MovieNotes: The Interview

Title: The Interview

*ing: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Randall Park

Director: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg

Language: English

Genre: Political Comedy

Basic Premise

A TV Show Host manages to secure an exclusive interview with the Supreme Leader of North Korea. The CIA sees this as an opportunity for regime change in this hostile territory.

MovieNotes

• Key Theme – Honeypotting. As per the lead characters, everyone seems to be “honeypotting” everyone else. The CIA doing it to the interviewers, the Supreme Leader to the interviewer, the interviewer to the Supreme Leader etc.
• The Katy Perry song, “Firework” is a character in its own right.
• The Interview while beginning as a satire on American News Television transforms to a spoof of the spy movie genre.
• Randall Park in the role of the Supreme Leader is the best of the lot in this slightly convoluted and implausible storyline which has plot-holes filling by themselves.
• Lots and lots of LOTR references in the movie

Other Notes

• Watching the movie the North Korean anger on the movie and its producers was understandable. No one wants to be “portrayed” in a bad light. But were the reactions justified? Especially in context of all the “freedom of speech” debate which is ongoing.
• One wonders how much of the movie is American propaganda to counter North Korean propaganda?
• Controversy is both positive and negative. The controversy certainly helped in generating buzz about the movie while at the same time making a big dent into its revenues. And it also served as a test case for direct streaming service model.

Rating: 7/10 – Mostly funny but a bit over the top. 

Previously on MovieNotes – Bhopal – A Prayer For Rain