{"id":3193,"date":"2013-09-02T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-09-02T04:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/?p=3193"},"modified":"2013-09-02T00:36:21","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T04:36:21","slug":"hell-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/hell-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Hell Baby: The Best Summer Movie of 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hell\"
\nIf that ain’t masterful mise-en-sc\u00e9ne, I don’t know what is.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hell Baby<\/a> (2013)
\n<\/b>Written and Directed by Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon
\n98 min.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s review was slated to be Blue Jasmine<\/a>, because I saw that last week and I certainly have a lot to say about it (sorry, next Monday, I promise) but then I realized that I\u2019d somehow forgotten to ever write about Hell Baby, which I saw a few weeks ago when it came out on VOD and enjoyed a great deal. I suppose I could\u2019ve written about Hell Baby next week, and stuck to writing about Blue Jasmine today, but fuck it\u2014the mere moment the words \u2018Hell Baby<\/a>\u2019 were back in my head, I couldn\u2019t stop giggling. In fact, I\u2019m still smiling, as I write this. And if that ain\u2019t the textbook sign of a perfect summer comedy (and of a more fun thing to write about) I don\u2019t know what is.
\n
\nHowever, I honestly have no idea if you will have the same reaction to this movie as I did. I can very easily see people hating it, because basically, you\u2019re either on its humor wavelength or you aren\u2019t. Garant and Lennon have a very specific way of thinking, and speed <\/i>to their thinking, and if you need a handrail, it ain\u2019t there. This isn\u2019t your typical summer comedy where studio execs have obsessed over it having \u2018something for everyone\u2019 in order to appeal to the widest possible demographic and make damn sure everyone from little Billy to little Billy\u2019s grandfather has something to laugh at. (And I\u2019m not just talking about family fare\u2014this happens with faux-subversive films like The Hangover<\/a> as well.)<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, there\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with those kinds of movies. There\u2019s certainly a time and place for them\u2014traditionally, in theaters, with a packed crowd hungry for a good time. This is because movies like these tend to have pretty low shelf lives (I wrote an essay about this phenomenon<\/a>) whereas wholly artisanal products, like Hell Baby, only get better with time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only seen Hell Baby once, but I already know I\u2019ll like it more the second time than the first, and the third even more than that, and so on, because this has happened to me with all<\/i> of Garant & Lennon\u2019s work. When I first saw the show Reno 911!<\/a>, I thought it was just okay. It\u2019s now one of my favorite TV comedies of all time. The movie, Reno 911!: Miami<\/a>, I found kinda funny, but mostly a let down. Now, I think it\u2019s pitch perfect.<\/p>\n

Usually when people talk about a film \u2018growing on them\u2019, they\u2019re referring to a complex and serious art house drama. People tend to afford these sorts of movies extra consideration and time because they believe they inherently deserve it. With comedies, however, people can be very quick to dismiss them outright if they merely aren\u2019t laughing as often as they would like to be. This can be a mistake.<\/p>\n

Not laughing at a joke doesn\u2019t necessarily mean a joke isn\u2019t funny\u2014it may just mean you\u2019re not yet riding the wave of the joke. Not that you don\u2019t understand its content per se, but that maybe you don\u2019t understand its flow or its reason for existing. Some of the funniest things I\u2019ve ever said on Facebook have gotten maybe 1 or 2 likes, sometimes none. Does that make them not funny? Of course not. It just means they were only on a few people\u2019s wavelengths at that very specific and very brief moment in time.<\/p>\n

Watching Hell Baby, some stuff I laughed really hard at, some stuff I chuckled at, some stuff I barely cracked a smile, and some stuff I thought was completely unfunny. But I know that the next time I watch it, these will all change. It\u2019s like listening to jazz or classical\u2014each time, your brain focuses on different parts it likes, until one day, after many listens, you\u2019re in full alignment with the thing, you\u2019ve cracked the whole mathematical code, and you\u2019re in bliss from start to finish.<\/p>\n

A word of warning: I\u2019m not advocating rewatching\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0comedies that you\u2019re lukewarm about. But, in the case ones with a cohesively zany, individualist vision (off the top of my head:\u00a0Freddy Got Fingered<\/a>,\u00a0Kung Pow<\/a>,\u00a0Cabin Boy<\/a>,\u00a0The Brothers Solomon<\/a>) a rewatch might be called for. (Hell Baby certainly falls into that category, so, if you’re already a fan of those movies, you might dig this one right off the bat.)<\/p>\n

Being that Hell Baby is a wild and wholly unpredictable ride, I don\u2019t want to give away any details. Just watch the thing and be transported to a world where summer comedies are handcrafted with love like a jar of local honey\u2014for this is the world of the future. First run VOD releases are becoming more and more of a thing,\u00a0which is a godsend for niche filmmakers, and specifically niche comedy<\/em> filmmakers, which in turn means more silly fun at home for us film fans, gathered around something people actually cared about while making (rather than silly, overpriced \u2018fun\u2019 in a big, stranger-laden room watching the demented collage art of studio execs and script doctors and screenwriters, all of whom don\u2019t even give a shit).<\/p>\n

Hell Baby hits theaters September 6th, and I have my doubts as to how well it\u2019ll play to a traditional theater audience comprised of people who aren\u2019t already familiar with their vibe. On the other hand, there are a few scenes in it that I think will play much better on a big screen, with blaring sound, than a TV. So who knows. It might work. What I do know is that it plays just great at home, with some friends, some drinks, and the AC on. And if you split the $9.99 VOD price amongst the crowd, that\u2019s just about the cheapest and best fun you\u2019ll have watching a thing all summer. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

4 out of 5 Codys.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"hell\"
\nIf that ain’t masterful mise-en-sc\u00e9ne, I don’t know what is.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hell Baby<\/a> (2013)
\n<\/b>Written and Directed by Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon
\n98 min.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s review was slated to be Blue Jasmine<\/a>, because I saw that last week and I certainly have a lot to say about it (sorry, next Monday, I promise) but then I realized that I\u2019d somehow forgotten to ever write about Hell Baby, which I saw a few weeks ago when it came out on VOD and enjoyed a great deal. I suppose I could\u2019ve written about Hell Baby next week, and stuck to writing about Blue Jasmine today, but fuck it\u2014the mere moment the words \u2018Hell Baby<\/a>\u2019 were back in my head, I couldn\u2019t stop giggling. In fact, I\u2019m still smiling, as I write this. And if that ain\u2019t the textbook sign of a perfect summer comedy (and of a more fun thing to write about) I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"tags":[2622,134,32,890,2619,2620,2621,2625,2623,2624,513,104,185,1812,903,512],"class_list":["post-3193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts","category-codysreviews","tag-blue-jasmine","tag-cabin-boy","tag-cody-clarke","tag-freddy-got-fingered","tag-hell-baby","tag-hell-baby-movie","tag-hell-baby-review","tag-kung-pow","tag-reno-911","tag-reno-911-miami","tag-robert-ben-garant","tag-smug-film-2","tag-smugfilm","tag-the-brothers-solomon","tag-the-hangover","tag-thomas-lennon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3202,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions\/3202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}