What’s up with The MPAA and Kevin Smith? Do they not like him or something? He had to appeal the NC-17 rating that they were going to slap onto his newest film Zack and Miri Make a Porno so that it could get an R.
Smith faced similar troubles with his 1994 debut film Clerks, which was also going to get the dreaded NC-17, basically dooming it to financial purgatory, despite a complete lack of violence or nudity of any sort.
So let's get this straight: a cheapie indie comedy can get rated NC-17 for language alone, while a nude woman hung, arms and legs bound, in a freezer, being sprayed with cold water until she freezes to death in Saw 3, one of the most vile, ugly, and depressing films imaginable, gets an R? So, violent misogyny is fine as long as you have parental accompaniment, but a bunch of goofs going through the motions of making a porno is for adults only? Who exactly are these ratings protecting?
Kevin Smith Making Love out of Porno
Sure, Zack and Miri is raunchy, and the language, as the MPAA puts it, is certainly pervasive, but do we really expect anything less from Kevin Smith, who specializes in this sort of thing? But the point is, the raunch in Kevin Smith films is not just to give audiences a quick jolly (although the film is very funny indeed), but it strives to create something deeper, if you’ll buy that.
The violence in the Saw films is for pure titillation; the language of Zack and Miri strives to build characters. In a way, Zack and Miri defines itself through its vulgarity. Stephen King in his book On Writing, wrote that not just any writer can take colloquialisms and street language like Tom Wolfe or Elmore Leonard and make them into an art form.
Smith, unlike his contemporaries who present dirty talk for a quick jolly, operates on this level of artistry as well. Smith thus stands in the same league of screenwriters like Neil Labute, Quentin Tarantino or even David Mamet. His craft may not be as refined and he’s not really a storyteller, but, like those men, when you hear his dialogue, there is no question as to whose penmanship it originated under.
The Story
The film stars Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogan as the title characters. The duo work at a second rate Starbucks ripoff, have been best friends since grade school, and can barely afford to live from paycheck to paycheck.
They’ve also never slept together, and like it that way. That means there is no complications between them, just pure, honest, untarnished friendship.
Then one day, after meeting a gay porn star (a hilarious cameo by Justin Long) at their high school reunion, Zack gets the idea of he and Miri making a porno film of their own in order to pay the bills.
A Romantic Comedy in Disguise
That’s all to say about the plot, because what more could be said on a decent website without sounding indecent? How they go about making the porno, what it is about and the complications that arise from the dilemma of the pair having a sex scene together, can be left for the viewer to discover on their own.
What can be said though is that Zack and Miri Make a Porno is, despite being perversely funny, a sweet and touching film. Almost all of Smith’s movies are. That’s because he’s a man who loves making films as much as we love watching them.
You can tell that Smith loves these characters and therefore allows them enough depth for us to love them too. That’s the difference between a Smith film and a lesser perverted comedy: once the gags have all passed, you’re left with the kind of joy that one finds in time well spent in the presence good friends.
Summary
As stated, Kevin Smith is not a great storyteller and that is true; it might even be why his films work so well. Smith is first and foremost a writer, and the heart of his films lie in the way people talk. The degrees to which the films succeed is based solely one whether or not what they are talking about is interesting.
Zack and Miri Make a Ponro exists right in the middle of Smith’s comfort zone. It doesn’t really rise to the level of Chasing Amy or Jersey Girl, but it is funny and charming and just all around good company for an hour and a half. The world is so complicated and human nature so complex, sometimes that’s all we need or want a film to be.
Let it be reiterated though: Zack and Miri Make a Porno, as its title suggests, is a film for adults. But as an adult, you should see it. It certainly beats watching a woman sifting through a dead man’s intestines to find the key that will unlock the helmet that threatens to crush her skull in a matter of minutes, wouldn’t you say?
- Rating: 4 out of 5
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno
- Wirtten and Directed by Kevin Smith
- Running Time 102 minutes
