Grandma's Boy
Linda Cardellini, Allen Covert
There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.
- John L. Sullivan, Sullivan's Travels
I like to torture my teenage niece, who is deeply in love with her new boyfriend and coos about how cool he is, by reminding her that at the same period in her father’s life, my gray-haired brother was the coolest cat in the entire school. Extremely shy, I was besieged almost daily by the most beautiful girls in my class with names like Jennifer and Angie, girls who in a few years would be practicing waving while sitting on the backside of a convertible at Home Coming, to let my hunky brother know that if he ever broke up with his girlfriend they would be interested in going out with him. I desperately wanted to scream out, “I’m not going out with anyone. I would be so honored to go out with you that I would even gargle your bath water.” I always knew that all asking them out would get me is a smile, a pat on the head, and a sighing, “Isn’t that cute.” In these girl’s loser sonar, if they even noticed me, I was a pinging noise the size of a battleship. A little girl after girl swooned as my black letterman jacket wearing brother graced their presence it was during that period that I realized that the best way to make sure you child never engages in horizontal dancing is not Christianity, but rather introduce them at the age of four or five, before they cognitively resist, introduce them to a wonderful television series called Star Trek. Being a nerd is the green kryptonite to any young man’s dream of being a sexual Superman. Little did I know when I was watching 70s exploitation films on laser disk, tuning into British television series like The Goodies, Dr. Who, and Monty Python, thrilling to the adventures of Batman, Conan, Green Lantern and Sgt. Rock, hiding novels by Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene underneath my bed, playing Atari, and wondering if I could get Gord the Rogue to the next level, I was digging my own dating grave with a knife and fork. Depth in the teenage world is akin to your old pooch tangling with a skunk. The hound might win in the long run but no one is going to want to be around him for awhile.
Yet, I turn around and find if my parents had waited just a few more years to have me, I would now be cool. I thank god every day for perverts and geeks because without them we would not have the Internet, and the world wide web has made the loser hip again. The Star Wars light saber and comic book collection that used to be hidden as far back into the closet as possible are now being dusted off and allowed to see the light of day. Superstar directors like Bryan Singer, Kevin Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, and the Wachowski brothers bring their love of comic books front and center in all their films. (FYI, the coolest actor around, Nicolas Cage, real name Nicholas Kim Coppola, took his stage name from comic book hero Luke Cage. Nic also has one of the largest comic book collections in the world.) Lord of the Rings and Star Wars geeks actually have girlfriends now and dates often spend Friday evenings watching the new Battlestar Galactica together. Losers are no longer acting like the Eloi for the Morlocks of the world, they’re proud and Hollywood who is always looking to make an extra buck has noticed. The lovable loser, the uber geek, has a long tradition in Hollywood but kind of took some time off in the 90s. The secret to any great comedy is to get the audience to identify with the lead protagonist. The nerdy hero or heroine was the centerpiece of such 1980s classics as Say Anything and Sixteen Candles. Yet this notion has made a comeback with There’s Something About Mary and The American Pie franchise. You can have the most outrageous conduct and situations, nothing is too crude, as long as crowds see the central character as likable. 40 Year Old Virgin brought this genre to its apex this summer. Now it is Grandma’s Boy time.
The Andy Stitzer-like chacter is now being played by played by Allen Covert, a running buddy of Adam Sandler, as Alex. Sandler, who has a long history of providing employment for his friends, has used his production company muscle to give Covert (who has been in 12 of Sandler’s 15 movies) a vehicle of his own. Anyone who understands that 4:20 is something more than just 40 minutes before five o’clock will recognize the sound they hear as the credits open and realize that this film is going to be extremely raw in its humor. This is not the Harold Lloyd comedy from 1922. The new Grandma’s Boy is about a 35-year-old video game tester, who spends his evenings working on what he is convinced will be the next hottest video game to sweep America, suddenly finds himself homeless when his landlord (Rob Schneider) evicts him because Alex’s roommate (Jonathan Loughran, another Sander lackey) has spent six month worth of rent money on Asian hookers. He is forced to move in with his Grandma Lilly (Doris Roberts – Everyone Loves Raymond) and her two Golden Girl roommates, Bea (Shirley Knight) and Grace (Shirley Jones). Well out of the marketing demographic and the oldest employee, except for his boss played by Kevin Nealon (SNL and another Sandler lackey), things are not going well at work and it is safe to say that Alex as an Uber-nerd is not good with the ladies. Enter Samantha (the highly underrated Linda Cardellini – ER, Freaks and Geeks, Brokeback Mountain) who represents the new video game they are testing. His co-workers come to believe that he is living with 3 sex crazed nymphs. You know from the set-up that there is going to be some grandma loving and the old ladies are going to accidentally sample a little Mary Jane.
This is a rude, crude stoner sex comedy, the kind of film that critics dump on. Yet, even the studio seems to have little faith in it, dumping it in January to drown in the wave of Oscar films and Christmas fare. The only way they could have bury it any deeper is to hold it off until Lucas decides to release the seventh installment of Star Wars. You can tell that the only reason the film even got made and released is that the studio is trying to stay in Adam Sandler’s good graces. Yet, I have to say that it is funny. It is like Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle meets 40 Year Old Virgin. Even though Sandler does not turn up in the film, this is a Sandler film and marketed right would make a lot of money.
A few months back my minister brother, who never goes to the movies, attended 40 Year Old Virgin. He hated every moment of it, thought it was rude and juvenile, and wondered how I could have recommended it. Certain films are geared to certain audiences. If you are not in that audience, you will hate it. My parents once dropped my 8-year-old butt off to a new movie called Annie Hall. Every moment of it was painful. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are like a root canal for a kid who thinks Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are the apex of comedy. Today it is one of the favorites in my dvd collection. If you are not uptight, Grandma’s Boy is a good B-level sex comedy. As you grow older, it might not be your cup of tea. Movies are meant to make us laugh and smile, and this movie accomplishes that.
Verdict: A Better Than Expected Comedy