Review of Observe and Report (2009) by Dave S — 11 Jul 2010

Interesting, but this subgenre is becoming a little tired. People keep mentioning "Taxi Driver", which I think is a very deliberate reference point for the film, but it also seems to be drawing on things like "King of Comedy" or any number of recent movies about delusional protagonists. I know that the mismatch of reality and character expectations is a comedy standard, but it's getting played a little too hard lately, particularly with an emphasis on machismo. There are still some laughs here, and I do appreciate that something this weird got through the studio system somehow.

Anna Faris is great, again, especially her delivery of a simple line like "Physically, yes; psychologically, no." Michael Pena is severely unfunny and hard to watch. And the soundtrack is really too much here - lots of loud, dubiously relevant rock songs used to underscore montages or scene transitions in clumsy ways. It's almost enough to make you wish Kenneth Anger never decided to add pop music to films in the first place.