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If only those of us who were unpopular in grade
school could’ve known Drillbit Taylor. If we did, he would’ve
taught us how to fight, embarrassed the bullies, and given us the
confidence to talk to girls. Yeah, that would’ve shown ’em.
Of course, that’s not realistic. And neither is
Drillbit Taylor,
a second-rate, sporadically funny movie that was produced by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) and co-written by
Seth Rogen (Superbad).
The nerds in need are the lanky Wade (Nate Hartley),
the plump Ryan (Troy Gentile) and the undersized, squeaky-voiced Emmit
(David Dorfman). After they’re mercilessly ridiculed for no good
reason during their first week of high school by bullies Filkins (Alex
Frost) and Ronnie (Josh Peck), they hire a bodyguard.
Enter the titular Drillbit (Owen Wilson), a homeless
man who was supposedly discharged from the military for “unauthorized
heroism.” He takes the kids under his wing (literally), and even goes
so far as to pose as a substitute teacher, at which point he becomes
smitten with Lisa (Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife), an English teacher,
and tortures Filkins and Ronnie.
The initial premise can work as a comedy, but as
written by Rogen and Kristofor Brown (based on a story by the king of teen
comedies, John Hughes) the screenplay is too scattershot. Drillbit
isn’t really interested in helping the kids — he’s only
after their money so he can skip town, and not even the irrepressibly
charming Owen Wilson can get us to really like him. And because Drillbit is
shady and not all that funny, the supposedly endearing story never clicks.
Director Steven Brill (Mr.
Deeds) should’ve made things simpler.
There’s no need for Drillbit to have a negative edge, and the subplot
with him and Lisa is a waste of time because it fails to get us to like him
more. Wade’s crush on fellow student Brooke (Valerie Tian) is fine,
but his brutish step dad (Ian Roberts) and two future-bully stepbrothers
(Casey and Dylan Boersma) add nothing. These scenes are supposed to rub
Wade’s unkind predicament even further into his face, but they go
nowhere, aren’t funny and only serve to articulate how useless
adult/authority figures are in teen comedies. Filkins is a believable bad
guy, but Frost give him a heinous, menacing laugh that sounds like the
bullying Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story.
Wade, Ryan and Emmit — all of whom are lucky that
they’re not afflicted by early teenage acne — are pitiable and
quintessential underdogs. Watching the movie, one gets the sense that this
is a de facto prequel to Superbad, which Rogen both starred in and wrote. Ryan and Wade are
clearly younger versions of Jonah Hill and Michael Cera’s characters,
respectively, and Dorfman’s Emmit is bound to have a fake ID with the
name “McLovin.’ ”
That Drillbit Taylor eagerly tries to channel the chaotic energy of teen angst so
spiritedly exemplified by Superbad is fine, but the fact that it isn’t nearly as funny is
a sad disappointment.
This article appears in Mar 13-19, 2008.
