Cedar Rapids

For weeks and weeks and weeks I waited. I kept seeing ads everywhere for a movie that looked like it would be the best comedy of the year. Coming soon, the ads would say. Limited release, the ads would say. And I waited and waited. As the film was released into more and more markets; none were mine. Finally the film came out and despite being everything I thought it would be and more, I feel like I was the only person in my whole city that saw it. A great movie that nobody believed in enough to market properly came and went without anyone noticing. That’s sad.

If you were fortunate enough to see “Cedar Rapids” when it was out a couple months ago then you know what I’m talking about. The rest of you should write yourself a note not to be opened for six months reminding you to see it on DVD. “Cedar Rapids” is about a man who leads a banal existence like most of us do. He gets the chance to go to a business convention and realizes that the world is a terrible, terrible place. This film is populated with top tier comedic talent. It really doesn’t get much better. Every one in the film is brilliant. The film delves into a darkness that most comedies dare not tread and for that alone it won my heart forever. And although it doesn’t fit my usual barometer for comedy (laughs per minute), I still say it’s the comedy to beat this year. While it might be a better movie than it is comedy that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly funny; disturbingly so at times.

So here I sit again, waiting. Waiting for the day when I can watch this movie again. And confirm for myself that it is indeed the masterpiece I perceived it to be in a single viewing. I will never understand the business of Hollywood. I will never understand why so many great movies get exposed to so few for so short a time while I’m sure the next billion dollar blockbuster will suck and be seen by every able bodied American (I’m looking at you, James Cameron). One day there will be a Criterion edition of this film and I will watch it and laugh and cry. And then I will wake up because it was the fever dream of a mad man.