I have a confession: I’m very curious about the planned new American Pie movie. Quite simply, from a film professional’s perspective, it excites me how an old, non-PC (sub)genre like the teen comedy can maintain its relevance in a contemporary environment (if at all).
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think these movies don’t do an important job (besides the elaborate plays are still entertaining, of course), because they solve countless concerns (losing virginity, first-time romances, fitting in) in entertaining ways that keep young people really busy, but the way they do it is clearly outdated. Sure, in recent years, Immaturity or Lady Bird have proven that it can be done well, but there are creators who still think we’re in the early 2000s. Dave and John Chernin fall into this category, and their Netflix debut Four Storks is a real little time capsule.
The basic situation is probably familiar to almost all of these movies: Benji (Mason Timms), Eddie (Ramon Reed), Connor (Rafael Alejandro), and Dana (Bardia Siri) are high school students, and although they dream of partying and chasing girls, no one really cares to notice them. Until Dana's brother throws a party where each of the boys ends up in different ways. One falls in love, another tries to keep everything under control, and Eddie and Connor get involved in an unexpected adventure.
The story really doesn’t hold any surprises. We know exactly what’s going to happen, and roughly when it’s going to happen, and the movie’s profound message about fortune cookies shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Yes, these movies still believe that if we just give in, all our problems will go away. Of course, it should be emphasized again that it’s really important to be who we are, but it simplifies the world a lot if we think that’s the answer to everything.
The ending of the film can also be interpreted as a kind of self-reflection, as it turns out that dreams are often just dreams. But the directorial duo does not at all build on the decision to love Benji Bailey (Isabella Ferrera), and the final scene practically contradicts the previous events of the film. Naturally, it brings another cliché into the story: you can get up after every failure, life has given us countless opportunities.
But the problem is not that a film of this type does not have an original intellectual world. The problem is in the quantity of humor and mainly in its quality. I'm not saying that you can't smile several times at what you see, but every funny moment has a fixed moment, and we haven't even talked about some particularly unpleasant scenes, for example, the adventure of Eddie's family brings.
So The Four Storks is a film that is out of its time, and that is not a problem because some of us say that this is not how comedy films are made today, but because I am convinced that this film, for example, cannot speak to today's world. Young people at all. Of course, Hungary was never America, but we were able to decipher the patterns, but in Negi Julia, almost nothing happens as it does today in a society made up of young people.
Therefore, the film does not fulfill its basic function, and cannot be described as particularly entertaining. So you can watch it, but do not expect much from it.
