Naughty babysitting adventures
Wild comedy delivers right mix of nasty laughs and heartfelt emotions
The Sitter (2011)
Certified: 16
Duration: 81 minutes
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Starring: Jonah Hill, Ari Graynor, Sam Rockwell, J.B. Smoove, Method Man, Max Records, Landry Bender, Kevin Daniels
KRS release
Jonah Hill plays yet another in his long line of cinema college losers – a role he has really pegged down.
In The Sitter he plays Noah Griffith, who has just agreed to babysit three children so that his mother can go out on a date. This is a recipe for disaster.
The eldest child is 13-year-old Slater (Max Records) who is ultra-sensitive and has loads of confidence issues. Blithe (Landry Bender) is his younger sister, hungry to be all grown-up and evidenced in the way she overdoes her attire, appearance and behaviour.
Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez) is the adopted one, he comes from El Salvador and has a thing for toilets and has problems with his bladder.
For Noah complications arise when his manipulating supposed-to-be girlfriend Marisa (Ari Gaynor) demands that he gets her some cocaine from Karl (Sam Rockwell) and in exchange she will give him sex. This will mean taking the kids with him on a night where everything that can go wrong does.
Apart from this he also gets to meet Roxanne (Kylie Bunbury) whom, he discovers, is crushing on him.
David Gordon Green, director of the rowdy and rude The Pineapple Express, returns with a movie in the same style and vein. All those who like their comedy naughty and in your face will find that The Sitter’s undisciplined approach to be just the right balance between heart and crude.
The film is helped in no small manner by Mr Hill, an actor whom I like for his ability and knack for making losers seem so likable.
The film’s quota of insanity is also heightened by a Sam Rockwell that has been left unbridled in the role of a demented drug dealer. Give Mr Rockwell this kind of opportunity and the film will never remain the same.
The film’s tale is one that we have seen countless times: one night that will change your life forever as seen in the classic Adventures in Babysitting (1987).
The film’s twists and turns take our characters into some dark places and we shall laugh our hearts out.
What makes the film work is that the crude and rude is balanced out with a certain amount of sweetness and heartfelt moments. It’s very difficult not to feel sorry for the sad situations that Mr Hill’s character ends up in.
The Sitter offers the right mix of nasty laughs and heartfelt emotions. Though I have yet to meet the parents who in their right state of mind would leave their kids with Mr Hill when he turns up on their doorstep claiming to be a babysitter.
The film also has a feeling that parts of the script were improvised especially in the case of Mr Hill and Mr Rockwell. On another note, these three kids would post a serious challenge to any babysitter, let alone one who takes them in tow for one wild night!
Made on a modest budget and careening forward at full speed, The Sitter never gives us the chance to evaluate the situations but rather lets us laugh our way through.