Zack and Miri make a chick flick

I just saw Kevin Smith's new film, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," and I was a bit surprised at how poignant it turned out to be. Smith, whose first film was characterized by jokes about necrophilia and trannies, has managed to make a sweet, heartfelt romantic comedy that happens to be about two friends who are forced by economic woes into making a porno with each other.

Does it make me weird that I still found it touching? Sure, a little, but I'm no weirder than any of the other people who attended the sold-out showing. Is that a sad commentary on my generation's morals, or is it just the newest offering into a rapidly changing and constantly growing subgenre? Is Smith just keeping up with the times, or is it he and his ilk who've changed us?

Perhaps the strangest thing about the whole experience was the fact that I saw several older couples walking out of the theater at the end of the movie. None of them were shaking their heads. None of them were bemoaning the lost cause that is today's youth. None of them seemed to be angry or shocked or indignant. In fact, they all seemed like they'd enjoyed it.

Maybe the classic concept of the romantic comedy is more universal than I'd realized. Maybe real romance can (or perhaps should) grow right out of the steaming pile of monkey turd called modern American life, rather than out of the cold, unfeeling, sterilized petri dish we've so cynically termed the "Hollywood ending." Sure, the movie itself ends with a pretty predictable Hollywood turn, but it's still, as David Mamet would say, simultaneously unexpected and inevitable.

Maybe this all means nothing except that Kevin Smith is rapidly becoming both more marketable and more mature as a filmmmaker. Or maybe it just means I need to stop doing mushrooms before I go to the movies. Either way, I could really go for some sour cream and onion potato chips...