Diractors is an ongoing series in which Hassle writer Jack Draper examines films, new and old, whose directors are better known for their work in front of the camera.
As I’m watching Ben Stiller’s pitch-black comedy The Cable Guy, a film with a reputation for being ahead of its time, it’s grown into a new shape. Instead of someone assisting you with a home setup, in 2024 this plays like an Uber driver consistently being selected to pick you up by chance. While cable is dead, the desperation for new friendships is very alive. The service of someone entering another’s home to set up their cable is very silly to me, but I guess that’s how lunatics like this get work. For a movie about impressions, those from Carrey and how we perceive others, something like this shows how there was something in the water in rejecting the idea of fearmongering. The Cable Guy reveals itself to be a very good film for what Stiller has to say under the surface, and just how insufferable Carrey would literally be without the whimsy.
What’s most interesting in the autopsy of The Cable Guy is the separation of how the movie earned back its budget versus the consensus opinion it had a hard time overcoming. Of course, Jim Carrey’s liberation to do just about anything on top of his very public paycheck following his historic run of movies in 1994 certainly had The Cable Guy ready for failure. Now, nearly 30 years later, I view this quite the opposite; Carrey’s misanthropy here makes for a much more interesting movie. Steven (Matthew Broderick) has his cable repairman, Chip, (Carrey) relentlessly prey on him for friendship following Steven’s breakup with Robin (Leslie Mann). Chip is manipulative and unpleasant, and Stiller reminds us of this when he becomes less capable of friendship the harder of tries. Steven and Chip’s “friendship” starts out tame going to Medieval Times, then quickly spirals into Chip advertently landing Steven in jail for possession of stolen property. While Steven remains polite at first, others like Rick (Jack Black) side-eye Chip and his motives for suddenly infiltrating Steven’s life outside of repairing his cable.
Screenwriter Lou Holtz Jr. had the idea for The Cable Guy while working as a prosecutor in Los Angeles, declaring that he once saw a cable company employee in the hallway of his mother’s apartment building and started thinking, “What’s he doing here so late?” This is a very screenwriter-y conceit to jumpstart a dark comedy with a lot on its mind, although it is perfect for a movie that is a culmination point. The film reaches middle ground between Stiller willing to push Carrey and Carrey’s fearlessness, mixed in with the sensationalization of the ’90s media landscape; the ongoing Sam Sweet murder trial serves as a reminder of how normalized the ’90s made it out. It’s in the style of What About Bob? or Analyze This, even though those movies don’t quite reach the point of using the perpetrator to say something more about the time. Even more interesting how shrinks or therapy has taken on much more of a prominent part of people’s lives compared to cable services, Stiller takes Chip right to the edge of no return.
Stiller is a really interesting case here as a diractor. As I knew the movie was labeled a career setback for all involved, I see it as more career stagnation. For Stiller, it wasn’t time to interrogate something like this, nor was Carrey quite ready to subvert what he was known for. It was interesting for Stiller to be reminded that it all goes back to The Ben Stiller Show (nice to see some of The Ben Stiller Show collaborators in here, including Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk) and for that be a respected success. He was approached by a producer to make Reality Bites, after which Judd Apatow referred to Stiller to make this. Never mind having one of these careers where Stiller Trojan Horses an acting career just to later on direct; I think he realized he could balance both, but actually his directing career is very impressive, especially on TV. Despite not having written The Cable Guy, I enjoy that Stiller is unafraid to make a movie as ugly as this. Literally, in centering a guy like Chip and having Steven just living in default “apartment” or “office job” modes, Stiller makes the movie feel like it’s taking place entirely during an overcast day.
The Cable Guy
1996
dir. Ben Stiller
96 min.
Screens on 35mm Friday, 12/27, 9:15pm @ Brattle Theatre
Double feature w/ Single White Female (7:00)
Part of the repertory series: Columbia 100: ’90s Nostalgia
