie Hawn’s Gloria Mundy from Foul Play. Here she turns the table and plays Brandi as an absolute bitch. Is it any wonder why Ronnie is so obsessed with her? She is a stand-in for his alcoholic mother. Brandi likes to go out and have a good time. After Ronnie forces her to go out with him, they go out for drinks where she gets hammered. This leads to the film’s most controversial scene-- the date rape scene. It is an uncomfortable scene, it is supposed to be. It shows us the true nastiness and perversions of Barnhardt’s character. He is a very sick and demented character. It is to Rogen’s credit that he is able to play against type so well. There is nothing to really like or admire about his character in this film. The greatest irony of the film is that he is chasing a serial flasher. In the film’s finale he is seen chasing the pervert throughout the mall; it is a maddening sequence. Hill goes overboard showing us plenty of full frontal nudity of the flasher as well as a Polaroid photo of his package. The great irony is that Ronnie is chasing himself. Ronnie could easily become this type of person in a couple of years.

Does Observe And Report work after all is said and done? If you are willing to accept the fact that you are not getting another cookie cutter comedy, then I feel the film is ready for consumption. The trailer is very misleading. I noticed that some people were less than thrilled with Adventureland because it was not the comedy that they were promised in the trailer. The same can certainly be said of Observe And Report. These two films turned out to be much better than their trailers had promised-- especially in the case of Adventureland. The humor in Observe And Report is far darker than I ever expected. It is very much akin to Ben Stiller’s The Cable Guy where Jim Carrey displayed an early knack for playing against type as the title character. The film was not well received when it first came out, but it has gained a strong cult following over the years. Observe And Report also displays a certain nihilistic and anarchist streak that reminds me of Bad Santa. Yet, Bad Santa has a certain catharsis that Observe And Report does not have. Billy Bob Thornton gives one of his greatest post-Sling Blade performances. His character has a lot of empathy in the film. I do not feel a lot of empathy towards Seth Rogen’s Character in the film, but that does not mean I do not think it is a good film. While I do not believe the film is as well made as David Gordon Green’s Pineapple Express which also starred Rogen, it is the film that I think it shares a lot with since both films share an abrupt change in tones. Pineapple Express received a lot of criticism for becoming an action film in the third act. I felt that David Gordon Green handled this perfectly. The film was a total homage to the great action buddy films of the Eighties such as 48 Hours and Midnight Run. Jody Hill delivers enough unexpected violence and shocks to give David Gordon Green a run for his money. I am not tempted to jump on the bandwagon and say that Observe And Report is the Taxi Driver for the 21st Century, but I do feel that Jody Hill has made a fascinating film which is uneven at times, but is never dull. The Taxi Driver analogy is appropriate to a certain degree, but I think the film is working on a lot more levels than just trying to make Ronnie Barnhardt a variation on Travis Bickle for our times. Is the final chase through the mall, the great catharsis, the great release of all Ronnie’s problems? Does he get all his anger out? I am tempted to say yes and even the ending has that Taxi Driver feel, but Ronnie also reminds me too much of other characters from other comedies and dramas over the years. Imagine if Michael Douglas’ William ‘D-Fens’ Foster had never gone to college in the film Falling Down, he would have probably ended up like the Seth Rogen character in Observe And Report. It is a disturbing and depressing character study that is never afraid to cross the line. Jody Hill is not afraid to color outside the lines. Jody Hill has made the most subversive comedy in many years. He has gone farther than Judd Apatow, Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman and perhaps, even John Landis. Observe And Report may have a longer shelf life than anyone had ever anticipated.