So, what’s actually in The Interview that led a group called “Guardians of Peace” to threaten 9/11-style attacks (think about that for a second) on any theater that showed the movie, causing Sony to delay its release? What’s so offensive about a Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy that it resulted in Sony getting hacked and having its internal documents released, allegedly by North Koreans? Well, it wasn’t the dick jokes—with which the film is rife. Co-written and co-directed by Rogen and frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, The Interview is a vulgar, raunchy, and often hilarious comedy (not satire, it’s too sincere for that) that is exactly what anyone would or could expect from the guys behind the Devil’s dong in This Is the End or God’s vagina weed in Pineapple Express.
There’s a bit of Spies Like Us in the film as entertainment news anchor-goof Dave Skylark (Franco) and his credibility-seeking producer and all-around BFF Aaron Rapaport (Rogen) land the interview of a lifetime with the Supreme Leader himself and are tapped by the CIA to “take him out.” The two bumbling would-be assassins fumble their way through the world of high espionage at Kim Jong-un’s compound, where he and Skylark bond over basketball and margaritas and Rapaport explores his good rapport with one of Kim’s female officials.
Veep’s Randall Park plays Kim Jong-un as a spoiled rich kid, both insecure and prone to devastating tantrums, who is reluctantly thrust into adulthood and power. It’s a surprisingly humanizing take on Kim, which could be seen as the real danger to a dictator who acts so desperately to control his own image. But the heart of the film is the effortless, joyful, filthy riffing between the film’s leads. Rogen and Franco remain lighthearted and charming even as they discuss the limited places one can quickly hide a large, poison-containing capsule.
I’ve tried to see it from the other perspective: if North Korea made a comedy about assassinating any of the Western world’s leaders, would I be insulted or would I laugh? I find it hard to truly comprehend, but all the reactionary hullabaloo surrounding this funny little comedy seems silly in itself. Imagine if Britain had reacted this way to the depiction of, and plot to kill, the Queen in The Naked Gun, or if Saddam Hussein had held a grudge against Hot Shots! Part Deux. All that can be said is:
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and locations portrayed and the names herein are fictitious, and any similarity to or identification with the location, name, character or history of any person, product or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional and, if you enjoy juvenile dick jokes, hysterical.
