Now, I’m no illiterate slouch, I get a decent amount of reading done in my spare time (especially compared to my guy friends (hey, anyone else noticing a gendered split amongst their peer groups involving reading, wherein the guys do hardly any and the ladies do quite a bit more, or is that just me?)), but I will admit that I tend to bog myself down in specific areas, like particular subject matters or individual authors. Recently, for example, I mainlined a bunch of Palahniuk before embarking on a string of film-based memoirs (beginning with director Don Coscarelli’s True Indie). It can be tough for new stuff to make its way through without a ringing endorsement, so go easy on me when I say that, up ‘til now, I’ve had no real experience with David Sedaris’ work. Sure, I’ve known of him, but I couldn’t really point to any specific work or influence he’d had, beyond the fact that so many of the women around me point to him as one of their favorite authors.
Luckily, then, I’ve got Miss Cleo to provide a subtle shove in that direction, beginning by recommending C.O.G.
Now, if I was only mildly aware of Sedaris’ books before, you can imagine how out of the loop I’d been to any cinematic adaptations thereof. This one in particular would have been especially difficult to know about ahead of time, what with it being an adaptation of an individual story in the compilation work Naked (yeah, it’s the longest piece in there, but still), so some slack, please. The story centers on young David as he treks from Yale out to Oregon to join the laboring masses in some ol’-fashioned apple harvesting, ostensibly to glean some sort of ephemeral life experience therefrom. (Yup, a girl was involved in the making of this decision, how’d you guess?) While he’s out there, David – going by the name Samuel – encounters some almost schadenfreude-inducing tribulations as he bounces from job to job and from living situation to living situation. Along the way, he finds himself questioning both his faith (or, rather, at the beginning, lack thereof) and his sexuality, coming away with likely some different life lessons than he originally imagined.
Gotta say, this one took some time to grow on me. I felt the plot meandered a bit too much – though that was clearly by design, especially once the source material was made apparent to me – and that it was difficult to truly get behind David, particularly in the early goings (again, this was done purposefully). Once something of a through line was grasped, though, I felt the film paid off rather nicely. David’s overtly self-assured naïveté is punctured time and again, often in ways he never could have seen coming, and each time just feels so vicariously cathartic, so very satisfying. Admittedly, his speed bumps are occasionally rather odd and harsh, but there’s value and growth resultant, so, yeah, I don’t feel quite as guilty as I possibly should for smiling so much at his misfortunes. I will give that I could see a bit of a younger version of myself in there (David’s stated problem with the Bible being that “it’s poorly-written” definitely got a golf clap from my seat), but I’m sure his travails, though coming from a distinctly personal angle, can speak to plenty out there.
Jonathan Groff brings the perfect air of internal superiority rooted in a lack of external experience to his role, so much so that, while reading the story later (had to see if there were any significant differences between the film and its source: none worth noting, really), I found it impossible to picture the character any other way. Both Dennis O’Hare and Corey Stoll provide excellent mixes of affability and intensity to their roles, all the better to illustrate the whiplash David experiences beneath their respective wings. Writer/director Kyle Patrick Alvarez – who worked hard to get Sedaris to let him adapt one of his stories – definitely seems into things, citing his own upbringing as a gay youth from a religious background as a source of strength for the production, and the care and understanding of the material show (even if the schadenfreude is thick throughout), with Sedaris’ voice really coming through.
Overall, C.O.G. (how David/Samuel couldn’t guess what the initialism stood for is friggin’ beyond me, the thick stooge!) is not a crowd-pleasing romp for everyday viewings, but its messages and stories certainly can resonate rather well. Though the film didn’t make all that much money at the box office (smaller indie titles with limited releases rarely do) and word hasn’t seemed to get out for it, I hope we see more adaptations of Sedaris’ work hit the silver screen, if only to get more of that self-deprecating and trenchant wit into more scripts (they need it badly, kids).
Allusions of Grandeur 