Cedar Rapids (2011)

It's got raunch and craziness, but at it's heart it's a celebration of kindness, of community. of morality (not the stuffy kind, the good kind) – all while never losing it's sense of fun. Ed Helms does a very nice job as a tremendously innocent insurance salesman from a small town in Wisconsin, sent to a convention in Cedar Rapids. This represents his first time on a plane, his first time in the 'big city'. But while the film may tease Tim a little, it doesn't treat him with the removed hip irony most films now would, and makes him a complex character (e.g. back home he has a fun sexual fling going with his 7th grade teacher, wonderfully played by Sigourney Weaver. He may be an innocent, but he's also a grown man with a sense of humor and self.). This ability to both kid and embrace characters is a long-time strength of director Miguel Arteta and producer Alexander Payne. With some terrific support from John C. Reilly as a wild-man party animal at the convention (who has more humanity than you'd think), Isaiah Whitlock Jr. as a straight-laced black room-mate (who has more humor, and more of a sense of fun than you might think), and Anne Heche as a party girl (who is smarter and more soulful than you might think). Maybe not quite a great film, but a good hearted and very enjoyable one.

This is one of those independent movies with some named stars (Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche) that catches on with critics and artsy folks. It's pretty much just a grown-up version of "Superbad", a coming-of-age story (Superbad) with a nerdy, fish-out-of-water guy (Superbad) getting in all sorts of trouble including a party with drugs (Superbad), a fight (Superbad), and a saucy redhead (Superbad), and while Emma Stone is WA-A-A-AY hotter than Anne Heche, Anne looked kinda nice with long reddish hair. But I digress. It was pretty decent with enough funny thrown in. In the special features there was a theatrical trailer, which I found ironic because I didn't believe this movie ever made it to the theaters, but it did (consult this site).

Ed Helms' role in The Office was my reason for wanting to see this film, other than that I didn't know a thing about it. So it was a nice surprise to see a pretty nice cast turning up here, especially the enchanting Alia Shawkat and The Wire's Isiah Whitlock Jr., and I could have sworn I saw Jack Nicholson there for a few seconds...The premise of a Wisconsin farm boy (they breed insurance) going to a bigger city for his maiden voyage was promising, but it mainly delivered because of all the fun actors in it, and a few individual scenes were quite funny, like the drug outing with Bree and the pool brouhaha. The script is just barely doable, in particular the way it all lands so nicely on its feet is is just too predictable and dull.Not bad, but could have been so much better.

Miguel Arteda's comedies get less dark and more conventional as his career progresses. This one, "Cedar Rapids", stars Ed Helms as Tim Lippe, a naive and idealistic small town insurance agent who "goes to a big city seminar" and "learns that everyone has corrupt values", "no integrity" and "readily sells their souls in the interest of profits, pleasure and business".It's a funny film, Frank Capra with swearing, but the plot's cliché and Arteda sells out by having Lippe return to his small town and start a "good business", the implication being that "ethical capitalism" is somehow possible (the film turns systemic problems into an issue of personal morality, and misses the point of its own frequent allusions to the "The Wire"). Still, actors John C. Reilly and Sigourney Weaver are fun and the film does well to satirise mid-western conservatives.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing.