Smart Political Satire or Witless Debaucle? The Interview (2014) Review

Over the past few weeks, The Interview will have come to your attention for the predictable political response and subsequent media attention it has garnered. After sources pointed to North Korea being the perpetrators of a recent hacking of the Sony headquarters, the studio gave cinema chains the option to show the film or not. With most cinemas opting out of showing the controversial and offensive film, Americans became angered by the lack of adherence to right of free speech. The increased public attention has worked to The Interview's advantages as independent cinemas and online vendors have released the film.The Interview has since made $15 million from its online release but is it actually funny or has it relied on its political aggravations to promote a mediocre film?

The story follows the producer of a TV news entertainment show, Aaron Rapoport (played by Seth Rogen who co-directed with  Evan Goldberg) who is disenfranchised by the trivial interviews of his show which are dominated by celebrity personalities. In an attempt to get more politically relevant guests, Rapoport contacts long-time fan, Kim Jong-un and after a series of ominous meetings with North Korean associates Skylark and Rapoport are invited to hold an interview with the infamous leader. Naturally, this attracts the attention of the CIA who convince the duo to turn their trip to Pyongyang into an assassination mission.

Dave Skylark (Franco) and Aaron Rapoport (Rogen) prepare for a recon mission in Pyongyang.

The Interview's opening scene sets the tone for rest of the film depicting a ceremony in North Korea with a small girl singing about how she hopes all Americans will "die in their own blood and faeces" then cutting to eccentric celebrity interviewer Dave Skylark (James Franco) interviewing Eminem about coming out as gay where he has been leaving a "breadcrumb trail of gayness" in his songs. In other words, this is a typical Seth Rogen film, for fans of Pineapple Express and This Is The End, who will relish in the opportunity to see the Franco-Rogen banter in typical fashion. Franco's overacting and facial contortions perfectly embody a caricature of an American TV presenter and provides most of the laughs whereas Rogen suitably plays the awkward straight man. Just as entertaining is Randall Park's turn as the Kim Jong-un  who becomes best buds with Skylark. Surprisingly, The Interview not only targets the North Korean leader but provides a social commentary, albeit limited, on American privilege and  media manipulation.

Dave Skylark (Franco) and President Kim (Park) take the tank for a ride

Critics have remained divided over the classifying the film as 'satire' when most of the humour relies dick jokes and racial slurs. However, the characterisation of Kim as a man-child who likes nothing more than to listen to Katy Perry and drink margaritas is smart, funny and can be likened to Team America's representation of his father. There are occasional glints of intellectual political jokes with Kim Jong-un questioning a bumbling Skylark over the dominating illegitimate actions of the US but nothing compared to Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator or the ending monologue of Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator which aligned dictatorship and capitalism in a thoughtful and funny way. The film trivialises ongoing human rights concerns but arguably, and intentionally, the accomplishment of The Interview is not based on the strength of the content alone but on its wider reception: on its ability to mobilise people under a right to free speech to make fun of a totalitarian dictator of a closed state.

7/10