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Pop&Circumstance Blog: A Rock Star, a Virgin, and a Hot Tub

By Blair Thill, blairthill, on April 15, 2010 12:26 AM

By Blair Thill, Gavel Blogger -

This has been a dismal year in the film industry thus far for me, the chief reason being that I’ve only been inspired to see two films in theaters. Sure, I could have seen Shutter Island and experienced the mind-bending twist, but Lost tends to fulfill all my confusing island needs. I could have seen Leap Year or Valentine’s Day, since both are in my chick flick wheelhouse, but thought better when neither could muster even a “C+” grade from Entertainment Weekly. I’ll opt for the $1 Redbox rental. And so, when April rolled around and I was really jonesing for a theater fix, my friends and I made a game-time decision to see Hot Tub Time Machine.

Did Hot Tub Time Machine fail to meet my expectations? Of course not. What could you possibly expect from a movie titled Hot Tub Time Machine? It’s a head-scratching yet laughable title, much like the movie; head-scratching a result of Rob Cordry’s unlikeable oaf and laughing a result of Craig Robinson’s cheating wife subplot and Clark Duke’s general dismay of the 80s. And yet Hot Tub still managed to disappoint me for very different reasons.

ONE: the preponderance of homophobic jokes. I mean, aren’t we in the second decade of the 21st century for Pete’s sake? Is it really necessary to use the f-word, especially in a post-Isaiah Washington scandal world? I think not.

TWO: the degradation of women. At the risk of talking down from a feminist high-horse, I just wasn’t a fan of the one-dimensional female characters. Whereas Judd Apatow produced raunchy comedies showcase at least one realistic woman (i.e. Catherine Keener in 40 Year Old Virgin, Mila Kunis in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Hot Tub was populated with only minor females, the majority of whom could be (and were) categorized as “bitches” and “sluts.” What great classifications for us!

This issue brought up an interesting question in my mind: why is it that male-skewed comedies rely so heartily on the sexual objectification of women? The fairer sex is either a bombshell ripe for the banging or a “dog” ripe for the taunting, stupidly vapid or alarmingly headstrong. Pondering this question led me to wonder something else: is this how guys feel when they watch rom-coms, only instead of sexual objectification they see their fellow men being emotionally objectified? Then again, are these particular questions really the questions I should be asking? Or should I be focusing on why there have to be two separate categories of comedy for each gender in the first place?

Enter my second theater experience this month: the Steve Carell and Tina Fey vehicle Date Night. The two comedic geniuses go head to head as a husband and wife being chased down by thugs after taking another couple’s reservation. Sure, there are screwball moments that were perhaps below the integrity of Carell and Fey, but there were also some gems. The biggest laughs in the theater came from the scene in which Fey’s suburban realtor and mother, Claire, and Carell’s tax attorney, Phil, pretend to be strippers to get to the crooked D.A. Thoughts of their robotic sex simulation still evoke a laugh. And the best part? Both male and female were being hilariously objectified in this scene at the expense of their dignity! Equal opportunity demeaning!

But seriously, as I sat watching Date Night, it struck me that the audience was filled with both men and women equally enjoying the on-screen antics. There were no unlucky-in-love women chasing after a men. There were no men using that dreaded f-word to make themselves feel more masculine. There were just two adults stuck in a jam with hilarious consequences. And the key word in that sentence was ADULTS. How often do we see those in movies anymore, at least box-office winning movies? Not very often. So while Fey and Carell were probably simply striding to make a funny movie, little did they know they actually achieved another goal by proving that adults can, miraculously enough, be funny.