Observe and Report

I have serious issues with this film, which I saw this weekend. Putting aside the date rape issue, there’s the mental illness angle, which is, of course, my milieu. I won’t get into a whole hyperventilating mess about it, because that would be boring. But Seth Rogen plays a bipolar mall security cop who goes crazy when he goes off his meds — though it should be noted that he’s pretty crazy to begin with. Once again, a film that associates the mentally ill with violence … yawn. I mean, come on, Jody Hill. You can’t do better than that?

But what bothers me is the pharmacological inaccuracy in the film. Though the character makes clear mention of struggling with bipolar disorder, he’s only on one medication: Klonopin. It makes no clinical sense. What dumbass doctor prescribes like that? I would have felt a lot less outrage about the whole bipolar portrayal if, in the scene about his meds, he’d said he was on Lithium. I know that’s nitpicky, but hey, I love copy-editing too. Sue me.

P.S. Speaking of litigation, ABC.com has an article about the date rape scene. Its headline is “Funny or Offensive?” Copyright infringement!

liz | 3:51 PM | Funny or Offensive?, media