AUGUST 15, 2016
In the past several years, there has been a rising genre of faith-based films that have become extremely profitable. I’m not talking on-the-nose religious films such as “The Passion of the Christ” (which admittedly made a fortune), but everyday faith films like “God’s Not Dead” and “Heaven is for Real,” where ordinary Americans are confronted with a question of faith and seemingly always wind up doing the right thing.
Not that I have plunked down any money to see these films (I have bills to pay), and from what reviews tell me, most are apparently not very well made. But there is one faith-based filmmaker whose work I do admire — noted pothead Seth Rogen.
Before you scoff, let me direct you to 2013’s $100-million grossing film “This is the End,” co-directed and co-written by Rogen and his professional partner Evan Goldberg, which is one of the few films that I have ever seen that has thoughtfully taken the idea of the end of the world seriously (with laughs). When I heard that Rogen and Goldberg were tackling an animated film with “Sausage Party,” a cartoon about supermarket products, I thought “Okay, they’re taking a break from deep subjects.” Wrong again.
First of all, please note that “Sausage Party” is really, really filthy. Not just dirty, but filthy. Yes, it’s animated, but if any of you parents out there are even considering taking your kids to see this because it’s a cartoon, you should have your parent card snatched away from you immediately. (There’s an orgy scene at the end of this movie that includes sex acts that I never thought were even possible, though I must admit I had never thought about tacos having sex.) Yet, in spite of all that, “Sausage Party” is once again about faith.
Rogen voices the character of Frank, a hot dog who, like all the other food products around him, is expectantly waiting for a shopper (called “a god”) to choose him and take him to glories of The Great Beyond that lies just outside the supermarket door. And with any luck, that would include being chosen with Brenda (voiced by Kristen Wiig) into whose hot dog bun he would like to slide his meat. (Rogen and Goldberg even enlist “The Little Mermaid” co-composer Alan Menken to provide a Disney-esque song called “The Great Beyond” to set the mood. This is one smart movie.)
The villain of the film as a douche…no, a real feminine hygiene douche (voiced by Nick Krall) who tries to take on Frank but is stopped by otherwise feuding bakery items — a lavoche named Kareem (voice by David Krumholtz) and Sammy Bagel, Jr. (voiced by Edward Norton, in an impeccable Woody Allen accent, even better than Jesse Eisenberg’s in “Café Society”), putting their territorial differences aside to come to the aid of their friend.
But when a jar of honey mustard (voiced by Danny McBride), is returned to the store, having been to The Great Beyond, and warns the other food that the afterlife is simply an illusion and all they will do if chosen is be eaten, their faith is shattered. Theologists, please weigh in.
“Sausage Party” is a bit insensitive at times — there is a chewed-up wad of gum in a wheelchair who talks like Stephen Hawking (words fail me) and Salma Hayek’s lesbian taco is also beyond description — but “Sausage Party,” believe it or not, is really about something. Though, even at 89 minutes, feels a little long at times, if you stop for a coffee, an ice cream or more likely a drink after the movie, you’ll have a LOT to talk about.
GRADE: B+
