Friday, March 29, 2024

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Review // Sausage Party

First Published:

[projekktor id=’25014′]

Sausages and laws, as the old saying goes, are two things you don’t want to see get made. Well when it comes to Sausage Party I’d have to beg an exception; I would love to be a fly on the wall when this film was being pitched. The newest comedy from writing duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg was apparently in the works for eight years, and you can see why. This isn’t just a sex comedy about anthropomorphic food, it’s a raunchy and repulsive take on issues like organized religion, illegal immigration and sex. It’s bold and bonkers, and while the jokes don’t always land, it marks an interesting new direction for the writing partners.

The film follows Frank (Seth Rogen), a hot dog who, along with his friends and package-mates Carl (Jonah Hill) and Barry (Michael Cera), dreams of being taken home from the supermarket by a customer. All of the food in the supermarket see customers as gods and dream of what awaits them outside the store (they even sing a very specific song about it). For Frank, the Great Beyond (as it’s known) certainly involves getting intimate with Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a bun who lives next door. However when a disturbing incident involving a traumatized jar of honey mustard forces Frank and Brenda out of their packages, they set off on a journey across the supermarket to find Firewater (Bill Hader), an ancient bottle of alcohol who knows the true nature of existence.

It’s clear that screenwriters Goldberg, Rogen, Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir felt like kids in the candy aisle when it came to creating a world of walking, talking food. The film’s colourful cast of characters are all based on food puns or jokes on ethnicity. Frank and Brenda meet up with a bagel named Sammy Bagel Jr. (Edward Norton doing a fantastic Woody Allen) and a lavash named Vash (David Krumholtz), who engage in a movie-long argument that winks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They meet a sensual taco named Teresa (Selma Hayek) who sympathizes a little too eagerly with Brenda’s anxiety that she has angered the gods by touching fingers (or tips) with Frank. And all the while they’re pursued by a Douche (literally, he’s a douche, played to perfection by Nick Kroll) angry at the groceries for ruining his last chance at being taken to the Great Beyond. But that’s just scratching the surface. With an entire grocery store filled with joke opportunities the film never lets up, every race and creed have their moment to be stereotyped by their food, and puns literally leap from between shelves for a quick laugh.

Unfortunately, while hilarious for the opening half hour, the food-pun schtick starts to grow a bit stale by Act 3 as the screenwriters frequently return to the same jokes. And while the stereotyping is spread across a wide swath of races and creeds, the goofy accents and ethnic jokes are a social justice warrior’s worst nightmare. What carries the film through the groan inducing bits however is a well constructed story grounded by a surprisingly insightful commentary on organized religion and sex. Frank and Brenda grappling with information that contradicts everything they’ve been taught to believe is surprisingly thoughtful, and the fact that the characters have two very different reactions is even better. Barry’s discovery that he is a coward, and his subsequent efforts to rectify that by returning to the supermarket and helping Frank is treated with real pathos. As hard as it is to believe, by the end of the film you really care about these sausages and buns, and you really hate that Douche. Seriously, Marvel take note, this is how to create a bad guy.

When it goes big and bold Sausage Party is a triumphant success. A crashed shopping cart resulting in a scene of flour-covered carnage that mirrors the Normandy landing in Saving Private Ryan is one of the funniest comedy bits I’ve seen on screen all year, and the film’s bacchanalian conclusion is something never before done in animation (and maybe with good reason). In these moments, Rogen and Goldberg invite comparisons with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creating brilliant social satire wrapped in the guise of juvenile humour. However they aren’t as good as the South Park duo at choosing their moments for the so-dumb-it’s-gold humour, and they’re unable to answer the big questions they raise with the same brilliantly-twisted logic. Nevertheless, Sausage Party is a ridiculous comedy that will have you laughing in your seat, and thinking twice before ordering that hot dog at the concession stand.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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