BY: Kodi Robertson
This critique will contain spoilers: believe me, this will be a good one!
What can you expect when it comes to Jim Carrey? Do you expect to laugh? Do you expect to see his face stretch? How about him making a slight innuendo that your 7-year-old cousin wouldn’t catch? All of these things are what make him a phenomenon in the early and late 90’s (I would even argue it’s what makes him still incredible today).
Yet, among all the films I’ve seen him in, nothing compares to his work in The Cable Guy. If you saw The Number 23 you understand that Carrey certainly has a dark side that he can play. Even Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind showcases his range. Still, these films sadly don’t hold a candle to his work with then-director Ben Stiller in The Cable Guy.
Carrey was able to star in many hits before and after The Cable Guy was released, yet it seemed to me that Stiller had taken a different, still successful, turn in his own career. Stiller used The Cable Guy as a platform for his commentary on the OJ Simpson trial. The whole country had their eyes glued to the television awaiting the results of what many dubbed “The Trial of the Century”. Stiller did what no director could do at that time, he took a current event and made it into a parody that impacted many people’s lives and made the film a cult classic. Stiller was able to take the stardom that made Carrey famous and showcase his talents while still giving us the same comedic goof we all came to love.
But Kodi… what gave this film a cult following?
Excellent question: Stiller used some of the same basic camera angles that most films used, but he did so with a splash of some very action paced shots. Essentially Stiller took a drama and combined film techniques from other film genres, like action and horror, and combined them all together to tell the story of a deranged lonely man with no name try to befriend someone he’s never met before. The story sounds simple, but it all falls into a deeper meaning. Think about it: what would you do to make a friend?
The Cable Guy was indeed released way ahead of its time. The film focuses on the separation that comes with focusing too much on TV and not enough time in the outside world with the people you love. In today’s society this film would fit in perfectly, or as Carrey would say in Ace Ventura “like a glooooove!”
You see it every day, people constantly on their cell phones obsessed with the artificial and empty joys of social media. Stiller may not have known this, but he managed to predict almost exactly how far down society would devolve while technology evolved.
I digress, now some examples what I would call “technique blending” are when Matthew Broderick’s character Steven (yes, the guy who played Ferris Bueller) has a horrific nightmare of being chased by “Chip Douglass” (Carrey’s character aka the Cable Guy). We see fast-paced shots of a green-eyed Carrey chasing Broderick in a seemingly endless hallway. It was a scene that gave me nightmares as a child, yet it was done so tastefully. Eye strain can be one of the biggest challenges an action flick can have when shooting scenes. Stiller managed to incorporate those techniques in the aforementioned scene and in the fight scene between Carrey and Broderick in Medieval Times restaurant flawlessly. I honestly would have believed you if at that time you were to tell me Stiller was an action movie director like John Woo.
Now one of my most favorite features in films is their color palettes. The hallway chase scene is really the most captivating since Stiller uses blue and purple shades to give off a nightmarish vibe to the scenes. The party scene also showcases Stiller’s color palette as he combines strobe lights and party lighting to compliment Carrey’s hilarious cover of the band Jefferson Airplane’s “Need Somebody to Love”. Towards the end of the movie, Stiller chooses to encase Carrey in shadow as Broderick calls him on the phone initiating the final confrontation. To this day I don’t know how they managed to convince Carrey to let a spider crawl on his face, but everything about that shadow-like close up still gives me the creeps as I write this down.
Sadly I don’t know of any other collaborations between Broderick, Stiller, and Carrey but I would be lying horribly I told you I wouldn’t want to see another movie done by them. While unfortunately Carrey has seemed to taken a new spiritual approach to his life (believe me it is quite offsetting) I am still surprised as anyone when I see him working on a new project. If you haven’t yet seen The Cable Guy, I strongly encourage you to give it a try.
Criminally underrated and incredibly themed, The Cable Guy is enriched in themes of togetherness, loneliness, and mental health in reality vs. mental health out of reality. I would hope by now that any film I’d recommend would fall upon willing ears, however, I would also understand if this film doesn’t quite hit well at home for some of you. I myself find it hard to watch sometimes, and I still get quite afraid of the possibility of people like “The Cable Guy” existing in the world. The important thing to take away from this film is, it doesn’t cost anything to be nice. Don’t take advantage of the kindness of friends or even strangers. You are entitled to befriend anyone or no one if you choose, just remember that until you’ve seen this movie that it is just a movie.
Don’t be afraid of your fellow man, be afraid of the things that keep us from connecting with each other.
