The Apatow Effect
the writer/director who cracks dick jokes to critical acclaim
Since the birth of cinema, there have always been legendary auteurs who have developed smash comedies: Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson. But now a new man has entered the ring: Judd Apatow. A producer, writer, and director, Judd Apatow has become one of Hollywood’s hottest commodities. His films manage to be both box-office hits and critical favorites.
Apatow continues his trend into this year with four films, including last week’s release of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a film in which Jason Segel (who also wrote the script) finds himself in a difficult breakup with his TV-star girlfriend, played by Kristen Bell. Like the rest of Apatow’s work, it seems poised to be another hit, which thus begs the question: how does Judd Apatow keep rolling in the hits?
A look at his films and his history reveals the secret behind his success. After writing for a number of TV shows and a string of film rewrites in the 1990s, Judd Apatow got his big break—his own TV series. Freaks and Geeks did not resemble the normal teenage high school shows of the time. Set in the 1980s, it portrayed social outcasts dealing with real issues like sex and drugs, but usually with a light-hearted, amusing tone. Although its originality garnered huge critical success, the show—unable to get the ratings it needed—disappointed its producers, who cancelled it after its first season.
Despite this setback, Apatow got a second chance in TV, this time using the college scene as his setting. Undeclared did for college what Freaks and Geeks did for the high school. Its scope ranged from the serious to the humorous, poking fun at the freshman 15 and sensitively portraying intersex teenagers. But like his previous show, Undeclared was canceled, this time halfway through the season.
Despite the commercial failure of his two TV series (which have now gained cult status through DVD), both set the standard for Apatow’s approach to film. He routinely uses the actors from the TV series, including Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, and Jason Segel. Also, Superbad director Greg Mottola and Walk Hard director Jake Kasdan had their directorial debuts on the television shows.
Apatow developed his improvisational directing style while working on the two series. He typically does several takes of the same scene, allowing the actors to improvise dialogue with each new take. The process lends his work a distinctive, spontaneous energy.
For most people, two canceled shows would be a sign to pack up and head home. For Apatow, it meant thinking bigger and better. After the flop of his two shows, Apatow saved his career by producing 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a blockbuster hit. He also directed 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which brought him additional career success. His film directorial debut was considered a highly original piece of work. The film’s success stems from its truthful depiction of the real awkwardness in adult relationships, achieved through the cast’s improvised dialogue and the honesty of the relationship of Steve Carell and Catherine Keener, which avoids many clichés that other films use.
Apatow has a particular knack for creating guy characters that every male can relate to. They act like real guys: making raunchy jokes and doing stupid things, reveling in a nostalgia for the male camaraderie of their childhoods. His films are sometimes called “dick flicks,” or male romantic comedies.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin was an unexpected success story. It did not have any major stars, yet it was able to gross over $175 million worldwide, on a budget not even a fifth of that amount. To many, it signaled a return of the R-rated comedy. But while the makers of Wedding Crashers, the other successful vulgar comedy of the summer, went on to make lighter fare, Apatow decided to stay in risky territory, keeping his films naughty and offensive. And in 2007, it paid off.
What both Knocked Up and Superbad accomplish is the ability to create ridiculous, slightly unrealistic situations that offer insights into characters’ lives through vulgar comedy. Each film features a cast of brilliant actors like Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Michael Cera, whose improvisational abilities have produced numerous quotable lines (Paul Rudd, while high on mushrooms, remarks “my hand tastes like a rainbow”). Both films feature characters confronting relatable fears, such as parenthood, separation from old friends, and avoiding the realities of life. Apatow’s films are essentially about the fears of growing into maturity.
The last two films produced by Apatow—the John C. Reilly musical-biopic spoof Walk Hard and the Owen Wilson bully flick Drillbit Taylor—have done poorly at the box office. But those can be blaimed on bad timing and marketing. Walk Hard, which was hailed by many critics as being a hilarious homage to biopics like Walk the Line and Ray, earned two Golden Globe nominations. Still, the film was released at the same time as major Oscar contenders and got lost in that holiday mix. Drillbit Taylor, an Owen Wilson film in which three kids hire him to be a bully as protection from other bullies, was not really the regular Apatow—it was aimed at a younger audience (the film’s rating was PG-13) and did not feature any of his regular cast members.
But this spring and summer promises a return to Apatow’s characteristic work. Besides Sarah Marshall, Apatow is producing Step Brothers, a sibling rivalry comedy with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. A film that is sure to be a success is the stoner action-comedy Pineapple Express, which stars Seth Rogen and Spider-Man’s James Franco (Franco starred in Freaks & Geeks). Apatow, who helped develop the story with Superbad writers Rogen and Evan Goldberg, brought in indie director David Gordon Green, best known for films like George Washington and the recent Snow Angels to direct. The combination of Green’s brilliant sense of staging and atmosphere and Apatow’s vulgar hilarity and brilliant characters seems like a winning combination.
In the past three years, Apatow has developed a truly original brand of comedy. From old virgins to unwanted pregnancies to uncomfortable breakups, Judd Apatow knows how to make the most awkward situation into a goldmine of comedy, while still creating a honest and realistic look at human relationships in the 21st century.