This expression is a pretty good description of the film.
For a while, I thought 2016 was going to be a poor year for cinema. Many of the movies I had been excited to see this year did not live up to my expectations, and this summer will go down as one of the lowest grossing in recent memory. However, while many of the movies I had been looking forward to turned out to be disappointments, I’ve also seen many movies which had flown under my radar but which turned out to be awesome. It turns out that 2016 has been a great year for movies- I had just to look a little more than I anticipated. An excellent illustration of this is the film I’m talking about today. While I had seen the infamous trailer some time ago, I was absolutely not prepared for the sheer insanity that is Sausage Party.
Somewhere in America there is a little town, and somewhere in that little town is a supermarket called Shop Well’s. In this supermarket is food of all sorts, but what you might not know is that the food is alive. Although the shoppers cannot perceive it, each day they are greeted by the food with reverence and devotion. The food wants nothing more than to be chosen by the “Gods” and taken out of the supermarket and into “the Great Beyond”. One day, a shopper chooses a package of hot dogs which includes Frank (Seth Rogen), along with his friends Carl (Jonah Hill) and Barry (Michael Cera). Also chosen is a package of hot dogs buns containing Frank’s girlfriend Brenda (Kristen Wiig). But before they can be taken into the Great Beyond and live happily ever after, tragedy strikes and Frank and Brenda are separated from their friends. It's not long before both groups learn the terrible truth about the Gods they worship- that they are not going to a land of joy and plenty, but instead to the kitchen.
As is apparent by that description, Sausage Party is essentially Toy Story except with food. It even starts with a Disney-esque musical number! But of course, being made by Seth Rogen, that doesn’t last long, and it quickly becomes a sort of horror movie, at least from the food’s perspective. All of that I knew about already. What I wasn’t prepared for is how absolutely batshit insane this film is. It’s subversive, offensive, crass, graphically violent, and absurd, with gags being shot at the audience like machine gun bullets. In short, it’s absolutely, hysterically funny. And this is coming from someone who’s not really a fan of Rogen’s previous work. But this movie is just bonkers.
Sausage Party is essentially a giant middle finger to everyone who thinks “cartoons are only for kids” or that there are some lines that just shouldn’t be crossed. The food’s worship of humans and their belief in the “Great Beyond” is a huge rant against religion which the writers try to make as obvious and offensive as possible. The movie is filled with crude body and toilet humor, along with more sexual innuendos and double entendres than you can shake a stick at (I mean, the two main characters are a sausage and bun for fraks sake). There’s incredibly offensive ethnic stereotyping (a Jewish bagel, a Native American whiskey named Fire Water), incredibly graphic violence (and not solely against food), and enough silly food puns (riding horse-radish) to make Mel Brooks blush. And not to forget a heaping dose of general absurdism on top. This movie has a little bit of everything, and to be honest I’m a little surprised it only got an R rating considering some of the content in the movie.
And just when you think you have it figured out and have settled down to watch the weirdness unfold, the plot takes a major turn in the third act and the film goes totally off the rails. The last time I was this surprised by a film was when the last Spongebob movie turned out to be a surreal stoner comedy with space-traveling dolphins and epic rap battles. I don’t want to spoil anything, but suffice to say that this movie gets fucking weird. I think it gives Swiss Army Man and The Neon Demon a run for their money for title of Most Bizarre Film of 2016.
But most importantly, I could not stop laughing while watching this movie. Best of all, since it has a little bit of every type of comedy, it should appeal to people with broadly different tastes. But it will especially appeal to you if you just want utter insanity. No matter what your taste in comedy, if you want to laugh this weekend, go see Sausage Party. You absolutely will not be disappointed.
Grade: A
Somewhere in America there is a little town, and somewhere in that little town is a supermarket called Shop Well’s. In this supermarket is food of all sorts, but what you might not know is that the food is alive. Although the shoppers cannot perceive it, each day they are greeted by the food with reverence and devotion. The food wants nothing more than to be chosen by the “Gods” and taken out of the supermarket and into “the Great Beyond”. One day, a shopper chooses a package of hot dogs which includes Frank (Seth Rogen), along with his friends Carl (Jonah Hill) and Barry (Michael Cera). Also chosen is a package of hot dogs buns containing Frank’s girlfriend Brenda (Kristen Wiig). But before they can be taken into the Great Beyond and live happily ever after, tragedy strikes and Frank and Brenda are separated from their friends. It's not long before both groups learn the terrible truth about the Gods they worship- that they are not going to a land of joy and plenty, but instead to the kitchen.
As is apparent by that description, Sausage Party is essentially Toy Story except with food. It even starts with a Disney-esque musical number! But of course, being made by Seth Rogen, that doesn’t last long, and it quickly becomes a sort of horror movie, at least from the food’s perspective. All of that I knew about already. What I wasn’t prepared for is how absolutely batshit insane this film is. It’s subversive, offensive, crass, graphically violent, and absurd, with gags being shot at the audience like machine gun bullets. In short, it’s absolutely, hysterically funny. And this is coming from someone who’s not really a fan of Rogen’s previous work. But this movie is just bonkers.
Sausage Party is essentially a giant middle finger to everyone who thinks “cartoons are only for kids” or that there are some lines that just shouldn’t be crossed. The food’s worship of humans and their belief in the “Great Beyond” is a huge rant against religion which the writers try to make as obvious and offensive as possible. The movie is filled with crude body and toilet humor, along with more sexual innuendos and double entendres than you can shake a stick at (I mean, the two main characters are a sausage and bun for fraks sake). There’s incredibly offensive ethnic stereotyping (a Jewish bagel, a Native American whiskey named Fire Water), incredibly graphic violence (and not solely against food), and enough silly food puns (riding horse-radish) to make Mel Brooks blush. And not to forget a heaping dose of general absurdism on top. This movie has a little bit of everything, and to be honest I’m a little surprised it only got an R rating considering some of the content in the movie.
And just when you think you have it figured out and have settled down to watch the weirdness unfold, the plot takes a major turn in the third act and the film goes totally off the rails. The last time I was this surprised by a film was when the last Spongebob movie turned out to be a surreal stoner comedy with space-traveling dolphins and epic rap battles. I don’t want to spoil anything, but suffice to say that this movie gets fucking weird. I think it gives Swiss Army Man and The Neon Demon a run for their money for title of Most Bizarre Film of 2016.
But most importantly, I could not stop laughing while watching this movie. Best of all, since it has a little bit of every type of comedy, it should appeal to people with broadly different tastes. But it will especially appeal to you if you just want utter insanity. No matter what your taste in comedy, if you want to laugh this weekend, go see Sausage Party. You absolutely will not be disappointed.
Grade: A
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