South Park or even a Pixar film. (A throwaway gag involving a bumper sticker that reads “Dixar” should give you some degree of insight into the level of discourse on display here.) No, Sausage Party is not for kids, but it plays like something a kid might think constitutes adult humor. It should be noted that I am an avid admirer of offensive comedy, and I’ve consistently enjoyed the films of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg from Superbad to This Is the End and everything in-between (though we won’t talk about Neighbors 2). Corollaries to the work of Trey Parker and Matt Stone are difficult to avoid here as well. While my illustrious predecessor held a longstanding — and largely understandable — grudge against those filmmakers due to their inadvertent appropriation of his surname as the appellation of a talking piece of yule-themed poo, I have never shared in his disdain for the duo. I’ve gone so far in defense of that pair’s work as to write an analysis of Team America’s influence on U.S. forces in the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts for a college class on war films. The comparison with South Park is apt on the basis of the tenor of Sausage Party’s humor (and an ill-advised opening musical number), if not its quality. What Rogen and Goldberg attempt to deliver with Sausage Party is, at best, a poor man’s Book of Mormon. Maybe my expectations for Sausage Party were too high. Or maybe I just wasn’t high enough. The film hits all the notes you’d expect, and hits them reasonably well. The catch is that it never delves any deeper than its superficial smart-assery. Ostensibly, this film is intended to satirize both modern kids’ films and general religious conflict through an allegorical supermarket faith in which human customers are gods and the true believers among the animated consumables all aspire to be “chosen” and taken through the doors to “the great beyond.” That premise alone should be sufficient fodder for a fun, high-concept skewering of any number of sacred cows, but it never really goes beyond that one-note joke. And then we get to the interminable stereotyping: a constantly bickering nebbishy bagel and Muslim lavash; an African-American box of grits (“They call me MISTER GRITS!”); a closeted lesbian Latina taco; a gay Twinkie; the obligatory Irish potato — the list goes on and on. Even this on-the-nose writing wouldn’t have been enough to turn me off were the jokes only a little more incisive. Instead, I had visions of a writing
room, choked with cannabis smoke, in which the ideas that seemed funny when a stoned scribe jotted them on the whiteboard became the entire skeleton of this story. There are parts of the film that work, many of them visual. This thing looks like the hideously distorted fever dream of a deranged Disney exec. The first act climax lifts the Normandy invasion scene from Saving Private Ryan almost shot-forshot — and it’s hilarious. But, like a lot of the film’s better moments, most of it was in the trailer. Most of the cast performs admirably, with Edward Norton almost unrecognizable in full Woody Allen mode as Sammy Bagel Jr. and Salma Hayek delivering a standout performance as the aforementioned taco with sapphic leanings. And yet, even the talented ensemble has its issues, with Kristen Wiig still managing to annoy me with only her voice and Danny McBride, typically a highlight for me, appearing in approximately two minutes of the film. Ultimately, a profusion of expletives and insensitive jokes should have made Sausage Party a contender for my affections. But the laziness of the script quashed whatever hopes I had for a good laugh, and even the film’s indescribably bizarre food-orgy climax left me wishing the filmmakers had tried a little harder. It’s not that Sausage is a particularly bad film, but it is the cinematic equivalent of junk food, and this predominantly pun-based diet just didn’t quite satisfy like I had hoped. Rated R for sexual content, pervasive language and drug use. Now Playing at Carolina Cinemark, Carmike 10, Regal Biltmore Grande, Epic of Hendersonville reVIeWeD BY Scott DouGlaS JSDouGlaS22@GmaIl.com
fIlm BuNcomBe couNtY PuBlIc lIBrarIeS buncombecounty.org/governing/depts/library • FR (8/19), 4:30pm - Alien Invasion Film Series: Wall-E. Free. Held at West Asheville Library, 942 Haywood Road • SA (8/20), 2pm - French New Wave Film Series: Umbrellas Of Cherbourg. Free. Held at North Asheville Library, 1030 Merrimon Ave. the Block off BIltmore 39 South Market St., 254-9277, theblockoffbiltmore.com • MO (8/22), 7pm - Trapped, documentary film screening. Free to attend.
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Self-ImProVemeNt BehIND BarS In this still from the film Inside Peace, inmates at Dominguez State Jail in San Antonio, Texas, participate in its Peace Education Program. Grail Moviehouse hosts a screening of the documentary. Photo courtesy of Untraveled Road Productions. • Mechanical Eye Microcinema presents Why I Left California: Films and Video by Jason Robinson at Grail Moviehouse on Thursday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. The program consists of 10 shorts by the filmmaker and newmedia artist, who works primarily in the medium of single-channel experimental video, animated gifs and live performance. Selections include experimental documentaries, music videos, analog video feedback and more about unsuccessful ghost hunts, sad polar bears and the materiality of video tape. $5 suggested donation to Mechanical Eye. mechanicaleyecinema.org • The West Asheville Public Library’s Alien Invasion movie series concludes Friday, Aug. 19, at 4:30 p.m. with a screening of WALL-E, which also kicks off the branch’s forthcoming Pixar movie series. Free and open to the public. avl.mx/1z5 • Grail Moviehouse hosts a screening of the documentary Inside Peace on Saturday, Aug. 20, at noon. cynthia fitzpatrick’s feature-length film centers on four inmates at Dominguez State Jail in San Antonio, Texas, who enroll in its Peace Education Program. One of the few self-improvement programs offered in prisons across the country that are not faith-based, but instead focus on the individual’s inner strength and self-worth, the “Peace Class” is also
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having a positive impact on inmates at the Buncombe County Detention Center. Additional information about the program will be available after the film. Tickets are $7 and available online or at the Grail box office. avl.mx/2ul • Asheville School of Film students in the Filmmaking 101 (An Introduction) course and from all three youth summer programs will have their work screened Saturday, Aug. 20, at noon at Grail Moviehouse. Students produced short digital films from conception to completion under the guidance of ASoF founders brad hoover and w.s. pivetta. The event also includes a showing of Aubry Blue by Asheville filmmaker samuel coppage. Free and open to the public. ashevilleschooloffilm.com • Wedge Brewing Co. screens Blade Runner in its outdoor courtyard on Saturday, Aug. 20, at 8:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. wedgebrewing.com • Hi-Wire Brewing’s Summer of Bill Murray movie series continues Saturday, Aug. 20, at 8:30 p.m. in the parking lot of its Big Top location with a free screening of Groundhog Day. Foothills Local Meats will provide classic movietheater food, including $3 corndogs. Please bring lawn chairs or blankets. hiwirebrewing.com X
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