DIRECTOR
Ben
Stiller
SCREENWRITER
Lou
Holtz Jr.
PRODUCERS
Judd Apatow
Andrew Licht
Jeffrey A. Mueller
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Robert Brinkmann
MUSIC
John Ottman
EDITOR
Steven Weisberg
CAST
Jim Carrey (The Cable Guy)
Matthew Broderick (Steven M. Kovacs)
Leslie Mann (Robin Harris)
Jack Black (Rick)
George Segal (Steven's Father)
Diane Baker (Steven's Mother)
Ben Stiller (Sam Sweet/Stan Sweet)
Eric Roberts (Himself)
Janeane Garofalo (Medieval Waitress)
Andy Dick (Medieval Host)
David Cross (Sales Manager)
Owen Wilson (Robin's Date)
Bob Odenkirk (Steven's Brother)
Kyle Gass (Couch Potato)
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running
time: 91m
U.S. release: June 14, 1996
Video availability: VHS - DVD
Official
website
Other Ben
Stiller films
reviewed on this website:
- Reality
Bites
|
The
guy has a few problems. His childhood reads like a list of suburban
despair: abusive dad, oblivious bar-hopping mom, electronic babysitter.
His adult life is terribly empty and lonely, and the loneliness
expresses itself in anti-social spasms of weird aggression. He's
clingy and annoying at best, violent at worst. His basic need
is the same as anyone's: to be loved and accepted. Yet, because
of who he is and how he behaves, he can't help pushing everyone
away.
This sounds like the blueprint for a hefty drama -- something
Martin Scorsese might direct in a bad mood. Instead, it's the
premise of the new Jim Carrey comedy. The reviews have been baffled
and hostile. The Cable Guy has already been spanked for
being too dark, too creepy, "no fun." Recall, though,
that Scorsese's 1983 The King of Comedy got whacked on
the same grounds -- mainly because people expected a zany Jerry
Lewis comedy. Retrospect has revealed it as a misunderstood gem.
I hope The Cable Guy won't have to wait as long.
Carrey, of course, is the Cable Guy, and not just in this
movie. His persona has always been plugged into pop culture;
he belongs to the postmodern ironist's tradition of Robin Williams
and Steve Martin. The Cable Guy, whose entire experience of life
is filtered through TV, is a classic postmodern creation -- he
channel-surfs through his own head. Speaking with a dopey, insinuating
lisp, Carrey seems eager to go all the way into scary neediness.
Overall it's a brilliant and fearless performance, a black-comic
tour de force, and maybe only the $20 million man can afford
this kind of gamble.
Weaned on TV, the Cable Guy takes philosophical and sensual delight
in whatever flickers across the tube. He pushes his way into
the life of a yuppie customer (Matthew Broderick), offering advice,
free cable services and equipment, even a prostitute. In return,
he wants only friendship. But the yuppie correctly guesses that
the Cable Guy demands a level of devotion that no one could give.
Broderick (an excellent straight man) distances himself, but
the Cable Guy keeps on coming -- a sociopathic Energizer Bunny.
The Cable Guy resonates with sadness and dread, yet it's
also consistently funny (in an intensely uncomfortable way).
Much of this, I assume, is due to Lou Holtz Jr.'s sharp script.
And director Ben Stiller, rebounding from his freshman effort
(the whiny Gen-X piffle Reality
Bites), digs into the multi-levelled satire; he gives
cameos to himself (as a homicidal twin) and old friend Janeane
Garofalo (who effortlessly steals her scene as a jaded waitress
at a medieval theme restaurant).
Despite a flat ending meant to put a smile on the bleakness,
the movie may be a tough sell. Will Carrey's fans follow him
to his dark side? I don't see why not: his diabolical riffs in
Batman
Forever prepared us. Maybe, like Jerry Lewis in The
King of Comedy, he'll lose younger fans but gain respect
among older fans. In The Cable Guy, Jim Carrey is as rubber-faced
as ever, but this time he shows us the beast behind the mask. |
