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Rated: R for language and crude sexual humor throughout, and some sexuality.

Comedy

Theatrical Release:Jul 31, 2009 Wide

Over the past few years, writer/director Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) has shown that nothing?not even losing your virginity or the miracle of childbirth?is sacred. About his third film behind the camera, he says, “I’m trying to make a very serious movie that is twice as funny as my other movies. Wish me luck!” Apatow directs Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann in Funny People, the story of a famous comedian who has a near-death experience.

Adam Sandler, Eric Bana, Jason Schwartzman, RZA and newcomer Aubrey Plaza join a cast that reunites Judd Apatow with Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill in their third comedy together.

Data
Title: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Year: 2009
Length: 87 minutes
Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, based on the book by Roald Dahl
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, Eric Chase Anderson, Michael Gambon
Music: Alexandre Desplat (and non-original music)

My reaction
Synopsis: a fox endangers his family by stealing from mean farmers
How I saw it: in the theater, today
Concept: Great. Not one of Dahl’s best books, but the idea of doing a movie of it in this style is perfect.
Story: Good.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Good. Unmistakably a Wes Anderson movie. There are a few isolated moments that are kind of bad (it has the typical lesson-learning of a children’s movie, which seems out of place and unnatural here), but the rest of the movie makes up for them.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great. Absolutely amazing.
Acting: Great. The voice-work is entertaining, and the animation is expressive and emotional.
Music: Great. Lots of Burl Ives and Beach Boys, and Desplat’s score is fun.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). One of Anderson’s better movies, right up there with Tenenbaums. It’s at a much higher energy level than typical for him, but without losing that quiet, Anderson-y tone.
Objective Rating: 9/10 (Very good).

That’s one of my favorite lines from the new movie from Writer/Director Wes Anderson, FANTASTIC MR. FOX, based on the story by Roald Dahl. A, well, fantastic effort on just about every level. This is probably my new favorite movie of Anderson’s, the story deftly holds on to it’s origins of being from the mind of Roald Dahl, and most importantly, it’s just pretty cussing cute! With a voice cast featuring the likes of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, and lots more (including Mario Batali!!)

I’ve long felt that Anderson’s movies, while all fun in their own right, were essentially little boy exercises in playing. Whether it’s BOTTLE ROCKET, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, or even the closest in what I mean, represented in RUSHMORE. The stories are all about men being immature, idiosyncratic and rebels for their own causes; which is basically what little boys play at, when playing cowboys and indians, GI Joes, or any other backyard activity. We’re the cleverest, most-invulnerable creatures in the world – especially if we have an audience of in awe friends and younger siblings. And FANTASTIC MR. FOX, fits in with these ideals, but also presents a new maturity.

Mr. Fox starts off the movie as the best chicken hunter of the forest, and when he and his wife – Mrs. Fox – get caught in a steel trap, she reveals she’s pregnant and that Mr. Fox has to stop being risky and get a real job. We then cut to two years later (or 12 fox years), where Mr. Fox writes a column for the local newspaper – which no one reads – and he starts to feel an itch. First it is scratched in the form of needing a better home. Instead of the hole in the ground that he and his wife, and their adolescent son Ash (voiced by RUSHMORE’s Jason Schwartzman) to a large tree where you can see the entire valley. Then comes the further plotting of pulling one last big job, in three phases. This job is to break into each of the three local farmers barns, cellars and freezers, and steal their wares.

How this movie differs and is more mature, in my view, from Anderson’s previous movies is that we get an acknowledgment that these characters are in-fact not mature adults, because well, they’re wild animals. It’s a strange thing, but in that revelation, it brings these anthropomorphized animals into the realm of the adult. Grown ups enjoy playing cowboys and indians, GI Joe’s and whatever else. We just tend to do it either more lethally – through actual wars – or find a way of rebelling on our own, but can’t admit that yes, we are still kids inside. And in some part, wild animals of our own kind.

The movie is animated with stop-motion puppets. A little more in the vein of the Rankin-Bass Christmas cartoons from long-ago, than the smoother animation of the Henry Selick, CORALINE, crowd. We see the fur on the animals move in strange ways that is the effect of moving the puppets and taking separate, single-frame photos of them. And it does take a little getting used to, but the way the movie starts by throwing us straight in to the style of the movie – plotting out the Foxes breaking into a farm to nab some squabs (pigeon-like birds).

The style of the movie is the extreme to which Anderson has become known for, with the elaborate plans, funny costumes, and dancing (don’t you remember the Steve Zissou dance sequence?). I also kind of feel like the humor works here a little better than in Anderson’s other movies. Maybe it’s another side of the immaturity in his stories, but sometimes it’s hard to accept living people doing some of the things that they do in say THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. But, here seeing a fox explain to us that beagles love blueberries, or the fun ways that the animals smile at each other by baring their teeth, all adds some great humor.

The voice acting is all fantastic, from the people I listed above to the not headlining names, but still great coups to have in this little movie; like Michael Gambon, Brian Cox, Jarvis Cocker, and Willem Dafoe (probably one of the greatest characters/acting performances of the movie).

It’s a great movie, and I hope that it enjoys lots of success in the beginning of this 2009 holiday season.

The best way I can describe this movie is The Royal Tenenbaums done via stop-motion animation (closer to Davey and Goliath* than The Nightmare Before Christmas).  Basically, if you are a fan of Wes Anderson’s style – snappy dialogue, quirky setting, little details that make you smile, soundtrack with some classics and obscure songs – then there is no reason you shouldn’t love this.

The voice work was great especially (to my surprise) Jason Schwartzman. I never read Roald Dahl’s book so I can’t compare the movie to it but usually I think that’s for the best.

The only problem I had with the movie was the scale of the animals in relation to their surroundings.  Sometimes the animals were so small in relation to everything, it was like watching The Littles*. Also, a rat shouldn’t be taller than a fox.  It kept taking me out of the movie no mater how hard I tried to ignore it.

* I know I just carbon dated myself with this reference

The last time I encountered Jason Schwartzman, I was serving him brunch at a breakfast diner in Chicago. He wasn’t just chowing down on french toast, he was also giving an interview for his his 2004 film “I [Heart] Huckabee” with director David O. Russell. Can you imagine how terrified I was that I would be described by Rolling Stone as the fumbling waiter who spilled coffee all over Mr. Schwartzman? Well, I didn’t actually spill coffee on anybody, but I did humiliate myself by accidentally dropping the wrong check at the end of Jason’s meal/interview. Oops.

Though I will probably never forget dropping the wrong check, I will also not forget Jason Schwartzman’s good attitude and sense of play. He was very “Benny & June” with his food – putting dinner roles on his nose and being quirky, just like you’d want from a favorite indie film star.

It’s fun to be at a point in my life, five years later, that I actually have the opportunity to participate in interviews with people like Jason Schwartzman, instead of taking his omelet order. Life has a way of circling back in on itself sometimes. Jason still has a really enthusiastic attitude; for all I know, he still sticks bread rolls on his nose during interviews. This was more of a group interview with other parenting bloggers on a conference call with him. He was so enthusiastic answering the questions that I was starting to question his sincerity, but then he told us that he would be going on his honeymoon after the interview. Yeah, that would excite me too!

My fellow bloggers and I joined Jason to ask him questions about his role in the new live-animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox, in which he plays Ash, the son of Mr. Fox (George Clooney). The indie-crowd have been buzzing with excitement to see how Wes Anderson would adapt Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book. You remember Wes Anderson, don’t you? He’s been dividing audiences since Schwartzman debuted in Rushmore, a quirky comedy with an awesome soundtrack. After Rushmore, Anderson directed the meticulous character-driven homage to Salinger “The Royal Tennenbaums”.  Then, he drove a wedge into the crack dividing his fans and his haters with “The Life Aquatic With Steve Sizzou”, which some say went past quirky into self-parody.

You either “get” Anderson’s films… or you shrug and say “That was weird”. Jason promises that this movie is more accessible to kids and doesn’t have the typical Wes Anderson inside jokes, which may be true, but we do see many favorite actors returning to the  Anderson ensemble such as Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Schwartzman himself.  We also get hints that the film will be intricately detailed down to the miniature costumes worn by the puppets. For some, the Wes Anderson sub-genre will possibly seem laborious and impenitrable, but as a fan of his peculiar style of storytelling, I’m hoping that Anderson won’t sacrifice too much of what makes him unique.

Half the reason Jason Schwartzman is so cool, other than his rock star status with Phantom Planet, is that he has now been in multiple films with Bill Murray. Holy crap. I would be a total mess if I even met Bill Murray. He’s been my hero since Quick Change. He’s the reason I started doing comedy (in my other life as an improv instructor).  I’ve watched Groundhog day 5000 times, and the whole point of the movie is it’s redundancy – it just never gets old.

The voice-overs for Fox were recorded live, with all the actors immersing themselves in the environments of their animated counterparts. Jason Schwartzman, the luckiest dude alive, scurried around on a farm pretending to be a fox while Bill Murray pretended to be a badger. Jason told an anecdote about Bill Murray standing in as a wolf frolicking in the distance, which instantly made me want to see the movie, if only so that I could see that scene and imagine the wolf as Bill Murray.

I’m not familiar with this particular Roald Dahl story, but I’m a huge Roald Dahl fan. James and the Giant Peach captivated me as a child, and it’s symbolism of returning to the womb stimulated my mind as an adult. I also have this theory that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an allegory for Dante’s inferno, but that’s for another time. If I had a chance to ask Jason a question, I would have liked to ask him about his favorite book by Roald Dahl. He claimed that his mother read him Fantastic Mr. Fox, but Dahl wrote several spellbinding tales, including the Big Friendly Giant, which has a whimsical stage adaptation that I hope to direct some day.

I haven’t seen Fantastic Mr. Fox because it has yet to be released in my area. It’s in select theaters now, but opens nation-wide on Thanksgiving. If it’s anything like Jason Schwartzman’s description, the film is a ”beautiful art form” that is “good for the brain” and filled with “detail and love”. Sounds good to me. Anybody plan to see the film? Let me know what you think about it.

Dirección y guión: Judd Apatow.
País: USA.
Año: 2009.
Duración: 146 min.
Género: Comedia dramática.
Interpretación: Adam Sandler (George Simmons), Seth Rogen (Ira Wright), Leslie Mann (Laura), Eric Bana (Clarke), Jonah Hill (Leo), Jason Schwartzman (Mark), RZA (Chuck), Aubrey Plaza (Daisy), Aziz Ansari (Randy), Maude Apatow (Mable), Iris Apatow (Ingrid).
Producción: Judd Apatow, Clayton Townsend y Barry Mendel.
Música: Jason Schwartzman y Michael Andrew.
Fotografía: Janusz Kaminski.
Montaje: Craig Alpert y Brent White.
Diseño de producción: Jefferson Sage.
Vestuario: Betsy Heimann y Nancy Steiner.
Estreno en USA: 31 Julio 2009.
Estreno en España: 4 Septiembre 2009.

“Hazme reír” relata la historia de un famoso cómico, interpretado por Adam Sandler, que descubre que tiene una enfermedad terminal, y que decide apoyar a un colega de profesión (Seth Rogen) que está empezando en este mundillo.

Vaya decepción, así de claro, leí Adam Sandler, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogeny Jason Schwartzman bajo la firma del siempre querido Judd Apatow y me apasione tanto que casi me da un tabardillo, pero al leer la descripción de la película en internet, me mosqueo cantidad eso de 145 minutos, me dio en la narizota que una película de la gama Apatow no podía durar tanto. Y más me dio cuando vi eso de Drama/Comedy.

¿En resumen?, sin alardear de ser crítico de cine ni ostias, UN GRANDISIMO CAGADO DE PELICULA, UN GRADISIMO MIERDA DE DOBLAJE (Como siempre pifian la voz de Seth Rogen) Y SOBRE TODO, UNA GRANDISIMA PERDIDA DE TIEMPO.

Pedro dixit

The one time that Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler, actually aren’t funny.

Famous and wealthy funnyman George Simmons (Adam Sandler) doesn’t give much thought to how he treats people until a doctor (Torsten Voges) delivers stunning health news, forcing George to reevaluate his priorities with a little help from aspiring stand-up comic Ira (Seth Rogen). Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) writes and directs this moving comedy that also stars Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza.

Funny People is a movie that I’ve wanted to see for a very long time now. I love Sandler, Rogen, and most of all Judd Apatow. And when I heard they we’re all goin to be in the same film together I could not believe myself. Finally I got the DVD and watched it and I’m quite glad.

This is Apatow’s third written & directed film, and in his last two showings (Knocked Up, The 40 Year-Old Virgin), he showed a great way of blending hilarious comedy with some moving drama. However, in this film he doesn’t show his best directing abilities. I felt like he was being more serious with this film, as this is probably one of his more serious and mature pieces of work cause it is about dieing. I just didn’t feel like this film hit every single point it could have. Apatow over-uses the slow-motion zoom in to show his characters being emotionally effected by something, and it really starts to become a little too obvious.

