Paul is a highly enjoyable love letter to geek fandom. Starting at Comic-Con (where else?), two British sci-fi enthusiasts (Simon Pegg as Graeme and Nick Frost as Clive) have traveled thousands of miles to meet their hero Adam Shadowchild (Jeffrey Tambor), who is perhaps more off-center than one would imagine in regards to the narrative. The tourists then rent an RV and travel through the desert where they meet a friendly and surprisingly humanized alien, named Paul.
The problem with CGI characters is that the interactions don’t exactly feel real. More specifically, in a comedy the rapid-fire one-liners exchanged fall flat, which is, of course, deadly (it was the largest problem I had with Yogi Bear). Here it works because of the film’s indie aesthetic. Greg Mottola’s direction makes this first and foremost about our characters, which is why we have fun going along on this journey. The special effects to that end have been built to fit and the flatness that exists is minimal at most. Still, given the film’s indie aesthetic, it restrains its big sci-fi moments for later on. That said, I wonder what a Muppet as the vulgar as Paul might have yielded.
When Paul first appears, Clive speaks to him in Klingon and is accused of being a geek. We learn that Paul has been shaping popular culture for the last 50 years. On the journey, they stop at an RV park where they are discovered, quite strangely, having a good time after Paul wins over Graeme and Nick by making them bagels. They set off on a road trip, where, like all road movies, the destination isn’t what’s important (although it provides excellent material for the next Comic-Con) but the journey itself.
There are too many cultural references to recount here – this is a film for Pegg and Frost’s loyal fanbase, which could initially be deadly in reaching a wider audience. In fact if much of this film seems remotely familiar, I think it’s because it inevitably follows a template not unlike that of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
The thing I admire about Pegg and Frost is that they’ve changed directors and sensibilities with Paul, from Edgar Wright, who helmed Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, with considerable success. Under the direction of Mottola, the film is coded in alienation, partly as a coming-of-age story: two geeks lacking real purpose in their life. Although they aren’t in Arizona, they are in the middle of the desert, there references to “aliens” alluding to both the extraterrestrial and Mexican kind. We also have cultural aliens here too, in the form of Kristen Wiig’s newly liberated woman of god. Many brilliant comic actors play supporting roles here, including Jason Bateman, Bill Hader and, of course, Rogen as Paul. With the solid script and a good director, here’s proof you can recycle any concept and make it a lot of fun.
Paul hits theaters this Friday, March 18th.