Via Sony Pictures.

The Interview, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s dumb, occasionally funny new film, may well be forgotten 20 years from now, but the controversy surrounding the film’s release will certainly live in infamy. After threats from cyber-terrorists led to Sony pulling the movie from theaters a week before it’s release, the studio eventually stood up to terrorism, releasing the film in select theaters across the nation and on some online platforms.

Call it a Christmas miracle, call it whatever you like, but yes, the terrorists didn’t win and Americans were able to see The Interview on Christmas day, if they wanted. But is it any good? No, The Interview is not a good movie. But it never purported itself to be one, and in that sense, it’s passable. Rogen and Goldberg are fully aware of how preposterously dumb the film’s premise is, and their strength as directors—relying on juvenile dick and weed jokes, outlandish situations, and deft visual humor that emphasizes brief scenes of hyper-violence—is in full force, making the film entertaining at face value.

In short, The Interview is exactly what you thought it would be, and if you keep your expectations low, you’ll find charm and humor in it.

Rogen and James Franco star as Aaron Rapoport and Dave Skylark. Dave, the showboat of a host of his own schlocky tabloid-centric talk show, Skylark Tonight, and Aaron his trusted producer and best friend. In an attempt to legitimize their show as “real journalism,” Aaron lands an exclusive interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who is allegedly a big fan of the show. Naturally, as the world learns of Dave’s big interview, the CIA (led by Lizzie Caplan’s Agent Lacey) recruits the bumbling duo to assassinate Kim Jong Un, ending his reign of terror on the country and diffusing threats of nuclear warfare.

Of course, Aaron and Dave are the least reliable pair to pull off such a covert, dangerous mission, but this is a movie, so whatever. Upon arrival in North Korea, Dave is immediately taken by Kim Jong Un, who appears to be “misunderstood” in front of Dave. Aaron, naturally, is skeptical that Dave is being played, and attempts to continue with their mission of killing Kim Jong Un, through a discreet strip of ricin, administered through a handshake.

As expected, a lot of people flocked to the few theaters in the country to see The Interview, but not because it’s a particularly good movie, but because the threats against were, really, a threat against our freedom. Our right as Americans to watch James Franco smoke fat blunts with the look-a-like of a notoriously harsh and reviled dictator, to watch Seth Rogen shove a probe lubricated with tiger’s blood up his ass, and to hear Franco talk about having “stank dick.”

So yeah, The Interview is a dumb, occasionally hilarious movie filled with dick jokes, weed, and casual misogyny, racism, and homophobia, but it’s our dumb, occasionally hilarious movie filled with dick jokes, weed, and casual misogyny, racism, and homophobia. And who can deny us the right to watch that? Certainly not terrorists. ‘Merica.

—

The Interview
Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
With Seth Rogen, James Franco, Lizzie Caplan
Rated R
Running time 112 minutes
Now playing at West End Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun, VOD