To Observe Anna

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I'm worried that my expectations for Observe & Report might have gotten themselves a little too high over the past couple of weeks. Not because anything specific is telling me the movie isn't right up my alley - seriously, everything I hear, this movie sounds pretty tailor-made to my sick comedy sensibilities - it's just my expectations for uproarious-ness are sky-fucking-high, and I might need to calm myself down a bit before it's out on Friday.

Not helping is the fact that my love Anna Faris has been making the interview rounds for the flick. Repeated exposure to Anna's awesomeness makes me all fidgety with oodles of enthusiasm. Oodles! In this interview with AICN she talks a bunch about the film. She's also asked about why she ended up backing out of that Linda Lovelace project, and she finally gives an answer that makes some sense, I think:

"A few things culminated all at once. The financing was always…I mean, it's a dark movie, and the script is beautifully written, and I couldn't believe they wanted me. I was shocked because nobody thinks of me for dramatic roles. So there were a few things happening: financing was a little shaky, timing was a little rocky because they wanted to go originally when I had a conflict, and then they wanted to go right before THE HOUSE BUNNY was released. And a few things happened. I started to think, how does this juxtaposition itself in the public eye--I'm playing a Playboy bunny who lives in a completely sheltered, fantasy Disneyland version of that world, and then I'd be playing someone kind of similar but in a terrifying way. So I wondered how we could address the timing of this a bit. But around them I also came to the realization that for so many years I felt like I had to do something dramatic to prove myself to the industry or my parents or whoever that I can be a dramatic actress, "I know I can." But then I was like, "I can't quite understand why I feel this way. I love comedy, I love making comedies. I love the challenge of it and the joy it brings to people. I'm not quite sure why I feel this need to improve to myself, whatever that means. Why do I have to validate the industry? You know what? Comedy is challenging."

She's probably tired of answering the question at this point and there's probably some self-justification going on, but I don't really blame her. She's striking while the iron is hot. There aren't a lot of female comedians top-lining anything and she's working her way well into that particular boy's club, so good on her. She's funnier than the lot of 'em anyway!
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