Interview

THE INTERVIEW ANGERS NORTH KOREA AND EXPOSES HOLLYWOOD FOOLISHNESS  

Freaky behind the scenes, Dave Skylark (played by James Franco) has an interview program on television, produced by Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen). At the beginning of The Interview, rap star Eminem admits on the program that he is gay, and Rob Lowe takes off his wig to show that he is nearly bald. One day they learn that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Randall Park) considers their program one of his two best-watched American TV programs (the other is The Big Bang Theory). Skylark decides that they should interview Kim to increase ratings, and the leader agrees. CIA agents get wind of the impending interview and persuade Skylark and Rapoport to poison Kim, as a faction of more moderate North Koreans will then take over. So the duo fly to Pyongyang, where they are greeted by Agent Sook (Diane Bang), who tries to dispel the rumor that millions are starving by taking him past a fat kid in front of a well-stocked supermarket. But Skylark loses the poison, embedded in a stick of gum, when an inspecting guard unexpectedly checks out the gum, though the CIA sends a replacement by jet delivery for Rapoport to retrieve. Soon, Skylark finds Kim to be an affable, delightful person who also loves booze and sex. But after the guard dies during a banquet, Skylark likes Kim too much to go ahead with the assassination until Kim shows another side of his personality during a drinking party and Skylark discovers that the supermarket is a Potemkin store. Meanwhile, Rapoport has sex with Sook, who has arranged their visit and admits that Kim is a monster but advises against murder, preferring to show Kim as a man, not a god, through the interview. The interview begins with Kim doing an excellent job of answering the tough political questions until Skylark asks more personal questions, and the rest of the film defies belief. Directors, producers, and script writers, clearly unaware why Thailand bans the musical The King and I and the film Anna and the King, expose their ignorance of how such a zany film, written in incredibly poor taste, would be received. Indeed, the film is an unwitting parody of politically naïve Hollywood.  MH