big screen decor: knocked up’s dude ranch
It’s an age-old problem: you meet a guy, see his cluttered bachelor pad basically crawling with filth and still wonder why, a year into the marriage, you’re fighting over picking up his holey underwear when you’re the one with the Phi Beta Kappa. The writing is all over the walls – and floors — in Seth Rogen’s shared digs in Knocked Up. It’s the classic Encino 1950’s-60’s ranch, with a kidney-shaped pool out back. Unfortunately, the guys don’t maintain the pool, so it’s mossy with rancid rainwater. And they’ve carried the same mossy greens and mud browns into the modest American dreamhouse, in what could be called a bong-water palette. The sofa and chairs are familiar mismatched modern, leftovers from the various dorms and garages the room-mates left behind before coming together in a slacker cult. And it’s as clear as the Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas movie poster above the bachelor’s rumpled, and presumably, unwashed bedding: this is slob heaven and the doofus dude at its center is very much a fixer-upper with a heart of gold. — Thelma Adams
Thelma Adams is the film critic for Us Weekly, and writes historical fiction. She lives in upstate NY.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:13 am
too funny. i think they may be my neighbors
June 14th, 2007 at 11:50 am
“Bong water pallette”. Brilliant.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
I was these guys 15 years ago. Our house was just off of Melrose, first house behind The Burger That Ate L.A. (now a Starbucks, natch). We actually had that Pier One Papasan chair that Rogen is sitting on in your picture. We also had a Pink Floyd print on the wall, but not that one, a different one. The art director for this movie really nailed it. During the L.A. Riots we watched them looting the Gap from our living room.
Don’t look for the place now, it was gutted and rebuilt about 10 years ago. It looks respectable now.
June 17th, 2007 at 4:39 am
I just saw this movie last night (hilarious!) and kept thinking “oh, how can she sit on that couch?!?!?” or “Lord, why would she ever sleep in his bed?!?!?” Especially after the conjunctivitis outbreak (sorry, hope that isn’t much of a spoiler for anyone). I just kept wondering how many different forms of fungi these dudes had infecting their bodies.