Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Marc Pease Experience


Perhaps Jason Schwartzman is the coolest American actor, ever since his great film debut in “Rushmore”. But no matter how charming or cool you are if the story is not strong, you can’t rely solely on actors’ charisma. This is a story of a guy named Marc Pease (Jason Schwartzman) who flipped out during his high school's production of The Wiz, despite every assurance from his drama teacher, Mr. Gribble (Ben Stiller), that he was incredible fake and manipulative at the very least capable.

Eight years later, Gribble's giving The Wiz another shot, while Pease tries to keep the remaining half of his once mighty a cappella group together and heading towards some modest goal of stardom. The a capella group keeps dwindling down in members and interest. The two of them share a common love with present-day senior Meg (Anna Kendrick), and all three of them have a love for performing.

The story is sort of a comedy, although it is more about some kind of arrested development from the pathetic character of Marc Pease that cannot relinquish his high school traumatic experience until he gets another chance to finish the performance of The Wiz. The other arrested character is Mr. Gribble, he is also stuck in his job as the drama teacher, latching on to his “youth”.  

There is a moment in the film where the two main characters, Marc and Mr. Gribble confront each other and basically tell each other about their pathetic realities. The film is sometimes fun but not consistently, the musical moments are good but then again the movie is not a musical either, the story lacks some punch. 

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