I Love YOU, Man

I got around to seeing I Love You, Man this weekend, and am very glad I did. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel are probably my favorite actors in the whole “Apatow crew,” and their easy everyman likability elevates the simple premise.

Watching the movie, you really get the feeling that Jason Segel’s character Sydney is the kind of friend everyone needs once in a while—the guy that’s discovered the secret for gathering up the wisdom and perspective that come with adulthood without sacrificing the lifestyle of an adolescent. He’s even got a Rush poster on his wall. You really feel these guys’s friendship, and it helps to show that some of the greatest moments in life are the ones where you’re not doing much but laughing with your friends. Most of the movie is just Paul Rudd and Jason Segel onscreen together having fun, and most of the time that’s all you need. If just watching these two jam out together to Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” doesn’t bring a big stupid grin to your face—well, I don’t know what else I have to say to you.

I’ve been somewhat critical of the recent comedies from Apatow and others for focusing a bit too much on upholding traditional family values and social roles (I went to a self-righteous liberal arts college, so it’s okay for me to think of things like this). There’s 40 Year Old Virgin’s implication that the world breaks down into people who postpone sex until marriage, and crass, selfish hedonists; Knocked Up and Juno’s strong anti-abortion undertones (I’m okay with Juno’s treatment of adoption, less okay with Knocked Up’s premise that two people who have a baby together should be together); even Superbad descends into a saccharine paean to the value of male-friendship.

That’s not to say I Love You, Man doesn’t suffer from some of these issues, notably in the suggestion that Paul Rudd’s character is somehow missing out on life without male friends. But it’s always bad to let a general impression get in the way of a specific story. Paul Rudd didn’t need male friends in his life, but he did need Jason Segel. He needed someone to go out and have a beer with, to talk Rush with, just to do the things he couldn’t do with his wife. And that’s fine. The film deals with the sometimes awkward world of male friendship without falling prey to the bizarre and overly sentimental version of the same thing in Superbad. These are two real characters in a real world that happens to be, embellishment aside, pretty damn funny.

And that’s the main contribution of the new wave of comedies. Only a few years ago we were dealing with Austin Powers III and Scary Movie—Now we’ve got movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You, Man that for the most part deal with real people suffering through real situations. Things don’t always go well, and there’s a lot of pain and other nonsense to deal with, but the end result is something decidedly hilarious. The Ancient Greeks had it pretty well right on this: Tragedy generally deals with the god’s relationship with people, comedy with people’s relationship with people. I’d take 40 Year Old Virgin, Juno, Knocked Up, and especially Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You, Man, over the manufactured over-the top crap that so often passes for comedy any day of the week.

Anyway, that was a long pretentious rant. But the short version is I Love You, Man is a hilarious and very real movie that has a lot of fun with the sometimes difficult world of male friendship in a society where gender roles have become more confusing (ACK!! There I go stumbling into liberal-arts talk again. I am sincerely sorry. Once you’ve spent a couple semesters in Gender Studies or Feminist Theory classes, it’s harder to control than Dr. Strangelove’s Nazi sympathies) I loved I Love You, Man for showing that adult male friendships don’t have to be the poker playing chug fests so hilariously illustrated by Jon Favreau’s character and his friends. Being a perpetual teenager and a responsible adult isn’t mutually exclusive, and there’s a lot of fun in life (at any age) if you just get out there and find it.

Shorter version: Great comdey. Loved it. Now bring on Jason Segel's Muppet movie!