I went to see the new Seth Rogen movie, 50/50, with my family last night not sure what to expect. I hadn't yet seen a preview, and all I knew was that the movie had Seth Rogen and That Guy From 500 Days of Summer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
The movie begins with a fit, handsome, and quirky Gordon-Levitt jogging. The movie does not cut to the chase- you quickly find out he has a job at a public radio station and has a very cute girlfriend, along with back pains. The back pains are none-other than a rare malignant tumor in his back. And the title is a reference the odds of his survival rate for the rare type of cancer he has. The movie actually turns out to be excellent, and I even found myself laughing at moments I never expected I would: for example Seth Rogen (who plays himself in this true story) encourages Gordon-Levitt's character to use cancer to pick up chicks.
What I liked most about this movie was not that it was a compelling true story about a man overcoming cancer. Or even that it had me laughing out loud at countless moments. I liked that it pushed the boundaries of modern cinema and the arts. If you read the plot without seeing the movie, you would most assuredly groan and dismiss it as a disgusting portrayal of America's greatest nightmare: cancer. But instead, this movie was able to play off of what screen-writes thought they could or could not do by even doing so in a tasteful manner. I expected the movie to be swarmed with stereotypical jabs from critics about a comedy with cancer as a main theme, but instead it turned out to be a generally loved movie. I think the reason it hasn't been done before is solely because as I said before people are afraid of cancer. Producers normally wouldn't want to invest in a comedy mixing fear and jokes- but for this true story, it was worth the risk as it gave light to a very very dark subject.
If you haven't seen it yet, you really should consider it for the risks the filmmakers took in making it along with it simply being a great movie.
I recently saw 50/50 and I thought it was a great movie. I think producers either try to "glossify" and create a perfect world for their audience. Or producers create a movie that's extremely saddening and hard to watch. I believe 50/50 was such a good movie because it was a perfect balance between the extremes by falling someplace in the middle. Why is that producers often create movies with extreme stories? Do we go to movies to escape reality or to come to terms with reality?
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