A really smart retrospective of Barry Levinson’s 1982 classic film “Diner,” by writer S.L. Price. Not only did the film launch the careers of Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg, and Tim Daly, Price argues that “Diner” was one of the major influences on pop culture in the past 30 years. Think about it: Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” the pop and junk culture dialogues in Quentin Tarantino’s oeuvre, “Seinfeld,” and Judd Apatow’s “bromance” genre can all be traced back to “Diner.” All I can say is “Damn, wish I had thought of that!” Nice shooting, Mr. Price.
The best TV show about teenagers of all time (and arguably one of the best TV shows about any subject, ever), “Freaks and Geeks” is one of those shows that continues to amaze, even after it was yanked after one season in 2000. If you’ve never seen it, the entire series is available on Netflix Instant and is a must-see. It’s one of the truest and painfully funny things you’ll ever watch. At the link above is a terrific and lengthy oral history of the show from the January 2013 issue of “Vanity Fair.” If you’re a fan of the show, or are fascinated by the severe ups and downs of the creative process in the entertainment industry, check it out.
A wonderful and revealing interview with comic legend and writer/director Albert Brooks by Judd Apatow. I can’t add any more to this description. Just read it!
Hands down, the funniest evisceration of holiday sanctimony … EVER!! If you’re a fan of “Christmas Shoes,” please don’t watch this. Please know that my intent is not to demean anyone who loves this song. After all, I’m a huge fan of “Love Actually,” which many people despise for the same reasons I despise this song. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have our form of holiday sanctimony that we love. But seriously folks, “Christmas Shoes” is really f–king awful and Oswalt gives it the treatment it deserves. Not safe for work or little ones.
In honor of the crappy day I had today (which included having two endorsed checks fly away in the wind from the drive-in teller window … never to be seen again, dealing with downpours while not being able to get my driver’s side window raised), I’m tipping my hat to Martin Scorsese’s brilliantly dark and demented 1985 comedy “After Hours” which deals with one man’s similarly sh–ty series of events over a 12-hour period. I’ve booked an appointment with my therapist, Jack Daniels, tonight.
Like the Coen Brothers’ 1998 classic “The Big Lebowski,” Robert Altman’s “Brewster McCloud” is one of those films where you feel the filmmaker had a million different weird ideas that they always wanted to put into a film, but were inhibited due to budgetary, narrative, or time constraints. When said filmmaker achieves some success and they can do anything they want, they throw all these weird ideas into one sort-of “f–k you” film, knowing they’ll never get another chance to be this far out again.
Like “Lebowski,” when you first see “McCloud,” at best, you may chuckle a little bit, but wonder how it all fits together. At worst, you’ll roll your eyes and groan at the self-indulgence. But if you give it a chance and watch it again … and again … the film will grow on you … big time. And then you’ll really start to groove on the weird humor and characters.
In this case, “Brewster McCloud” was Altman’s first film after the blockbuster success of “M*A*S*H”. I remember seeing this in a film class I took as an undergraduate and my friends and I left the auditorium scratching our heads and wondering “What the f–k was that?” However, it was so twisted, weird, and funny, that I rented it on VHS when I came home on break and would pick it up over the years when I couldn’t find anything else to watch. Watching it again recently, it actually seems ballsier and less politically correct than I remember many years ago. This is a wonderfully rude, nasty, misanthropic comedy with probably the most tasteless final joke / line in a film … ever. Seriously, it’s literally the last line in the film after the credits and it will either make you groan in disgust or laugh hysterically. Dave says check it out.
As a bonus, check out screenwriter Larry Karaszewski’s (“The People v. Larry Flynt,” “Ed Wood”) commentary on the film from Trailers from Hell.
I really miss George Carlin. Carlin is one of the few comedians who got better as he got older. That guy just seemed to get angrier and angrier (and funnier and funnier). Some will chalk Carlin’s crankiness up to old age. I see it more as an intelligent man’s reaction against a world that just keeps getting more ridiculous and willfully stupid. Lots of bad language and bad attitude on this one, so not safe for work or little ones. But also painfully funny!
Director David O. Russell is currently enjoying a critical (and increasingly popular commercial) hit with “Sliver Linings Playbook.” While Russell has directed some great films in his career (“Three Kings,” “The Fighter”), my favorite is the nearly forgotten “Flirting with Disaster” from 1995. Easily one of the best comedies of the 1990s, Ben Stiller plays a new father who can’t bring himself to name his new child until he discovers who his real parents are. His journey leads him down some very bizarre and hysterically funny detours. Everything about “Disaster,” from the script to the casting (Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Tea Leoni, Josh Brolin, Richard Jenkins, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, and several other terrific character actors) is flawless. Aside from the generic title (which is pretty terrible, in my opinion), I don’t know why this film was not a commercial hit. While it has become a minor cult favorite, the film truly deserves better and is so goofy and weird, it will put a smile on your face, even if you’re in the worst mood.
This may be a bit shopworn, but I still think this is pretty funny/awesome. The Dan Band covers Bonnie Tyler/Jim Steinman’s overblown Wagnerian ballad from the early 1980s, only with lots of f-bombs thrown in as punctuation. This first became famous through its appearance in the Todd Phillips’ comedy “Old School.”
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