More tasteless farce than blistering satire, The Interview is a relatively innocuous comedy, the injustices of North Korea serving as a glaze over the usual bro-out antics between Seth Rogen and James Franco. It’s a more ordinary film than This Is The End or Pineapple Express, and the main point of difference is an obsession on the part of the filmmakers with things going into and coming out of butts.
The movie’s biggest stumbling block is Franco, who dials up the silliness and comes across like he’s in a school play and got the giggles. He’s funny, but it’s hard not to see Franco The Artist sniggering that he’s above all this, when he’s not sneaking in a weird Salo reference that is (ok, the Salo reference is awesome).
Rogen has settled into a nice post-backlash groove lately, and while he’s not as schlubbily charming as he was in last year’s Bad Neighbours, he’s affable enough as Skylark’s producer.
The comedic highlight though is Randall Park, whose Kim Jong Un is hilarious. The film’s main bit of subversion is allowing Kim to be a human being with feelings, and Park plays him with a mix of vulnerability and bluster.
The Interview admirably commits to buffoonery over jingoism until its final act, when it indulges in a wee bit of flag waving. But overall it’s just a chill movie about some bros that happens to feature the leader of North Korea. It’s hardly incendiary but if you’re looking for chuckles you could do a lot worse.
