Cinema Hype

I Love You, Man is probably something Hollywood’s been seeking for a long time: just the right mix of buddy film and a strange type of romantic comedy. It’s about the search for the One—not the girl of one’s dreams, but the guy of one’s video-game-induced hazes, who plays the guitar and calls other guys’ farts and wants to just hang out (while also possibly launching a physical assault on Lou Ferrigno, which just makes him extra awesome). It’s about why guys don’t have friends, and it’s probably the best advertisement for male friendship since Lord of the Rings (only much dirtier and with many more intentional gay jokes).

The weird hybrid genre of I Love You, Man is kind of ingenious, marketing-wise: although the title is likely to keep people away, this is a movie that touches nerves for both men and women. It’s surprisingly sweet, it’s consistently laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s far smarter than it will probably get credit for: essentially, the humor comes not so much from frat-boy fart jokes as from these guys’ reactions to frat-boy fart jokes. Brilliant. As a comparison, think Forgetting Sarah Marshall (incidentally, also starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, and also underrated in its intelligence), but without the Dracula puppet musical.

It’s possible that I Love You, Man wouldn’t be nearly as good without Rudd and Segel, but that’s like saying that cheeseburgers wouldn’t be nearly as good without the cheddar. Individually, these are some talented guys. Rudd may just be the most approachable leading man in Hollywood—he’s cute and likeable all the time, but here he makes a potentially weak character seem perfectly dependable rather than bland in any way. Segel, on the other hand, is likeable even when you’d kind of like to kick him in the face, which is also a pretty handy skill for an actor. And together, they’re ten times better than either of them alone: iron sharpening iron, as they say. The good time they’re having is both palpable and infectious. The supporting cast is also strong: Rashida Jones as Rudd’s fiancee, Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressly as contentious/continually foreplaying friends of Jones’s, SNL’s Andy Samberg, and the never-anything-but-hilarious J.K. Simmons.

If you’ve ever been a guy with no friends, or a guy with great friends, or a girl who knows guys who either have or don’t have friends, you’ll probably find something to laugh at in I Love You, Man. And if you happen to come out feeling a little friendlier, then all the better.

I Love You Man, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Jaime Pressly, Jon Favreau, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, JK Simmons, comedies, new movies, reviews, Lou Ferrigno