Winona State University's Newspaper since 1919

The Winonan

Winona State University's Newspaper since 1919

The Winonan

Winona State University's Newspaper since 1919

The Winonan

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In review: “The Interview”

Elizabeth Pulanco/ Winonan

The holiday season brings us a wide range of movie options from the family friendly to the outrageously inappropriate.

“The Interview,” the fifth film in the Seth Rogen-James Franco saga, was one of the not-so-family-friendly options, but that is not what the film will be remembered for.

The film introduces the characters Dave Skylark (Franco) and Aaron Rapoport (Rogen), the host and producer of  “Skylark Tonight” where Skylark interviews celebrities about personal issues and gossip. At a party for the show’s 1,000th episode, a fellow journalist mocks Rapaport by calling him a joke for working on a show that serves no benefit to society.

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While moping around at the party, Rapoport gets a mysterious call from a North Korean official saying that leader Kim Jong-un is a fan of the show and would like an interview. Thinking that this interview will finally have him taken seriously, Rapoport agrees to the interview.

As they prepare to leave for the interview, the CIA pays a visit to Skylark and Rapoport and asks them both to assassinate the leader of the secluded and mysterious nation with poison. Once the two arrive in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, they are treated as honored guests and are soon introduced to the supreme leader himself.

However, he is not what they expected. To them, Kim Jong-un appears as a sheepish, insecure man who was given too many responsibilities. After spending the day partying and riding around in tanks together, Skylark and Kim Jung-un become fast friends, causing a halt in the assassination plan and leaving Rapoport to find a way to kill the dictator himself.

The performances in the movie were what you would expect from a Franco and Rogen collaboration. Seth Rogen plays the straight-laced TV producer to Franco’s party-crazy talk show host, and they do what they do best: share drug induced toilet-humor and sex jokes. Rogen’s portrayal of Rapoport is more serious than his other roles in films with Franco, and he does surprisingly well. James Franco, however, seems to be trying a little too hard.

The one performance to be remembered is Randall Park’s portrayal of Kim Jong-un. He portrayed the leader with sense of mystery and manipulation. His ability to capture the personality of a timid young leader and manipulative dictator was impressive.

One thing about this film that was unexpected was the strong political controversy. Of course, when making a movie about assassinating a nation’s leader, politics are involved. When the movie changed locations to North Korea, the portrayal of life in totalitarian dictatorship was eerily parallel to societal stereotypes known to be true. The film shows how citizens of North Korea worship their leader as a god and how propaganda is the only information the people have access to. Seeing this in a comedy was shocking.

Although the movie was a decent effort at political satire, the controversy behind the banning of the film by Sony overshadows the film’s content.

After getting threats by different groups in North Korea, Sony decided to stop the release of the film in most movie theaters. Smaller, independent theaters decided to show the film, believing the banning of the film was a violation against freedom of speech. The film was also made available on online versions. Many people were critical of Sony, questioning if they had made the right choice to ban the film.

Winona State junior Sam said that the right choice in this situation was not as clear as it seems.

“They made a good choice with trying to protect the safety of the people, but they also caused issues with preventing freedom of speech and expression,” Sam said.

Sophomore Holly Beseke was one of the few that had the chance to see the film herself.

“It was irresponsible to create a movie about killing a leader of an unpredictable country, but it was still an enjoyable funny movie,” Beseke said.

Overall, “The Interview” is a thought-provoking satire that supplies inappropriate laughs for moviegoers.  Even though it was a risky film to make, the controversy and banning of the film was not worth it.

 

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