Simon

The Institute for Advanced Concepts is a group of five powerful scientists led by Dr. Carl Becker (Austin Pendleton). They are so brilliant that they have secured unfathomable government contracts to give them unlimited resources. Leon Hundertwasser (Max Wright) changes Nielsen ratings. Eric Van Dongen (Wallace Shawn) is trying to cross breed humanity with cockroaches. Then they read that over 60% of Americans believe in ET. They decide to hypnotize Prof. Simon Mendelssohn (Alan Arkin) with the help of Dr. Cynthia Malloy (Madeline Kahn) into thinking that he was an alien at birth and then abandoned. Lisa is his girlfriend and assistant.

Alan Arkin belongs to an early iteration of Second City. That's probably where he met Judy Graubart. She may be a good performer on the small stage but she's not one on the big screen. Madeline Kahn would be an infinitively more charismatic lead. The whole movie feels like a smartly written exercise that is too smart for its own good. Writer/director Marshall Brickman has an extensive resume which includes a lot of early work with Woody Allen. It's a satire but of what exactly is not clear. Is it a satire of scientists? Is it a satire of the media? Is it a satire of the military? It may be simply a satire of the modern world in general. Instead of becoming an overnight media sensation, I would be more interested if the group released him into the wilds of his own life. He starts acting crazy. His class becomes popular. He abandons Lisa for hot coeds and then he becomes a media sensation. Alan Arkin is a terrific performer. The story needs to figure out its heart and its soul to bring out the humanity in the alien. There are strange little lines that strike me as hilarious. "Lisa, a lady is dancing with a potholder." It's completely random and the movie probably needs more of that. It's a high concept comedy that is a little too high.

SIMON feels like a mashup of Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, and Mel Brooks. It is one of the strangest movies I have ever seen, and this is coming from someone who generally lives on a steady diet of cult oddities.

The whole thing is a satirical send-up of both intellectual snobs, low culture, consumption, and the religious mindset. The comedy is of the absurd variety, which might be too much for some tastes, but I laughed harder than I have in a long time at it. Alan Arkin is hilarious in the lead (his character's messiah complex is so well-done) and the supporting actors all hit the right notes.

I will say the film is a bit uneven in terms of pacing and biting off more material for satire than it knows what to do with (for example, I wish the TV-addicted cult had more to do). Things drag a little in around the 3/4 point, but not enough to make you sick of the movie. There is an element of drama in the last quarter which feels a bit out of tune with the previous insanity as well.

Still, this movie was fun. It's still in my brain. I can't stop thinking about (and laughing at!) it.

This is a very funny film written and directed by Marshall Brickman, who wrote Woody Allen's ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, and MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY, as well as numerous other films. He only directed four films, of which this is the first, and it shows the least directorial skill unfortunately. His second film LOVESICK (1983, see my review) was much more satisfactory as a film. SIMON should have been far more hilarious than it is, but Brickman was too inexperienced and did not plot the pace sufficiently to keep the action moving, so that it repeatedly sags with people talking for too long, and with too much space between the jokes. However, it is very good value if you are willing to go with the flow and not mind the minor faults. Austin Pendleton is the co-star, along with Alan Arkin, and Madeleine Kahn is one of the two female leads. Austin is my cousin, and I believe he and I met Maddy Kahn together for the first time at the Upstairs at the Downstairs when she was still doing live shows, long before she was ever in a movie. This film is a comic sci fi caper, where a think tank full of mad scientists interested in brainwashing techniques, which is run by Austin, choose Arkin for an experiment. They put him into an isolation tank for a very long period of sensory deprivation and persuade him that he is an alien. Much of the comedy then results from Arkin's behaviour once he comes to believe this. Wallace Shawn adds good support, as he always does. I won't spoil the ending by discussing what this all leads to, but 'a good time was had by all', as they say.

What a great film. I had never heard of this film before. I saw a video of this and was thoroughly entertained. If you are a Woody Allen fan, you have to seek this out! Marshall Brickman worked with Woody on Manhattan, Annie Hall, Sleeper...and it shines through this work. Alan Arkin is superb in his role...and Judy Graubart (who I was always infatuated with on THE ELECTRIC COMPANY)...oh, man, it is so nice to see her in a feature film! Austin Pendleton, Madeline Kahn, Wallace Shawn, Max Wright... They all round out a great cast! And Fred Gwynne as the sadistic army General...well that's the cherry on top!! See this if you can. PLEASE RELEASE THIS ON DVD!!

"Simon" is dated by a number of the foci of different scenes (sensory-deprivation tanks and princess phones, for example). Still, it is one of my favorite comedies despite it's flaws. I can't qualify its appeal to me as entirely rational or securely grounded in aesthetic standards. I saw it on one occasion with a close friend of mine and my house mates at that time. He and I laughed our heads off while the house mates were puzzled by both the film and our reaction. They didn't like it. It's probably a safe bet that those who like the film "Annie Hall" will like this. The introduction to the secret government scientific foundation is a gas as is the "evolution" sequence. The composition of the closing shot is almost painfully beautiful but its impact is much diminished in versions formatted for television.