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The art of grossing people out >> The fraternal team behind American Pie discuss sperm, humiliation and blood
by MATTHEW HAYS
Speaking from their L.A. office, the brothers behind the film, Paul (who directed) and Chris (who produced) Weitz, meditate on the gross-out wave their film appears to be a part of. "I don't know that this is such a new thing," says Paul. "The fact of the matter is, there have always been gross-out movies coming out of Hollywood."
The race to lose it The plot of American Pie concerns four young men in their final year of high school. All of them have nerdy, geeky reputations as chumps who can't get laid. They soon make a pact: by prom night, they must lose their virginity. It's a far cry from Antz, the intelligent and lively feature-length cartoon the Weitzes co-wrote; with that film, they took a genre usually associated with children and turned it into a delightful fable about insects revolting against their evil fascist oppressors. In American Pie, they take a genre usually associated with teens and simply maximize the gross-out possibilities. "Actually," admits Chris, "we're a bit chagrined to be associated with the gross-out trend. It was a challenge for us to make this movie. It's not really our kind of thing. And I was actually really bummed out by the fart jokes in The Phantom Menace." The Weitzes and I agree on a few things: for one, the blame game going on with Hollywood in the wake of various school shootings is ridiculous. But where the filmmakers and I part ways is in the cruel humiliations that run throughout American Pie. Affronted that their film is getting the same rating as Natural Born Killers, the Weitzes point out that it's healthy to discuss sexuality and that their film features "normal people" having sex. But the one constant in the film is embarrassment and shame; when kids can't make it to the bathroom on time (after someone's slipped laxative into their coffee), drink sperm-laced beer by mistake or get caught wanking off by mom and dad, the film reveals an horrific culture of humiliation, one predicated entirely on the degradation of others. The press kit for the film even opens with a sentence suggesting losing one's virginity is the "most humiliating... rite of adulthood."
Humiliation as rewarding life experience "Yes, this is a crass film," admits Paul. "But it's never malicious. This is the least cynical film I can think of. It's not sadistic. It humanizes the characters; they survive the humiliation and learn something. Besides, most people remember their teen years as a rather vulgar and knockabout time." "If you think about it," says Chris, "the characters in The Full Monty were humiliated. The fact is, there's an element of comedy in seeing someone in distress." The two do suggest they had some reservations about one scene in the film, in which a student loses control of his bladder. "I was a bit uncomfortable with it," says Paul. "But that student had humiliated a girl in an earlier scene, so there was a sense of him getting his comeuppance." What with all the bodily fluids flowing throughout American Pie, which one do the brothers feel has the best comic potential? "Diarrhea's tough, actually, because it's been done so much," says Paul. "Blood may be next, though that's hard to make funny. Although Monty Python managed to do it." "Ear wax hasn't been exploited yet," adds Chris.
American Pie opens Friday, July 9 |
Looking back on the experience of watching American Pie, it's difficult to decipher what the funniest moment of the film is. Would it be the scene where a young man prematurely ejaculates--not merely once, but twice? Could it be when that same young man uses an apple pie as a masturbatory aid and his father walks in on him in mid-act? Or what about when one teen loses control of his bladder at the prom, to the shrieking delight of his peers? Not to mention the diarrhea gags. The nuance! The double entendre! It's probably too difficult to choose.