Role Models - Review

A lot of good things have come out of the 1990s MTV sketch comedy series The State -- including TV shows like Reno 911! and Stella -- but none of them are better than the directing career of David Wain. As one of The State's 11 members, Wain wasn't the most visible actor on the MTV show. But in 2002, when Wain co-wrote and directed his first film, the summer camp spoof Wet Hot American Summer, it quickly became apparent that his real gifts lie behind the camera. He followed up Wet Hot -- one of the decade's funniest (and sweetest) films -- with The Ten, a more experimental and challenging comedy consisting of a series of vignettes acting out the ten commandments.

Now, with two indie/art house comedies under his belt, Wain has finally gone mainstream with the Role Models, his biggest and most commercial film to date. The good news is that working within the Hollywood system hasn't ruined him; he's still made an incredibly funny, likable film filled with great comic actors and more than a few geek flourishes.

Role Models tells the story of Danny (the great Paul Rudd, who also co-wrote the screenplay) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott of The Promotion), two energy-drink salesman ("Minotaur: Taste the Beast!") with opposing worldviews: Danny hates his life, and Wheeler loves his. After a dark day of the soul (including a break-up with Danny's girlfriend, played by the lovely Elizabeth Banks) leads to an energy drink-fueled bender, Danny and Wheeler avoid jail with a community service sentence at Sturdy Wings, a Big Brother-type program where adults mentor "troubled" kids.

The cynical, hate-everything Danny is assigned to teenage Augie Farks (Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Superbad), an awkward kid obsessed with live-action role playing (called LAIRE). Wheeler's charge is the diminutive Ronnie (the incredible Bobb'e J. Thompson of Human Giant), a foul-mouthed troublemaker who sees all white men as Ben Affleck.

But all of this is really just the setup. The remainder of the movie consists of Danny and Wheeler learning lessons in acceptance and responsibility from their young friends, playing a lot of LAIRE and combating the head of Sturdy Wings, a former cokehead obsessed with B.S. played by the incomparable Jane Lynch.

There's nothing particularly groundbreaking about Role Models. Its story hits all the beats you would expect and things work out the way they do in every other movie. But what Wain has done is find a way to make a conventional comedy that's actually funny. The dialogue is sharp and fast and hilarious; rather than create artificial situations that we're expected to find funny (think of the usual Meet the Parents school of embarrassment-as-comedy), it just allows its characters to be funny and say funny things.

It helps that Wain (working from a script he co-wrote with Rudd, Timothy Dowling and former State cast mate Ken Marino) has continued to build his ensemble with each film, and gets the most out of each performer. Every role has been filled with someone funny, from the leads to Lynch to Banks to Augie's parents (State members Kerri Kenney-Silver and Marino) to State alum Joe Lo Truglio as a grown-up LAIRE player who's way too into the game to Wet Hot star A.D. Miles as Martin, the best "big" in the Sturdy Wings program. Everyone is funny, and no role is wasted.

Like Wain's two previous films, Role Models is vulgar but never mean-spirited. Wain likes his characters -- even the most clueless among them -- and gets us to like them, too. Though a lot of the movie is focused on LAIRE, it's not really making fun of the game; actually, it's eventually determined that it's kind of awesome. How nice to see a movie that focuses on geeky things like live action role playing and the love of KISS music that embraces them instead of mocking them. From a comedic standpoint, it might have been easier to do the latter.

It's been a big year for Hollywood comedies, from Tropic Thunder to Pineapple Express to Step Brothers. And while I may still have to give the advantage to Forgetting Sarah Marshall as the best comedy of 2008 (mostly because it's more emotionally resonant), I wouldn't put Role Models far behind. David Wain has proven that he can make a commercial comedy without compromising his sensibilities, so here's hoping he becomes a Hollywood mainstay. May his career be long and prolific.

Role Models is rated R for crude and sexual content, strong language and nudity.

Theatrical release date: November 7, 2008.