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Albert Brooks' comedic genius by Chris Richter Gamecock Critic A few weeks ago, October Films released the Albert Brooks film “The Muse.” With every .major movie release, the media inundate their loy al readers and watchers with interviews of the di rector and stars of the film. So everyone was gush ing about the genius of Albert Brooks. As I learned, his real name is Albert Einstein, so there must be some genius there somewhere. But I had never really seen much of his work. As my faithful readers)both of you) know, I love “Out of Sight,” in which he plays a Michael Milken-like sleazeball. I enjoyed “Mother,” a film where he goes in search of the answer to his relationship problems by moving back in with the first woman he ever had a relationship with: his moth er. He does a terrific job in “Broadcast News” as a top-notch reporter in love with his best friend (Holly Hunter) and in competition with the pret ty-faced new anchor. Outside of that, the rest of his oeuvre had gone unseen by me. t i _ . • . .1_• J a 1 TV _L OU 1 lliouc 111J73 tu IUC V1UCU 31U1C OIIU tilt. IMtir land County Public Library (go there now, it’s great) and picked up “Modem Romance” and “Lost in America.” After watching the two, I was reminded a little of Woody Allen. The main difference is, while Wbody Allen never leaves New York or him self in his fdms, Brooks will take some chances. They’re both very funny, although 1 find my -favorite Allen films, “Annie Hall” and “Bananas,” funnier than anything I’ve seen of Brooks. “Modem Romance” (1981) stars Brooks as Robert Cole, a Hollywood film editor. Robert has been seeing Mary Harvard (Kathryn Harold), who works in a bank. They have an on-again, off again relationship that provides much of the con flict in the film. The film opens as Robert and Mary meet in a restaurant to talk. They end up breaking off their relationship. Robert goes back to work, depressed. At first he tries to edit, telling his partner Jay (Bruno Kirby) that he can get over it easily. But jite can’t, and he goes home to drink himself silly. After more than a few drinks, he makes a phone call to a woman he doesn’t even remember, but she agrees to go out with him. The next day, he wakes up and decides to change his life and forget what happened with Mary. He goes to the vitamin store and tells the clerk he’s just end ed a relationship and needs vitamins, asifthere’sapack et ot vitamins for that. Then he goes to the athletics store, where he gets duped by the salesman (Brooks’ own brother) into buying hundreds of dollars worth of ridiculous Jogging gear. He even goes on the date. Well, sort of. He makes it around the block and realizes he’s kidding himself. So he tries desperately to get Mary back and succeeds to a degree. The one troubling thing I found about the film was when Robert says he knows he loves Mary because he finds himself circling Mary’s hotrse in his car at all hours of the night. Sounds more like stalking to me. “Lost in America” (1985) is like “Easy Rider.” OK, not really, but that’s one of the funnier gags in the film. Brooks plays uavid Howard, an advertising ex ecutive who’s in line for a promotion. He and his wife, Linda (Julie Hagerty), dream of the new life that will come with the promotion. A new house. A Mercedes. So when David finds that he hasn’t gotten the promotion, he is livid. He even thinks it might be some elaborate hoax masterminded by Allen Funt of “Candid Camera.” But it’s not. And instead of being transferred to New York as the boss had planned, David is fired be cause of liis actions. He convinces his wife to take their nest egg and leave, as he puts it, “just like ‘Easy Rider.’” The two buy a Winnebago and head out to ex plore America and find themselves. Then they get to Las Vegas. Things start to get bad when David finds that slipping $100 to the hotel desk man will only get them the junior bridal suite with two tiny heart-shaped beds and a heart-shaped shower, not tub. Then David wakes up at 6 am. to find his wife missing. He locates her at the roulette wheeL less $ 100,000—their entire nest egg, save $1000 or so. With what’s left, they make it to Arizona where they set up camp. David gets a job as a crossing guard ($5.50 an hour plus benefits) at an elemen tary school and his wife becomes assistant man ager at Der Weinerschnitzel. He gets picked on by fifth-graders, while she has a manager named Skippy, perhaps the funniest Skippy I’ve seen since “Family Ties.” Eventually, David decides he’s not Dennis Hopper and his wife’s not Jack Nicholson, and they do end up in New York. But as the scrolling coda explains, things change a little. .What I like about these films is that they’re smarter than the shock humor that has taken over the comedy film of late. That’s not to say I’m too intellectual for the occasional fart or body fluid joke. But it’s all about context. And here, Brooks puts some very smart ob servations about life and people in a context that is believable. I have a hard time believing that Woody Allen could snag Diane Keaton or Mariel Hemingway or Elisabeth Shue if he lived in the re al world. They say women love a sense of humor, but as Brooks said, “I think Fabio gets laid more than Gilbert Gottfried.” And while I love to laugh at Allen, 1 find myself laughing with Brooks. He’s a funny guy with a sense of humor that doesn’t explode from the screen or grab you like Allen. His punch lines are real things I could ac tually hear or maybe even say, unlike Allen’s, which sound too perfect and too scripted sometimes. Brooks as a comic genius might not be such a stretch. I’ve missed his television performances and most of his movies, but if he’s what everybody says he is, then America needs him as its neurot ic, comedic Jewish icon. ■ ; HiiAmous. {kooks nrson in Amaitoo.' D^DirA Klul _ bPECIALS TO I HE GAMECOCK Albert Brooks stars in “Modem Romance” and “Lost in America.” His films showcase a more realistic comedic filmmaking style than many of his contemporaries and offer an alternative to the shock humor of today.