Strangers with Candy

Sweetheart Amy Sedaris plays appropriately named, Jerri Blank in the off the wall comedy about a 46 year old ex-drug addict, prostitute and loser who goes back to high school. She appears almost retarded but she is everything but. The Comedy Central series from 1999-2001 named the same title, was 30 episodes of the same genre. She offers crude, down right shocking remarks that you have to laugh about. She is passive bisexual and lude and lacks all graces of the typical middle aged female. Amy Sedaris is hilarious and her off the chart behavior in this movie should get your mind off any problems. If you are expecting a truly down to earth teen age comedy, you will be disappointed as it is everything but. It violates sensitive politically correct subjects from race to sex preferences to gross references to drug and sex addiction in a very comical way that you just can't find offensive. Stand back and take a different perspective when watching this movie and don't take it so seriously and you will enjoy it greatly. She is truly a talented comedian. Everyone has to love Amy Sedaris. Loves Amy Sedaris.

What remains remarkable in the translation from Comedy Central TV show to mainstream feature film is Amy Sedaris' complete lack of vanity in replaying her comic alter-ego, the aptly named Jerri Blank, a 47-year old ex-con who decides to return home after a lengthy prison term and finish high school. The original concept for the three-season cult series was a fun idea full of possibilities, satirizing the high-minded seriousness of the ABC Afternoon Specials in the 1970's by having the hapless Jerri learn some significant life lesson after going through some humiliating situation. Probably a disappointment to dedicated fans of the show, the 2006 movie is really no different except the paper-thin plot feels dragged out to its eighty-minute length (wisely cut from its 97-minute length in theaters). It has the additional burden of feeling repetitive of the series without providing much more in the way of texture or complexity.

Director Paul Dinello (who plays effete art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck), along with co-writers Sedaris and Stephen Colbert (who plays closeted science teacher Chuck Noblet), uses the opportunity to fill in a bit of Jerri's back story in coming back to the family home and dealing with her father's comatose state. According to kindly Dr. Putney, the only cure lies with Jerri's efforts to do her father proud by winning the school science fair. Of course, the easily misdirected Jerri wants to be part of the in-crowd, in particular, getting horizontal with Brason, the school's hunky squat-and-thrust champion. This consequently means turning her back on her science project team, the Fig Neutrons, which includes Tammi, Jerri's best friend and object of Sapphic desire, and Megawatti, the Indonesian geek who has an unexplainable crush on Jerri. Lots of hijinks ensue until the inevitable conclusion, including the insertion of several star cameos - Allison Janney and Philip Seymour Hoffman as bickering school board members, Sarah Jessica Parker as self-absorbed grief counselor Peggy Callas, Ian Holm as Dr. Putney, Dan Hedaya as Jerri's comatose father; and Kristen Johnston as a wheelchair-bound coach. Matthew Broderick actually has a bigger role as Noblet's adversary, the preening Roger Beekman.

Much of the TV series cast is here as well with Colbert the standout as the blustery, uptight Chuck who secretly yearns for Geoffrey, who spurns him to be Roger's idea man. For most of the time, it is fitfully funny if only because the scabrous screenplay takes no prisoners in its approach. Consider this the comic flipside to "Sherrybaby" with plenty of familiar elements from "Carrie" and "Napoleon Dynamite" thrown in for good measure. But most of all, it is a tribute to Sedaris' Borat-like transformative skills as a comic actress. The 2006 DVD has a commentary track by Sedaris, Colbert and Dinello, and although they are obviously having a good time together, much of that rapport surprisingly does not translate well for the viewer. There are eighteen minutes worth of deleted scenes, most understandably excised though interestingly, it looks like Parker's counselor was the chief victim of the cuts. Also included are the theatrical trailer (another case of a promising trailer that's a lot funnier than the movie itself) and a music video for Delano Grove's "Atomic Car".

This movie had very funny moments and the whole idea of a life first suspended -- for thirty-two years -- and then resumed exactly where it was left off promises great exhilaration. The plot is simple but cleverly executed with straightforward wit and healthy irony at the expense of much 'high-school' culture examined in a provocative way to repeat what many know (that racism is perniciously persistent in American education) but seldom face. Though far different in scope and much more ambitious, Crash comes to my mind as a term of comparison for the racism issue, but Strangers with Candy is neither as subtle nor as successful as Crash in making the audience confront their own denial about what racism is and how it manifests itself. Strangers with Candy is a truly funny movie with a somewhat serious message that never spoils the fun. I admit that in some moments I felt uncomfortable with the behaviors of some of the characters in relation to race; yet I do recognize that this is just a movie and reality is a lot uglier than any fantasy. But viewers should resist the notion that the movie is merely supposed to be funny. The plot and the purposefully unsubtle dialog inevitably should make one think of race and racism. I hope viewers will recognize that.

Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris) is a 46 year old awkward ex-con junkie prostitute. She is let out of prison and returns home to find her father in a coma with a younger wife (Deborah Rush). She decides to go back to school and take a different path so that her father can wake up from his coma. The school is filled with wacky teachers and mean girls led by Monica (Elisabeth Harnois). She's hot for Monica's boyfriend Brason (Chris Pratt). She takes Tammi Littlenut (Maria Thayer) under her chicken wing and befriends loser Megawatti Sucarnaputri. Teacher Chuck Noblet (Stephen Colbert) breaks up with Geoffrey Jellineck (Paul Dinello) and faces a challenge from Roger Beekman (Matthew Broderick) for the science fair.

This is a prequel to the cult TV show 5 years after it went off the air. It's ridiculous, insane and stupid. Amy Sedaris is gloriously ridiculous. The movie does wear thin after awhile. It extends the half-hour format a little too far but it's still a great watch for fans of the TV show.

The movie is great, for what it is. I am a loyal fan of the show and the cast and they did a good job of making a movie version of the series. However, it is important to note that this process is very difficult and the movie appears to be more of a long episode of the show. Nevertheless, it is enjoyable, with jokes that are easily accessible to those who have a clue about the world, and makes fun of those who do not. Paul Dinello, Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris...all brilliant. Ms. Sedaris, a slight, cute woman in reality is vulgar and wonderfully crude. Stephen Colbert does a great job of being the born again Christian teacher (note the table of elements in the background of his classroom-it's in the shape of a cross!). And Paul Dinello is a reliable, humorous counterpart to Mr. Colbert once again. Parodying society in a parallel universe of a twisted after school special, it is wonderfully enjoyable.