For a long time my feelings about the new film Sausage Party were a lot like everyone else's. I thought "it seems pretty dumb, even for Seth Rogen, but I'm intrigued." That must be a fairly common reaction to the Pixar-style comedy about talking foodstuffs that is absolutely not intended for Pixar's usual audience. My interest was increased tenfold when an ad for Sausage Party was shown during a commercial break for Preacher, the TV series also created by Seth Rogen and his production partner Evan Goldberg. Preacher is part intense drama, part black comedy, and part religious satire. When I first saw Sausage Party being advertised during Preacher I laughed at the idea of one being promoted on the back of the other as if to say "if you like 'Breaking Bad with more sacrilege' you'll love 'Toy Story with 1000% more dick jokes.'" I quickly realized that Preacher and Sausage Party are more alike than it seems at first glance, and now that I've seen Sausage Party I can confirm that the two are scarily similar in a way that makes me enjoy both even more, but also makes me a little worried about Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
Preacher's recently concluded first season follows a clergyman named Jesse Custer with a dark past who struggles with doubt while trying to lead a Texas church filled with S&M hillbillies, deformed arsefaced teenagers, and star-crossed lovers in mascot costumes. By the season finale Jesse gets the answers he wants but even more questions and a lot more rage, most of it directed at God. Sausage Party is about a god-fearing sausage named Frank, with the "gods" being the patrons of a grocery store. Frank discovers that the shoppers aren't ferrying the food to paradise but to their doom. They're both comedies with as much existential horror as humor. They're both about the faithful discovering that the object of their worship is far from perfect.
Rogen and Goldberg (Rogberg) have been working on Sausage Party for nearly a decade but the fact that it was released so close to Preacher is interesting and a little worrying. I can't help but think that one or both of these gentlemen is experiencing a major mid-life existential crisis and their recent releases are just a part of a pattern. In the last three years every movie Rogberg has made has either been about growing up, a religious crisis, or the ongoing threat of violent dictator. In 2013 there was This is The End, in which Rogen and several of his actor friends played themselves as apocalypse survivors who wind up in heaven after a couple of close encounters with demonic forces. Next was Neighbors, about Rogen and Rose Byrne's married couple who go to war with a fraternity; a literal conflict between domesticity and untethered youth. That same year saw the digital release of The Interview, easily the most controversial film in recent memory, maybe ever. The Interview is about entertainment journalists assassinating the very real, very alive, and very dangerous tyrant Kim Jong-un, but the human center is about Rogen's character trying to grow up and take on more serious subject matter against the resistance of James Franco's man-child Ryan Seacrest-type character. 2015 saw The Night Before, a Christmas movie about childhood friends growing up and growing apart. Finally, that brings us to 2016's Neighbors sequel, Preacher, and Sausage Party.
The stakes just keep getting higher and higher for Rogberg and they're trying harder and harder to grow up while holding on to the goofy blue humor that made them famous. I'm just not sure they're handling the pressure very well. They seem to have developed a dim, almost nihilistic worldview. Maybe they're still a little shaken up after poking the bear by jokingly murdering the bear in The Interview but that doesn't explain the fucked up stuff in This is The End. Maybe they're just experiencing normal growing pains, or whatever normal is for thirty-somethings who have been among the most influential people in Hollywood since their late twenties. Maybe they're crying out for help or maybe their films are a perfectly healthy output for a couple of artists struggling with complex thoughts and emotions. Maybe I end too many blog posts by saying "maybe" a lot but fuck it. If Seth Rogen can make a movie about a talking weiner why does anything matter? Maybe life is fucking meaningless.
Side note: Sausage Party is just Preacher with a happy ending, to put it mildly.
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