If Tyler Perry gets an Oscar nomination for his acting in Madea Goes to Jail, can a washed-up actress scold him for taking away female roles? Actually, could it just be Cuba Gooding Jr. in drag, a la Boat Trip?
Seriously, though, Madea won’t be up for any Academy Awards next year, but damn is Perry’s character popular. Enough that the sassy matriarch has now evolved from a supporting character into the star of her own vehicle (which gave the filmmaker his biggest opening yet this past weekend). Yes, it’s true that Madea is a central figure in most of Perry’s films and has previously been the main protagonist in his plays (including the one Madea Goes to Jail is based on), but in the movie world she was introduced as a secondary role in Diary of a Mad Black Woman. So, now she belongs in that small club of supporting characters who’ve earned their own film(s); other members of which include Jay and Silent Bob, Bruce and Lloyd, Cousin Eddie, Marshal Samuel Gerard, the Scorpion King and Wolverine.
And Madea is one of the very few female characters to belong to the club, which is another good reason for an actress to scold Perry. But the problem also lies with the people who write woman characters, apparently, since in coming up with ten other supporting characters who deserve their own spin off, we managed to only include two females on our list. Perhaps if we’d permitted classic film characters there’d be more to choose from — though even then we might be more likely to include a Peter Lorre or a William Demarest role than a Thelma Ritter or Eve Arden.
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We can thank Christopher Guest for pulling her out of obscurity and casting her as a lesbian dog trainer in Best in Show. Or we can just thank her incredible talent for stealing scenes by way of riotous awkward comedy. Either way, this week we should remember to be thankful for Jane Lynch. You may have seen her recently in Role Models as the formerly coke-addicted founder of a mentoring organization. Or maybe you’ve seen her in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights or Guest’s A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration. In most of her roles, she plays opposite the best comedians in the business, yet she still supplies her films with some of their most memorable moments. I can’t wait to see how she does against Meryl Streep in next year’s Julie & Julia, when she plays the Oscar-winner’s sister.
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When it was announced that David Wain would be directing Role Models — taking over from The Girl Next Door’s Luke Greenfield — there was room for disappointment. After all, for Wain to follow up his anarchic cult favorites Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten with a seemingly mainstream man-child comedy — one more suited to the talents of Todd Phillips or, well, Greenfield — was to crush his fans’ hopes for something more along the lines of his wacky web series, such as Wainy Days and Stella, or the old MTV sketch comedy show, The State.
But Role Models does look funny, probably because Wain ended up rewriting (with Paul Rudd and Ken Marino) Timothy Dowling’s original script. And it’s not as if Wain has suddenly gone and sold out with a bunch of really broad family films, as did his former State mates Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, the screenwriting duo behind The Pacifier, Night at the Museum and Taxi. Still, many of us are holding out for that rumored State movie, or even better, a big screen adaptation of any of the following State sketches:
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Part of the fun of attending Fantastic Fest are the Secret Screenings, which aren’t announced until right before the film rolls. This year there were leaks, whispers and rumors galore, with the most rampant one being that we were going to get treat to Oliver Stone’s W, which sadly didn’t happen. It was have been great to see this on a week that ended with an Obama/McCain debate.
Instead, the secret screenings included The Brothers Bloom, Appaloosa, RocknRolla, and the surprise dark horse in the bunch, Role Models. It definitely sticks out among the entire Fantastic Fest lineup like the Sesame Street “One of these things is not like the others,” and it joins Kevin Smith’s Zack & Miri as the only other raunchy comedy in the Fest. The film stars Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, and is directed by comedian David Wain, best known for Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten. Check out the review and the interview with Wain and Rudd below.
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