Latest from Judge mediocre, I’ll tell you what

Mike Judge has a contradictory style. Above all, he strives to create fictional worlds that seem right in line with our own, and above all, he aims to make our lives look ridiculous in comparison. This balance between the real and absurd can be difficult to maintain, and the act makes a misstep with “Extract.” Judge’s talent serves as a net, preventing a gruesome end, but his latest film, which he both wrote and directed, doesn’t stand up to the trailer park grace of previous efforts.

Judge simply leans too far toward the absurd this time. There probably is a sex-starved extract plant owner like Joel (Jason Bateman) out there, but neither you nor I know him. Same for the gigolo (Dustin Milligan) hired to seduce Joel’s wife. The appeal of Judge’s previous work comes from the familiarity of the situations and characters, and believability is what “Extract” lacks. One ridiculous development would have seemed realistic, but when industrial accidents, prostitution and con artists combine, colloquial charm is traded in for more conventional, randomized laughs. The logic seems to be that if enough darts are thrown at someone’s funny bone, one will stick; that clashes with the way problems hit an everyday life. Granted, there are the truly terrible days where calamities pile up, but problems usually come one at a time, taking up all a person’s attention. “Extract” should have similarly focused on one problem, as “Office Space” did. That film was basically an elongated sitcom episode, a style that suits Judge’s writing and would have suited the running time of “Extract,” which clocks in at 91 minutes.

But expecting all-around greatness is an over-expectation for “Extract,” which falls in best with other movies with one glaring weakness and a host of more subtle strengths. The overall structure of the film may feel overly contrived for Judge, but if you take the advice I just gave him and focus on the details, there’s plenty to enjoy. Foremost, there’s a host of supporting characters pulled directly from your life, such as Dean (Ben Affleck), Joel’s stoner bartending friend who’s capable of incredibly blunt statements despite the constant dazed look Affleck applies; or Suzie (Kristen Wiig), Joel’s wife totally lacking in passion, something a factory owner definitely needs in his personal life; or, especially, neighbor Nathan (David Koechner), the ever-present pest without a clue how annoying he is. Even Joe Adler, an accident lawyer representing one of Joel’s employees, seems relevant, despite being played by Gene Simmons. Judge has far from lost his touch for characterization.

Then these characters are thrown into action and that glaring weakness pops up again. There’s no arc to the plotline of “Extract,” which graphed on a chalkboard would look more like a country road with scattered dips and rises, no more necessary in design than the wear and tear of so many tires. Maybe that image could be applied to Joel’s stale, repetitive life, but I invented the metaphor, not Judge. “Extract” doesn’t seem to have any advice to convey, and without an Andy Griffith style resolution, you’re left wondering why Joel had to put up with this nonsense. Comedy in this form needs a conventional setup to make it viable next to standup, which can deliver jokes much more rapid-fire. As is, “Extract” serves as an unwieldy vehicle for Judge’s humor, unable to justify itself in the same way “Funny People” couldn’t, and that film had actual standup segments. Good, old-timey laughs need a good, old-timey resolution.

But then again, there are some hilarious moments. The way Bateman delivers his soliloquy on the vulnerability of the scrotum, and the fact that there’s even such a speech, and Adler’s insistence that he’ll drop the lawsuit if Joel allows him to smash his in a door can be counted as a handful of moments worth trying to retell to friends. But, from the amount of times I’ve used that word (I count 10 total), it can be seen that “Extract” is difficult to either over-praise or condemn. In the end, I’m left uncertain of what Judge hoped to accomplish. “Extract” may just need more time to become well-loved in the way his previous films are: not wholly on their own merits, but because with a year to their name they’ll have become obscure enough to seem like a discovery, all the better on later viewings.

2 out of 4 stars

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