Speaking of funny, for men (and women, of course) of a certain age like me, "Moonlighting," for the five seasons or so it ran on ABC, was pretty much the very definition of it for TV, so the return of Glenn Gordon Caron to the realm of private eyes can only be good news.
Among other things since "Moonlighting" went off the air in 1989, Caron has developed the series "Medium," but now he's getting back to something that should be more fun, a series based on real-life private investigator Pamela Slaton, who specializes in reuniting clients with long-lost loved ones.
So, not quite the same thing, but I'm still betting on something worth watching coming from all this.
And comedy of a very different - and much darker - sort will surely come with Roman Polanski's "Carnage," and will hopefully even come to my little corner of the world when this opens Dec. 16. Having seen Yazmine Reza's great play, on which this is based, in Minneapolis, I can tell you that it is indeed savagely funny, and with Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz all starring in the movie, it should be a real treat. Here is the first trailer I know of for it:
Next up today comes the first teaser trailer I've come across for "American Horror Story," the new series that "Glee" and "Nip/Tuck" creator Ryan Murphy has developed for FX. Delivering solidly on its "Snakes on a Plane"-style title, the show is indeed about an American family that moves into a house that is rather haunted. The fairly phenomenal cast features definite Reel Fanatic fave Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, Francis Conroy and even, oddly enough, Jessica Lange. Keep an eye out for the show on Oct. 5, and enjoy the trailer.
OK, now on the promised Saturday morning funnies, starring for my money two of the funniest people in the world. In fact, though I'd still put Bill Murray No. 1, with what he's doing on his "Louie" sitcom of sorts, also on FX, Louis CK has vaulted into the second slot for me. If you've never seen it, you're really missing out. Granted, his humor isn't for everyone, since, as you'll see from this clip in which Conan O'Brien wisely just lets him riff, he's the kind of person who, like me, finds children auditioning for "Shindler's List" or (as in the clip he shows from "Louie") dressing up in black face to be very funny. Enjoy the interview.
And finally today, there are very few things I enjoy watching more than Ricky Gervais and the Muppets, so why not combine the two for some sadistic humor? Gervais' humor is indeed more than a bit mean, and his latest foil, Warwick Davis, is clearly in for some punishment on their mockumentary series "Life's Too Short," which will hopefully be coming to HBO sometime soon. To say any more would spoil this, so just enjoy it, and have a great rest of the weekend. And anyone considering seeing the "Fright Night" remake, know that it was written by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" vet Marti Noxon, and while never close to as funny as that, it's much better than the average horror movie remake. Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but it's at least worth a Saturday afternoon matinee. Peace out.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Saturday morning funnies, with Louis CK, Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Roman Polanski and the art of the extremely uncomfortable
OK, I'm more than a little slow. I knew Roman Polanski's next movie was titled "Carnage," and I've seen the Tony award-winning play by Yazmina Reza "Gods of Carnage" while on vacation with my family in Minneapolis, but not until now did I manage to put the two together.
In my defense, why in the world do they have to keep shortening movie titles to as few characters as possible? Martin Scorsese, of all people, found the title of one of my favorite books, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," so odious that he had to cut it all the way down to simply "Hugo" for his Thanksgiving offering. But was "Gods of Carnage" really so long that people couldn't digest it on a poster? Sheesh.
But I already digress. Polanski's "Carnage" has been chosen to open the New York Film Festival on Sept. 30, and for many reasons, the play is just a perfect fit for his style of filmmaking.
First, a bit about what the movie and play are about, and who's starring in the flick. Reza's play (and hopefully Polanski's movie) takes place entirely in one New York City apartment, where two groups of parents are gathered after one child has acted out violently to the other one. I'm just guessing from the photo above here, but I have to think John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster play the parents of the wronged child, and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz the other couple. Take a second to digest all that star power in one small room.
The setting is key, because in that tight space, the often scathing words aren't just weapons, they're WMD's, and the "Carnage" is immediate and brutal. And, thankfully, Reza's whip-smart play is also devastatingly funny, as when the character to be played by Reilly (again, I assume) explains how he used to be in a "gang" when he was a kid. It's not a comedy of manners, but of pretty much the complete lack thereof, my favorite kind.
In relation to the best of Polanski's movies, it fits in perfectly. The most direct correlation is to "Death and the Maiden," in which Sigourney Weaver traps and torments Ben Kingsley in Polanksi's take on the Ariel Dorfman play. In that and his most recent flick, the political thriller "Ghost Writer" (well worth an immediate rental if you haven't seen it), among others, the tension is not just kept high, but ramped up to the point of suffocation throughout, giving his best movies a very claustrophobic feel.