Still, his humor does hit the mark. I felt like there were a little bit too much of those jokes about boners and such, but really I wasn’t expecting much different. The humor blends in really well, where at points in the film they are actually making little jokes about death, and it lightens up the mood.

Apatow also does a great job of blending in fiction with non-fiction to evoke compelling realistic performances from the cast. I think this is a role of a lifetime for Sandler, because the character he plays is a goofy comedian he gets to indulge in the zany side of his comedy, but also he gets to play the characters darker parts and he does a fantastic job at it. Seth Rogen is really great in this film as he isn’t playing the usual Seth Rogen you see in every other film, he is actually more serious and believable as a very awkward and nerdy geek who is just trying to be funny. Surprisingly, the funniest out of this whole cast has got to be Eric Bana. Yes, out of a cast filled with Jonah Hill, Adam Sandler, and Seth Rogen The Hulk ends up becoming the funniest guy. He comes late in  the film but plays this stereotypical macho-man guy and really gives this film the extra laughs it deserves.

There are two films in Funny People, one about Sandler and Rogen, and the other about Sandler and Leslie Mann. It’s less of a buy one get one free deal, as much as it is a buy one and get one you really didn’t ask for. The latter part didn’t feel like it was supposed to be put in the film, and just added on to less comedy and more drama.

Consensus: Funny People is not Apatow’s best, but still has a great blending of comedy and drama, with some realistic performances. I just felt like this was two movies rolled into one, and lack of cohesiveness between the two separate stories is what stops it from being a great movie.

8/10=Matinee!!!!!

Esta peli es difícil para mi porque muta de vez en cuando.

Añoré mucho verla en cine en el 2007, no se cuánto pero fue demasiado. Me devolvía de mi viaje a Argentina y en el avión la estaban poniendo, creo incluso que sin subtítulos, no iba a aguantarme semejante ignominia: Una peli en una pantalla menor a una hoja carta doblada a la mitad y menos doblada al español. Apreté los ojos, mascullé oraciones hasta que al fin logré dormir, conciliar un sueño y olvidarme de la peli.

Después estuve esperado que los benditos distribuidores colombianos trajeran la peli y nunca fue. Luego azares del destino trajeron consigo buena fortuna y logré encargarla por Amazon. Le puse demasiada fe, una montaña rusa que empezaba en The Royal Tenembaums, seguía The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou y finalizaba en The Darjeeling Linited. Mi expectativa había agotado toda la belleza de esta peli.

Mi primera impresión fue desalentadora, un balance bastante ordinario, nada del otro mundo, mi segunda vez fue como observar que aunque el sol se oculta todos los días, todas las veces lo hace de una forma diferente, mi tercera vez fue realmente entrañadora y justifica el éxito de la vuelta, finalmente, esta mi cuarta vez puedo afirmar que es un éxito. No es la mejor peli de Anderson pero tampoco es como la venía calificando. Es, realmente, un viaje en el desarrollo psicológico de los personajes, un tren que los lleva a madurar, a perdonar, a conocerse, a entenderse y a quererse. Esa sóla aseveración la hacen muy destacable. Su equipo intacto, su fotografía impecable, la música excelente, la historia muy bien desarrollada. Y, sin embargo, para mí lo más bonito, sigue siendo, que su actor fetiche, Bill Murray, esté presente en una escena tan romántica como la del principio y donde le dice algo como: “Llavería, me voy a la India, se que usted no puede acompañarme, lo llevo en mi corazón, espéreme, vuelvo y planeamos el siguiente golpe”. The Businessman es lo mejor y me sigo preguntando si no habrá un corto alrededor de este personaje.

Pero hay muchas más cosas buenas. Después hay una serie de chistecitos, un poco subidos de tono, un poco muy demasiado para el estilo de Anderson pero se entiende que los diálogos y el equipo encargado de la historia y los parlamentos son frescos, son nuevos. Qué bueno que cada vez que arma equipo de escritura se mantiene como líder pero se refresca en escencia, esta vez fue Schwartzman y el hijo de Coppola quienes lo acompañaron en la tarea. Se nota el cambio. Schwartzman es un marico que me cae bien, todo el tiempo está frunciendo el ceño en la peli y haciendo pucheros pero es capaz de mojarse los dedos mientras besa a una mujer, correrle los calzones y penetrarla. Un lord. Un gentleman.

