IF YOU PAY ATTENTION TO the opening credits of Drillbit Taylor, you might notice something interesting. The film is the latest comedy produced by Judd Apatow and is cowritten by frequent contributor Seth Rogen (along with Kristofor Brown, one of the writers on Apatow’s cult television hit Undeclared). Alongside these two members of the Apatow repertory rests an odd name: Edmond Dantes.
That’s not the Count of Monte Cristo; it’s the pseudonym employed by John Hughes, the undisputed king of 1980s comedy. His directorial CV is like a greatest hits of teen comedies from the decade: in the three year stretch from 1984-86, he brought Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to the big screen. In the three years following, he added Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. As a writer, his résumé is even more impressive: in addition to the aforementioned titles add Pretty in Pink, National Lampoon’s Vacation (as well as European Vacation and Christmas Vacation), and The Great Outdoors.
Judd Apatow is the current king of comedy. His work has received near-universal adulation, and for good reason–it marks a return to comedies that combine juvenile antics with a mature sensibility, a hallmark of the Hughes style. In addition to directing The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, Apatow produced Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Superbad, all of which (save Anchorman) eclipsed the $100 million mark. The critical and commercial darling of the aughts has now teamed up with the critical and commercial darling of the eighties for a film that intriguingly mixes the strengths (and some of the weaknesses) of both.
Drillbit Taylor focuses on a common problem from the Hughes oeuvre: an endearing, but incredibly geeky, group of friends must overcome school bullies along the way to achieving some modicum of self-confidence and a greater understanding of the world in which they live. It is something along the lines of Weird Science (in which a pair of nerdy friends create a woman with the aid of a computer who helps them with all of their problems), but substitute Owen Wilson (the title character) in for Kelly LeBrock (Lisa, the bombshell computer-girl).
Lifelong friends Wade (Nate Hartley) and Ryan (Troy Gentile) draw the ire of the school’s resident bully–the muscle car-driving, katana-wielding, parent-emancipated Filkins (Alex Frost)–after disrupting the hood’s attempt to stuff Emmit (David Dorfman) into a locker. Desperate for protection, the trio of dorks place an ad for a bodyguard in the local newspaper. Answering that classified is Drillbit Taylor, a homeless veteran who showers at the beach and hopes to earn enough money to escape to the great white north.
Upon accepting the boy’s job offer, he immediately sets out to rob them blind, stealing the good silver, a watch, and other valuables from Wade’s house. But he soon grows to appreciate the gravity of their bully situation and becomes a true bodyguard: Posing as a substitute teacher, Taylor spends his days protecting the boys by distracting their enemies and serving as a lookout. Hijinks ensue: Taylor falls in love; his homeless friends muck things up; the boys learn to take care of themselves, etc. All in all, it’s your typical Apatow film. Drillbit Taylor is sweet, but not sickly so; raunchy, but only to a point (unlike Knocked Up and Superbad, this film is rated PG-13); slapstick, but in a relatively mature way.
One thing that does jump out is the regression that Apatow and cowriter Seth Rogen’s characters are undergoing. Knocked Up featured a group of post-college slackers; Superbad was about a pair of friends ending their high school years and unsure what college held for their friendship; and Drillbit Taylor focuses on a trio of high school freshmen. If you watched them in reverse order, you could argue that the films are a trilogy about the evolution of Seth Rogen’s unready father in Knocked Up–from a fat, foul-mouthed child dreading high school to a fat, foul-mouthed teenager dreading college (Jonah Hill as Seth in Superbad), to a fat, foul-mouthed young adult dreading fatherhood (Rogen as Ben Stone in Knocked Up).
Hughes’s imprint can also be felt on the film, and not just in the relatively generic nerds-triumph-over-evil plot. Unlike Apatow and Rogen’s previous flicks, the protagonists all seem to come from unhappy, oftentimes broken, families. Wade’s stepfather is an abusive jock who clearly detests his skinny new ward, deriding the boy’s room as a “nerd-paradise.” Ryan’s father is nowhere to be seen; he and his mother live alone and she openly mocks the man when he calls to wish the boy luck on his first day of high school. This is right out of The Breakfast Club; as sporto Andrew (Emilio Estevez) says, “everyone’s home lives are unsatisfying. If it wasn’t, people would live with their parents forever.”
In the end, Drillbit Taylor doesn’t belong on the same tier as Apatow’s greatest works or Hughes’s greatest works. But it’s still so far above the average teen comedy that it’s well worth $10 and 100 minutes of your time.
Sonny Bunch is assistant editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
