Year One: Whatever

All week, when I’d tell people I was planning to see Year One, they’d wrinkle their noses and say, “What’s that?” And I’d say, “You’ve seen the ads, it’s Jack Black and Michael Cera,” and they’d say, “Oh, yeah, I know what that is.” And then they’d say, “Hey, do you want to see Away We Go this weekend?”

But I would not be deterred. (And also, I have Krasinski issues.)

Figuring Year One to be the kind of movie best appreciated by a big, laughter-hungry audience, I hit the multiplex after work on opening night. It’s summer; it’s got two funny stars; it had that trailer that was hilarious except for a couple of borderline offensive jokes; what’s not to love?

Well…

Year One (which, incidentally, is mistitled; it actually appears to be set several thousand years B.C.E., seeing as how its story takes place whilst all the events of Genesis are occurring simultaneously) feels like a poll-tested contemporary comedy aimed squarely at the Males Ages 12 to 24 bracket. The filmmakers basically collected a random sample of the men who are currently considered funny (only Seth Rogen is missing, and I’ll leave it to you to decide whether that’s a drawback), sent them back in time and dressed them in funny clothes, added some fart jokes and a carefully portioned quantity of misogyny, and threw the transgender character into a fire pit.

Also, I’m pretty sure the movie’s actually about Barack Obama.

Year One will, no doubt, appeal to a lot of people. Like the guy sitting next to me who, despite being well above the aforementioned age bracket, always laughed loudest at the jokes that involved feces. But the movie felt, more than anything else, like it was trying too hard. To be funny, to be shocking, to reinterpret Monty Python (which, I’ll admit, I also have mixed feelings about. There are sequences in Meaning of Life that always make me giggle to think of (“Get that, would you, Deirdre?”), but I always felt like I was missing the joke in Life of Brian.)

Year One is also the kind of movie that contains a bajillion offensive jokes, but if you’re actually offended by them you’re made to feel humorless and uncool. So, I spent two hours being alternately amused, offended, grossed out, and bored, in various combinations. For others who will admit to being the sort of humorless uncool people who do sometimes get offended by things, I’ll note that it’s probably best to avoid Year One if you’re easily bothered by jokes about sexual assault, gay people, Judeo-Christianity, the President of the United States, or bodily functions.

Also, Olivia Wilde is in it. And that is all I’m saying about Olivia Wilde until September.

Judd Apatow produced Year One, but didn’t write it; the screenplay is by the guy who played Egon in Ghostbusters and those two dudes from The Office. And, yeah, it’s well-written. It’s also well-acted and has some very clever conceptual stuff going on. I particularly liked the biblical Isaac played as a rich teen stoner kid, and the chase scene conducted via oxen-drawn carts going down dirt roads at half a mile an hour.

But is the movie actually worth seeing? Or, rather, is it worth seeing sober?

Because it wasn’t that funny. There are funnier movies. Most other movies starring either Jack Black or Michael Cera, for that matter, are funnier. You know what’s awesome? Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is awesome. High Fidelity is awesome. Year One is not awesome. So, yeah, no. Save yourself the $10.75 and Netflix one of those other movies instead.

See Tanya’s review here!