Run Fatboy Run
Simon Pegg is best known in the States for his lead turns in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Written by Michael Ian Black with Pegg, Run Fatboy Run is a real life Peter Pan coming of age movie and not a genre-lambasting lark as Pegg’s usual screenwriting tendencies. In tone, it more closely resembles Pegg’s television show Spaced, focusing lovingly on some seriously underachieving friends. In this film, Pegg panics and leaves a pregnant Thandie Newton at the altar. Five years later, he isn’t handling the fact of her new boyfriend (Hank Azaria) very well at all.
Azaria’s alpha-male character is inexplicably costumed like an embarrassingly low-level accountant twenty years ago. He’s actually a fit, loaded, handsome, swell guy, who knows all the right things to do where Pegg always manages to fail. It’s great, actually, for the Other Man (other than our hero) to not be a blatantly bad choice for the woman. Pegg’s bilious loathing of Azaria is based on sheer envy, though he really has no-one else to blame but his own lazy, unambitious, immature self. In fact, while I found it actually pretty easy to empathize with Pegg, it was extremely difficult to sympathize with him. His irresponsibility encompasses every aspect of his life, from his housing to his body, and his problems are nearly 100% self-generated. He’s even a bit awful to his one truly loyal friend, Gordon (Dylan Moran).
Despite my difficulties loving him for any reason beyond his sheer existence of being Simon Pegg, I still felt the knife when he was injured. I still rallied with his friends who push him to change, and I still of course laughed at all his comedic blunderings. I waited impatiently for Pegg to finally act – when the states were truly important to him, he totally stepped up and I cheered. After so much disappointment in himself, it was gorgeous to watch him shed his boyhood at last on a balcony. I even cried! Not like, blubbering, but definite tears and sniffles. Did I give too much away? Well, what did you think this movie was about?
Directed by David Schwimmer (Since You’ve Been Gone) from a story by Michael Ian Black (The Pleasure of your Company), and Anglicized by Pegg, Run Fatboy Run does suffer from a few “more accustomed to writing for television” weaknesses, but it benefits greatly from their generational experience. It’s a Generation X movie in a way very few movies are any more; it is unseemly to admit that our generation is about as slackery as we had promised to become. I would hate it if Sydney Pollack or Rob Reiner had touched it – they don’t understand the fine line that one has to tread with characters like this. It’s a fun and sweet movie you can see with your ex and feel good about how you left things.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 3/28/08
Time in minutes 100
Director David Schwimmer
Studio Picturehouse