And that, in short, is why Roman Polanski's "Carnage" is definitely a movie to keep an eye out for when it opens hopefully wide enough to reach even my little corner of the world on Nov. 18. And I'll leave you today with, courtesy of collider, eight or so short clips from another movie I'm certainly looking forward to, "The Help," the movie based on Kathyrn Stockett's insanely popular novel and starring Emma Stone and Viola Davis, set to come out as some relief from the usual August slog on the 10th. Enjoy, and have a great Sunday. Peace out.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
I have a bone to pick with Jodie Foster ...
An alternative title for this post could be "threat level ludicrous."
Less a critique of the competely over-the-top new movie "The Brave One," this is instead an open letter to Jodie Foster (though, unlike John Hinckley, I'm relatively certain she will never read this.)
As for the movie itself, it has a few charms and far too many faults to make it more than slighty enjoyable. It's at its best at its quietest moments, when director Neil Jordan drops the rather awful music and just lets Terrence Howard and Foster act. Those moments, however, are completely overshadowed by a simply awful ending and many more pratfall along the way.
But, as I said, my main beef - relative to an interview she gave promoting this flick - is with Jodie Foster herself on this one.
The main question in my mind as I was leaving this flick was: What kind of New York does Foster's Erica Bain live in? As even people who haven't seen this yet probably know (and as you might be able to tell, I wouldn't really recommend rushing out to do so), her character is the victim of a very violent attack early on that kills her fiance and leaves her very badly injured. OK, fair enough.
From there, however, it just gets beyond silly. If you haven't seen the movie yet, please skip the rest of this paragraph so I don't ruin it for you. After buying a gun in a silly enough scene, Foster's Bain, in short order, encounters an enraged gunman in a bodega, gets accosted by two rather unpleasant black toughs on the subway and then encounters a wannabe pimp in Central Park.
Now, before I go any further, let me qualify this by saying I have never lived in New York, but I have probably visited there more than 50 times, and will do so again at the end of this year (and in my mind, I'm already there.) I did live in D.C. for a total of about five years, but the closest I ever came to being a victim of violent crime was when some dude walked up to my friend Jim Waddick during his first week in the city and, after asking him what time it was, then asked him for his watch. Jim, being a fairly rational guy from Edina Minn., promptly handed it over rather than pursue the matter any further.
But I digress. My point is this: Though I concede that New York is of course a very large city pulsing with all kinds of life, I've never had the displeasure of experiencing (or seeing, for that matter) any thing close to what happens in this movie. I've probably been to at least 100 bodegas and ridden the subways hundreds more times, and I've never felt terribly unsafe.
Now, this being a revenge movie and, of course, a fictional one, I'd be able to excuse this level of unreality if it were a better movie or if Jodie Foster hadn't raised the stakes in promoting it.
For anyone who may have missed it, here's what Ms. Foster had to say to the Associated Press about her view of the world we live in: "Post 9/11 is such a different beast. It's the safest big city in the world. There's a cop on every corner. And why is it that we're on Orange Alert? Why is it that we're a quarter-inch away from this rage and fear that has no basis in reality?"
Now, I don't like to dive into politics here too often, but I'm afraid this is nothing more than the worst kind of hypocrisy. If I can try and take the middle ground here, it's obvious that, yes, we have threats in this world that we were unaware of before 9/11. It's also clear, to me at least, that those color-coded threat levels do little more than foment fear, which is used by our government to many different ends.
But my point here is that Neil Jordan and Jodie Foster are also doing at least their fair share to try and make sure we live in a world where our fear level is higher than the reality around us with movies like this one. I concede that I'm taking this far too seriously, but it really got under my skin, so I had to let it out. Rant officially over.
"Juno" trailer is comic bliss
OK, anyone who stuck around through all that deserves a reward. Along with Ridley Scott's "American Gangster," the other movie I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year is Jason Reitman's "Juno" (as anyone who's been here before probably already knew.)
Though David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" edged it out to take the prestigious audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Roger Ebert at least walked away thoroughly smitten with "Juno" and young Ellen Page. You can read all of his review, which my brother first directed me to, here, but here's an excerpt:
"It’s the kind of movie you almost insult by describing the plot, because the plot sounds standard and this is a fresh, quirky, unusually intelligent comedy about a 16-year-old girl who wins our hearts in the first scene. Page plays Juno, who gets pregnant, and — no, that’s not it at all. Every element in the movie including her getting pregnant, and her non-boyfriend, and her parents, and the couple that wants to take the baby for adoption, is completely unlike any version of those characters I have ever seen before."
And here is the, as far as I can tell, new trailer for the flick, set to open hopefully everywhere Dec. 14. Everything in the trailer, from Rainn Wilson's use of the word "homeskillet" to the great J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney as Ellen Page's endearingly clueless parents, is extremely funny. You can tell that first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody, whose Pussy Ranch blog you can read here, is bound for many great things after this one. Enjoy the trailer, and have an entirely bearable Tuesday. Peace out.
