On the fourth night of Austin’s SXSW Film Festival, fans got their first look at the wholly weird and strange and sad and rageful new Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way) movie Observe and Report. Seth Rogen plays a bipolar mall cop, but his illness thankfully isn’t employed as an easy joke. He’s just a deeply odd dude with an inflated sense of importance, a crew of sweet underlings, and an alcoholic kindly wreck of a mom at home. (The Austin crowd loved it. Not all crowds will. It’s weird. Paul Blart would probably walk out of this movie.)
The first question during the Q&A after the screening was not about the flaccid penis (not Rogen’s, incidentally) that played a pivotal role in the film’s climax, or the bizarre fact that mainstream Warner Bros. allowed such a dark comedy onto their plate, or the arguments that must have gone down during post-production over scenes that were just too troubling to stay put. No, the first question was some earnest idiot who stood up and wondered about the possibility of a Freaks and Geeks movie. Incidentally, at the previous Friday’s screening of I Love You, Man the actress Jamie Pressly was cut off while trying to answer a question about improvisation by a similarly hopeful young fellow who hollered out to Jason Segel about the need for a reunion.
Now I watched that entire series in one delirious sitting, breaking only to pee and drink, pee and drink. Linda Cardellini was like a much cooler version of my childhood idol Jo from The Facts of Life. But all you freaks and geeks out there aren’t helping your cause by acting goofy. Speaking today about Freaks fans’ sometimes inappropriately timed bursts of devotion, Rogen expressed amused patience. "It’s nice, it’s nice," he said. "I’m sure they’ll keep asking. And the fact that they’re doing an Arrested Development reunion movie doesn’t help us. They’ve given people hope!" Alas, no plans are in the works as of now. So we all might as well start trying to enjoy the actual entertainment in front of us. And when a lady is talking, don’t interrupt!
What do you think? Do you think the guy who asked the Freaks question was a champion or a boob? What pop culture favorite can you not let go of? For my ladies, did you too try to make two mini ponytails converge into one larger ponytail a la Jo when you were growing up?
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I vote yes for Jo hair. She was my childhood hero too. She was just so much cooler than the other girls (Blaire, I’m talking about you!) I always thought that coolness extended to me when I wore my hair like hers.
The guy is an idiot simply for asking if they’re going to make a tv show about high schoolers when the stars are in their mid to late twenties! It’s not like this was Beverly Hills 90210 and you had thirty year olds playing 16, the cast were actually the same age as the characters, give or take a year or two in some cases.
An Undeclared movie would be more plausible, but still highly unlikely.
Champion. Freak and Geeks cultists rule. Also, if you were an actor, would you ever be sad to get feedback about how awesome your work was – especially on a show that you, yourself had a blast on? No. An actor that is ungrateful for such enthusiasm would be a total jerk imo (see Kristen Stewart’s attitude re: Twilight).
Oh, how I loved thee Freaks and Geeks. LOVED IT! Still, if they did a movie, what would it even be about? I always wanted Lindsay and Daniel (Linda C. and James Franco’s characters) to hook up! Always wondered if they would have.
No matter how much I love Freaks and Geeks AND Arrested Development, no matter how much I think they were cancelled too soon, and no matter how much I wish there were more to these two amazing series, I don’t think that a movie can or will make up for the cancellations. I’m afraid to watch the Arrested Development movie because it can never and will never be as great as we all want and expect it to be. So I’m almost more okay with no Freaks and Geeks movie because I know it will save me a lot of frustration in the end.
As much as I love Freaks and Geeks, the movie would have to be catching up with them as adults, and no one wants that. Linda Cardellini might’ve played 15 convincingly when she was 24, but with all due respect, I don’t think she can do it at 34.
Let’s just let it last forever in preserved perfection.
What about a Freaks and Geeks class reunion movie? I think with the right people behind the scenes (Judd Apatow, etc.), this could work out great. We’d see what happened to our characters and how much (or how little) they’ve changed since high school. It could be funny and heart-warming and all the things the original series was. How about an Undeclared movie, too?
I think it is a great idea! The show was just so well written and the actors did such a great job I don’t see how the movie could suck. Of course they couldn’t be playiing high schoolers, that’s pretty obvious, but I still think it would be fun to see how they are doing today….or maybe they could make a freaks and geeks the new generation, like degrassi, and have characters come back as tachers and parents and stuff lol, ok maybe not really that, but I would love to see a movie!