Last night I saw Kevin Smith’s latest movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno – this is only Smith’s second foray outside the Askew-niverse, the first being Jersey Girl. As a huge fan of the askew-niverse films (Clerks 1+2, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) I was interested to see if Smith could capture the same “heart” he displays in his Askew films, outside the confines of his usual fare. I need not have worried…
Seth Rogen stars as a broke barista suffering from unpaid bills and an apartment with no power or water – his solution to the problem lies in making an adult movie with his roommate, come bff, Miri (played by Elizabeth Banks) because, as he states in the film, “Porn’s gone mainstream. It’s like Coca-Cola or Pepsi – with dicks in it.” Belying the 18 certificate, Zack and Miri’s amatuer adventure into filmmaking is not a smut-fest, apart from one particular “scatalogical” scene, it’s more about getting his two lead characters together intimately to explore how sex changes the dynamic of their platonic relationship.
With star turns from Jason Mewes, Brandon Routh and Justin Long (in an amazing role as a gay adult film star) Zack and Miri is at its core a Judd Apatow style gross-out comedy (Smith even borrows from Apatow’s acting ’stable’ – Rogen, Banks, Robinson and Gerry Bednob) about making amateur porn, yet it still manages to maintain that same emotional core that is present in all Smith’s films. It is a perfect meld of Knocked Up style gross-ness and Chasing Amy’s emotional heart and as such can be considered a whole-hearted success!! Definitely one to watch. Consider it a must-buy when it hits dvd and blu-ray too
P.S. Don’t leave till the end of the credits or you’ll miss a little extra movie
