This is the third and final post about my Father's Day mini-marathon -- it was Father's Day in Australia on Sunday -- which means that I don't have any new discoveries from my latest viewing of This is Spinal Tap.
There's a recurring joke in David Wain's Wanderlust in which Alan Alda's hippie burnout Carvin Waggie must list all nine people with whom he originally bought the commune -- sorry, "intentional community" -- known as Elysium, every time he mentions the purchase. "Jerry Beaver, Stephanie Davis, Ronnie Shamus, Danielle Meltzer, Janie Brody, Billy Marcus, Glen Stover, Tony Piloski, and Janice Woo."
"Thanks, acid," another character sarcastically retorts on about his third time doing it, in a rare display of cynicism by a community member toward one of their own.
In that spirit, I am going to list the frankly staggering number of amazing comic actors who make this film such a consistent delight, who are also responsible for making Wanderlust one of my favorite comedies of the 21st century.
Because just a list does not make very engaging material for a blog post, I'll also include a favorite moment involving that actor/character from the film.
Let's start with:
Alan Alda - Aging hasn't caused Alda to lose any of his comic spark. Sure, the listing of names is a great bit, but my favorite moment might be when he has a brief argument with Paul Rudd's George Gergenblatt over his contention that "money literally buys you nothing." "I think you mean metaphorically," says George. Carvin repeats his point until he is left staring at Rudd and Rudd just has to concede the point.
Paul Rudd - Rudd has always been a comedy MVP but he's really pushing his range here. The scene where he practices dirty talk in front of the mirror, prior to an expected session of free-love lovemaking sanctioned by his wife, is the hardest I laugh in this film. Just watch the faces he makes as he says "I'm gonna get up in your vadge with my dee-yuk!"
Jennifer Aniston - Aniston is usually a straight woman but she has fun with this one, especially in a scene where she's "tripping her balls off" (to quote Rudd) on ayahuasca tea.
Malin Akerman - I think this is when I really started to like Akerman, though she lowered my defenses in Watchmen. Her micro-reactions to George's nervous dirty talk, which take her from enthusiastic to horrified within 30 seconds, are perfect.
Joe Lo Truglio - Yep, before there was Brooklyn Nine Nine there was Joe Lo Truglio as a nudist would-be novelist who wears a "dangle bag" over his testicles in order not to drop pubic hair into the grapes he's crushing to make wine.
Kathryn Hahn - In the nine years since Wanderlust I have come to recognize Hahn as one of this generation's most brilliant comic actresses, but she was comparatively new to me here. She doesn't have many standout moments here, but when she offers to substitute herself in the free love for a grossed-out Akerman, it turns out she's perfectly suited to George, since her dirty talk involves the discussion of her "vadge" as well.
Jordan Peele - I'm pretty sure I had not yet discovered Key & Peele when this came out. Peele has a couple shining moments, first when he won't leave the door-less bathroom while George is trying to take a shit, then when he parks George's car in the middle of a lake and can say only "It's crazy. I mean, can you believe that? Can. You. Believe. It?"
Keegan Michael Key - His role is much smaller but of course I have to mention him next. He's the HBO yes man who agrees with everything his boss says about why they don't want to buy Linder Gergenblatt's documentary about penguins with testicular cancer -- even when that viewpoint is a direct contradiction to something he just said.
We're only like halfway there.
Justin Theroux - By size of role Theroux should have already been mentioned. He's the commune's guru, and his list of modern devices that are too modern for him is hilarious. "You know, you can really get caught in that web of beepers, and Zenith televisions, and walkmans, and discmans, and floppy disks, and zip drives! Laser discs, and answering machines, and Nintendo power glove." (Aniston's deadpan response is perfect: "Wow, you know so much about technology.")
Lauren Ambrose - Who knew Claire on Six Feet Under was funny? I do now. She's ridiculously pregnant with Jordan Peele's baby -- "he's African American," she points out helpfully -- and her spontaneous birth scene is comedy gold.
Oh but don't forget there's a whole part of this movie that doesn't take place on the commune -- sorry, "intentional community."
Ken Marino - No one plays a douchebag successful brother better. Living in Atlanta where he runs a successful port-o-john company, George's brother is the ultimate inappropriate non-PC asshole with too much money. Vulgarity is rarely better. Typical line of dialogue, when looking at Linda: "Your body is redonculous!" as he pantomimes grabbing her breasts.
Michael Watkins - Marino's long-suffering wife driven to morning margaritas. I've soured a bit on Watkins in recent years -- the volume has been turned up way too loud on her last five years' worth of performances -- but here she's excellent as she blurts out a series of semi-drunken complaints that ends with "I have mixed feelings about being a parent."
Linda Lavin - The Broadway vet has what basically amounts to a cameo as the real estate agent who sells George and Linda their Manhattan "micro loft" -- which she only starts acknowledging as a studio apartment once they try to sell it. Her description of her blind husband's sexual gifts -- some left up to the imagination, some not -- is a funny surprise.
Oh and then just for good measure:
Ian Michael Black, David Wain and Michael Showalter - These are basically just cameos, but these fellow The State alums join the director for a scene in which they sit around the set of a news program, making increasingly lewd and suggestive comments about their field reporter who just covered a nudist protest, and about how they wouldn't mind if she would participate in such a protest in the future.
And then my two discoveries from this movie:
Kerri Kenney - I'm sure I've seen her in other things but her name is unfamiliar to me. She's the woman who originally meets George and Linda when they arrive for a night at the bed and breakfast. She has a couple good bits, but the one I remember is when she asks George "where John, Paul and Ringo are," and keeps riding the bit through George's awkward silence until she finally says "You know I'm kidding right?"
Jessica St. Clair - The field reporter who is the subject of the lewd comments. This is more subtle work as it involves her just becoming increasingly embarrassed as her male colleagues prove themselves to be monsters. The horror of the objectified slowly dawns on her face.
I've just listed 18 really funny people -- twice the number that joined Carvin Waggie in buying Elysium -- and I think I've probably even missed some.
If you're not all that familiar with Wanderlust, it's time for you to change that.
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