The seriocomedy is probably one of my favorite sub-genres. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it to? The seriocomedy lets you have the sweetness of the icing (comedy) with all the bulk and substance of the cake itself (drama).
But name the last really good one produced inside of the studio system in the last ten years or so. (“The Kids Are All Right” was independent, so try again.) It’s hard because so many of them miss the mark. “Love & Other Drugs” and “How Do You Know” both could have been so good but wound up falling short.
Here’s The Los Angeles Times on what could be a dying genre after “The Dilemma” flopped:
“The seriocomedy has never been easy creative ground for directors. To make a good one you need to be proficient at constructing both laughs and drama, and have the dexterity to switch between them. From a business standpoint it’s even dicier: How, in this age of marketing, do you retail these tweeners?
Movie-making these days seems to have calcified into genres. Dramas are intense and serious, like ‘The Social Network,’ or weepie and inspirational, like ‘The Blind Side’ or ‘Secretariat.’ Comedies are broader and more gross-out, like the best of Adam Sandler or Apatow.
‘The problem is trailers,’ said James Schamus, the Focus Features chief who released “The Kids Are All Right.” ‘These days with the Internet, it’s more important than ever, and it’s very hard to cut a good trailer for [seriocomedies]. If you go for the laugh you never get the full laugh because the humor is situational, and you can’t play the drama because then you kill the comedy vibe.'”
I think the death is due to two things: the declining quality of studio output and the hyperfocused nature of the American moviegoing audience. We want straight drama or straight comedy when we go to the movies; a hybrid just doesn’t satisfy much as it often feels like a muddled mess. That’s partially the fault of filmmakers, but I think that most moviegoers nowadays can’t handle them both together.
So, is the seriocomedy DEAD? Sound off!
We all make dumb predictions; it happens to everyone. I called picking “
Eek, I’m really scrounging for factoids … and not finding much. Honestly, a part of me just wants to say that I caught a really strange pop culture reference in “How Do You Know” today. On Reese Witherspoon’s mirror, there are all sorts of inspirational quotes about courage and other virtues. Then, there’s a quote from KeKe Palmer’s song “Bottoms Up.” You got some swagger, better let ’em know; you got some swagger, better let ’em show. It belongs right next to Shakespeare and Biblical passages.
Yet another part of me wants to tell you that my family’s Christmas tree was dubbed “The Avatar Tree” by me today after these horrific white orb lights we bought from Target make it look like those little dandelion spirits of the forest. My mom and I were going to dismantle the tree and replace them with new lights, but we decided to live with “The Avatar Tree” rather than waste two hours of our life for a tree that would like pretty for a week.
No one knows much about “How Do You Know” at the present moment. But any movie that comes from director/writer/producer James L. Brooks has to be considered given the man’s 60% track record in scoring Best Picture nominations for his movies.
To its advantage, it does have two Academy Award winners on the marquee: Reese Witherspoon as the headliner and Jack Nicholson in a supporting role. I think wins are out of the question; Witherspoon because she won for a much more serious role, and Nicholson because he has enough with three. The Golden Globes could nominate Witherspoon in a heartbeat in the musical/comedy category, and I could even see Jack getting an Oscar nomination because they love so darn much.
I’m a huge Paul Rudd fan, and I can probably quote every single line in “Role Models” that he utters. So I’m all for him getting an Oscar nomination. Best Supporting Actor has been particularly kind to comedic actors in the past decade with winner Alan Arkin for “Little Miss Sunshine” and nominations for Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder” and Thomas Haden Church in “Sideways.” My only worry for Rudd is that he could be pushed out by Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right,” which could be a stronger overall awards play. But in my mind, the males of that movie were the weak link, and I don’t feel as much buzz around him as I do Bening or Moore.
Marshall and the Movies 
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