Movie Review: Sausage Party

A quick Google or Twitter search will direct you to hundreds of thinkpieces and damning tweets from critics and avid film watchers complaining about Hollywood's lack of original ideas in the modern era. While I think the whole "the lack of original ideas" argument is pretty much a "get off my lawn" reaction from old, bitter people who can't handle the changes that popular film culture has undergone in the past 20 years or so, there's definitely a fair amount of truth to it. Of the 42 films that have received or are about to receive a wide release this summer (anything released between the first weekend in May and last weekend in August), only 14 of them weren't adapted from previously published material. Hollywood has put out plenty of good sequels, remakes and novel-adaptations over the years, but to see a relatively small amount of original projects hit theaters during the prime part of their yearly schedule is pretty disheartening. Enter Sausage Party: a morbid, insane and juvenile R-rated animated comedy that is truly one of a kind.

Seth Rogen, writing partner Evan Goldberg and their stable of constant collaborators led by Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, James Franco and a host of other hilarious actors have become notorious for making some of the most over-the-top vulgar comedies of all-time. With Sausage Party, they manage to effortlessly blow past the raciness of every other project they've spearheaded over the years. Rogen, Goldberg and fellow co-writers Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir were well aware that the world of animation gave them the freedom to ramp up the vulgarity and made a point to pack the film with content they could never dream of getting away with in a live-action film. The last 20 minutes in particular push the boundaries of the R-rating so far that I can't believe they managed to release this film as is without NC-17 rating attached to it. I can't give too much away with spoiling it, but let's just say that the events depicted in the climax of the film are so twisted and obscene that it makes the most fucked up moments of This is the End look like an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba! by comparison. I've always admired Rogen's willingness to test the limits of what's acceptable in American comedies and with Sausage Party, he kicks his love of raunchy humor up to an unprecedented level.    

Underneath all of the shock humor and dirty food puns, Sausage Party is a surprisingly sharp and religious allegory. While there are subplots full of less substantial material and frequent lowbrow humor to prevent the film from becoming preachy, the film essentially serves as an argument for the non-existence of God. All of the food products are promised salvation (or as its called in the film "The Great Beyond") if they follow a certain set of rules, only to eventually find out that the "Gods" (humans) really just want to eat or drink them. The film's overlying message isn't one that I necessarily agree with, but it's too cleverly-constructed and intelligent to not appreciate. Rogen and co. don't get enough credit for the subtle depth they put into almost all of their movies and this is without question the deepest and most thought-provoking film they've made to-date.

Sausage Party is a ballsy, insane and sneakily smart film that will more likely either cause you to laugh until you can't breathe or be so god damn repulsed that you'll beg the theater manager for a refund the minute the credits start rolling. It isn't quite as consistently laugh-out-loud funny as The Night Before or the aforementioned This is the End, but it's still an excellent comedy that further cements Rogen's standing as the finest comedic actor of his generation.

4/5 Stars