Role Models (2008)

Directed by: David Wain | 99 minutes | comedy | Actors: Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch, Ken Jeong, Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney, AD Miles, Joe Lo Truglio, Matt Walsh, Nicole Randall Johnson, Alexandra Stamler, Carly Craig

The pitch of ‘Role Models’ may be called a simple one, but that need not be a reason to ignore the film. With the resumes of Seann William Scott (“American Pie”), Paul Rudd (“Knocked Up”) and Elizabeth Banks (“The 40 Year Old Virgin”), you also know what you’re getting; the excellently attuned cast guarantees an hour and a half of top-notch r-rated comedy.

Director David Wain (‘The Ten’), who also wrote the script with Rudd and Ken Marino, knows where to find the comedians and puts them in their place: Scott as the eternal bonkers; Rudd as a worn out citizen; Banks the smiley beauty. A few more comedic talents (Lynch; Mintz-Plasse; Marino; Miles) and we’re off.

‘Role Models’ gets off to a good start: Danny is fed up with his life and yells at a Starbucks employee because she doesn’t understand the order ‘a large coffee’ – they only know Italian there; he is immediately abandoned by his girlfriend Beth (Banks), with the above community service as the ultimate result.

At Sturdy Wings daycare, when Danny is next saddled with fantasy game-addict Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and womanizer Wheeler with foul language-obsessed Robbie (Bobb’e J. Thompson), you’d almost write “if that.” but going well!’.

Because that’s what it is, albeit with a lot of coarse language, sexual innuendo and a – incidentally subtle – dose of feel-good: ‘sometimes, it takes a village idiot to raise a child’. Well, that village idiot is not that bad and Danny and Wheeler also turn into kid friends a little too easily. However, the genre clichés are successfully avoided in ‘Role Models’, precisely by poking fun at them.

A children’s agency commercial is an early highlight of the film, as is Lynch’s performance as headmistress Sweeny – an ex-coke addict who ‘wants to ‘help people’; the scene at the table with Augie’s terrible parents is also poignantly beautiful. And the way the Fantasy world (in this case staged Medieval battles) is portrayed in the film is downright hilarious.