Review: ‘The Amateurs’

Travis:

First-time writer/director Michael Traeger [actually, he has written a few television scripts] has made one heck of a good little comedy with The Moguls (2005), which has been renamed and re-released in Sweden and the USA as The Amateurs. The movie stars Jeff Bridges (Tideland) as Andy Sargentee, a depressed recent divorcee who can’t seem to keep a job, but is always looking for a way… a big idea to make his mark and accomplish something with his life. As it turns out, the small town of Butterface Fields, where Jeff Bridges has lived his entire life, is always behind his crazy ideas, for better or for worse. Usually the latter. The town is close-knit and they’ve all grown up together. Well, Andy’s ex-wife has remarried a very wealthy man and Andy feels he’s been a disappointment to his son, which sends him into his current brain storm for success. Andy’s new brilliant idea is for Butterface Fields to band together and make the very first full-length feature amateur adult film. Surprisingly, he gets most of the town involved rather quickly… that is, behind the camera.

This ensemble cast is actually a major factor in the success of Traeger’s small, independent film. This is not, however, to diminish the quality of this well-written and thoughtful comedy of errors. The story is both smart and funny, but is humorous in a way that maintains its dignity, weaving a modern tale of a man who wants nothing more than to be seen as a hero to his son. The town, aka the production crew, is made up by a motley crew of characters including Barney, played by Tim Blake Nelson (O, Brother, Where Art Thou?), Some Idiot [his nick name given by the town], played by Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), Otis is a church janitor that thinks he’s a ladies’ man, played by William Fichtner (Crash), Moose is a closet homosexual, played by Ted Danson, Emmett is the town’s movie geek, played by Patrick Fugit (Spun), and Moe-Ron, which is actually two friends, Moe and Ron, but the town refers to them as Moron.

On the surface, the plot, the characters and the whole thing seems ridiculous and absurd, but it actually works really well. Even Bridges himself tells about how he didn’t believe in the film at all until virtually everyone else convinced him otherwise, and he gradually fell in love with the story. The idea of making a movie about a small town who band together to make a porno sounds impossible, especially when there is a complete lack of nudity or [actual] sex anywhere in the film, but it works because that’s not what the movie is about. The Amateurs is a comedy, and a funny one at that, but more importantly its a feel-good movie that emphasizes how important it is that we stick together as a community and we stick to what we really want in life, no matter what it takes.

(4 out of 5)

Zac:

The long delayed and name changed title finally found its way out and the impressive ensemble cast can’t save this film from mediocrity in the end.
Andy is an underachieving idea man that has a small group of close friends that will follow him into anything, from pyramid schemes to porno films. This film is about the porno idea and the attempts to make an amateur film by recruiting local girls and local funding to try and rake in some of that big time amateur porn money. The believability question kicks in pretty early here. First, all of Andy’s friends just hand over two thousand dollars to help fund the film after numerous failed endeavourers with the man and we are supposed to buy into the fact that they still trust him? I don’t think so, and I don’t get how they think they are going to make so much money, let alone break even, from making an amateur porno movie in a day and age when porn is freely available on the internet for those who want it; it’s all just a bit ridiculous.
But then we find out why Andy wants to make a porno, to make money to impress his son that he is just as good as his rich step father; by making porn, what?
There are some halfway interesting, one note characters, along the way with William Fitchtner having the best lines throughout the film as the sex craved church janitor (that has two grand to throw away). Ted Danson’s plays the gay friend that won’t admit it and is very funny as well sometimes. Joe Pantoliano plays a character called Some Idiot, which is just a horrible joke, and don’t forget the bumbling buddies Moe and Ron, get it, Moe-ron, horrible. The movie thinks it is smart and creative sometimes when it’s just stupid and juvenile.
The movie really goes off the deep end when it turns everything around and they make their money not from their porno, which gets destroyed by an angry sibling of a star, but from hand held footage Patrick Fugit’s character is shooting documenting everything that is made. And the whole spin is we have been watching the movie that goes on to be a hit, but how are we supposed to believe it’s a big hit when we aren’t even enjoying it that much. The film also teaches us a lesson that if you make lots of money your son will finally love you because that is what Andy thinks, when in actuality he never needed to prove his love from his son, it was always there, but the movies final coda tries to sell us other wise and makes zeros sense what so ever.
The film is just hollow and stupid for much of its runtime and doesn’t make any sense half the time with zero logic behind anything. Though, a couple of good laughs are in there and that is worth something I guess, and the film isn’t unwatchable, just stupid and not well thought out; but in the end I can not really recommend this unless you really want to see it.

(2 out of 5)

[rating: 3/5]

DVD Features:

• Audio Commentary
• Making of The Amateurs Featurette
• Photo Essay, created by Jeff Bridges (This is actually really neat.)
• Theatrical Trailer