‘Observe and Report’ is funny and dark, but not a dark comedy

There is a definite through line from inept martial arts instructor Fred Simmons in last year’s “The Foot Fist Way” to bigheaded baseball burnout Kenny Powers in HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” to sad-sack mall cop Ronnie Barnhardt in the new movie “Observe and Report.” Writer-director Jody Hill, who had a hand in creating all three characters, seems drawn to people who live in a self-created world, oblivious to what anyone else may think of them.

“I feel like there’s a large mass of people that aren’t represented in movies,” Hill said. “And all those people don’t feel any different than your action star, they’re the stars of their own movies. Everybody sees themselves as part of a greater thing, like the real superheroes, and I think that’s kind of tragic -- and also interesting.”

Though the movie stars comedy top-liner Seth Rogen as a security guard who finds an unlikely purpose in the pursuit of a serial flasher, “Observe and Report” -- by turns violent and meditative, uproarious and disturbing -- asks its audience to watch a man careening closer and closer to the city limits of Crazy Town and laugh. Or maybe not. From another perspective, the film is the story of a troubled, bipolar young man who goes off his meds and tilts dangerously toward a psychotic episode.

“I’m not a fan of comedy, really,” said Hill over a recent bacon-and-eggs breakfast in a Miracle Mile diner. “Any time you’re winking at the camera or playing it for laughs, something about it makes me cringe a little bit. I think we’ve got some good laughs, but hopefully they’re not the kind of laughs that break the seriousness of the movie.

“I think the movie may be dark,” Hill continued, “but I don’t know if ‘dark comedy’ is the right term. I don’t necessarily consider this a comedy, even though it’s funny. I consider it maybe a drama. I think if people look at it like a drama and then enjoy the funny parts, it’s easier to understand than if they look at it as a comedy and then the dramatic parts throw them.”

Rogen too sees the movie as something that challenges expectations and wants that made clear to audiences before they buy their tickets. “To me, it’s a dangerous comedy,” the actor said. “I feel like in most comedies the stakes are ‘Will the guy get the girl?’ or ‘Will the guy prove himself to be as cool as he wants to be?’ And the stakes here feel like, ‘Is this guy going to murder someone?’ And that’s just not the stakes you generally get to play with in a comedy.”

Despite their surface similarities, the R-rated “Observe and Report” is not the family-friendly comedy that “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” is. It’s more like Paul Blart meets “Taxi Driver’s” Travis Bickle.

“I honestly think the movie is helped by people knowing what they are getting into,” Rogen said. “I think movies should be shocking and unexpected, but I never think your audience should be tricked into going to see a movie. One of my pet peeves is when they misrepresent how a movie is in its advertising. I do want people to think it’s crazy and shocking and unexpected, but ideally they’ll know exactly what they’re getting into when they go see it.”

Audiences who know Rogen only for his more amiable comedies might be the ones most in for a surprise when they encounter the decidedly harsher vein of Hill’s humor.

Hill broke into Hollywood by way of his debut feature, “The Foot Fist Way.” After years of struggling to make it in Los Angeles, working production assistant jobs, he returned to his native North Carolina for the ultra-low-budget comedy of a delusional small-town taekwondo instructor. The film, co-written with Danny McBride and Ben Best, would make it into the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. In the time between that and its theatrical run in 2008, “Foot Fist” circulated among Hollywood comedy circles, finding fans in the likes of Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow. Hill was invited down to the set of “Knocked Up” by Apatow and Rogen, and it was there he met his future star.

Hill also recently saw the show he created with McBride and Best, “Eastbound & Down,” get picked up for a second season on HBO. McBride and Best also both pop up in small roles in the go-for-broke “Observe and Report.”

With all the pills, vomiting, shooting, full-frontal male nudity, beating, binge drinking, robbery, heroin abuse and Tasering, “Observe and Report” is simply not what one expects from a major Hollywood studio like Warner Bros. It’s difficult not to wonder if everyone involved knew what the filmmakers were really up to.

“I don’t feel like we got away with something in the sense that Warner Bros. read the script,” said producer Donald De Line. “We had a table reading of the script. This was not a secret, it’s not like anyone tricked anybody or anything, but I feel like it was a bold and cool thing for them because it does push boundaries. So I do feel we were very fortunate in getting to make a comedy like this. It does things people haven’t done before. It takes you places you wouldn’t expect to go.”

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