Rotten Tomatoes dice que lo destacado de esta peli con el resto de lo que venía haciendo Anderson es que el director no está encasillado como si lo puede estar Tarantino, es una oda completa a Satyajit Ray una eminencia en el cine indio y es una reinvención de lo que venía haciendo (esto se puede demostrar fácilmente estudiando la banda sonora y analizando que en más de una ocación Anderson parafrasea a Ray). Yo destaco la música, el tren como metáfora de crecimiento personal y las citas o frases de cada uno de los personajes que son como pequeñas gotas filosóficas que hacen mella en nuestra cotidianidad.

A continuación un listado de esas frases que me encontré por ahí y que hacen, de esta, una delicia:

**
[Francis y Peter están peliando]
Francis: You don’t love me!
Peter: Yes I do!
Jack: I love you too, but I’m gonna mace you in the face!
**
Jack: I wonder if the three of us would’ve been friends in real life. Not as brothers, but as people.
**
Rita: What’s wrong with you?
Jack: Let me think about that. I’ll tell you the next time I see you.
Rita: Okay, let’s do that
Jack: Thank you for using me
Rita: (suspiro entrecortado) You are welcome
**
Jack: Which direction did your’s go?
Francis: What do you mean?
Jack: Your feathers… mine blew toward the mountains
Francis: That’s not right. It’s not suppose to get blown away. You’re suppose to blow on it then bury it.
Peter: I didn’t get that. I still have mine.
Francis: You guys didn’t do it right. I asked if you read the instructions. You did it wrong… I tried my hardest. I don’t know what to do.
**
Francis: How did it get to this? Why haven’t we spoken in a year? Let’s make an agreement.
Peter: To do what?
Jack: Okay.
**
Francis: A: I want us be become brothers again like we used to be and for us to find ourselves and bond with each other. Can we agree to that?
Peter: Okay.
Peter: Yeah.
Francis: B. I want us to make this trip a spiritual journey where each of us seek the unknown, and we learn about it. Can we agree to that?
Jack: Sure.
Peter: I guess so.
Francis: C. I want us to be completely open and say yes to everything even if it’s shocking and painful. Can we agree to that?”
[Peter y Jack voltean sus cabezas y se miran. Francis simplemente continúa]
**

Nota personal: Qué divertida que es la aparición de Barber Schroeder como mecánico del padre, despidiendose de la escena con los ojos enrojecidos, completamente conmovido y con la voz quebrantada. Y qué divertido es ver a Owen Wilson quitarse las vendas y aprovechar esa nariz peculiar que tiene en aras de la historia.

This Friday, After The Show picked 2 songs for Songs of the Week.

1. “Slayer” by Giant Drag:

Giant Drag — Annie Hardy and Micah Calabrese — released their debut album Hearts and Unicorns in 2005, and they’re currently working on releasing their second album.

2. “The Summer” by Coconut Records:

Coconut Records is Jason Schwartzman — actor, former drummer of Phantom Planet, and brother of Rooney’s Robert Schwartzman.”The Summer” is from his sophomore album Davy.

Must-See TV by Brent Johnson

There are a few things I look forward to in life: landing on an underrated Billy Joel song when I listen to iPod Shuffle, a fried chicken salad with French dressing at Applebee’s.

And Thursday nights on NBC.

Remember ‘Must-See TV’? When Friends and Seinfield shared the same Thursday-night block? It’s back. And it’s much more deadpan, much more sarcastic, much more pop-culture-fied. And it’s my favorite night of the workweek because of these four shows:

Community
8 p.m.
It’s about a hot-shot lawyer sent back to community college because of a glitch in his degree. Joel McHale of The Soup is acerbic and charming as the preppie playboy attorney. Chevy Chase — who used to play acerbic, charming, preppie playboys — is deliciously wacky this time as an aging sidekick (and proves that he’s still one of the most entertaining comics of the last half-century). And the storylines are packed with well-paced jokes — often making fun of obscure pop culture with more nuance than Family Guy. It’s like if 30 Rock calmed down and switched its writing staff with Scrubs.

Parks And Recreation
8:30 p.m.
A show with a rocky debut last year that has easily become the most satisfying comedy on TV this season. Created by Office writer Michael Schur — a.k.a. Cousin Mose — it uses a local Indiana government as the backdrop, which kind of makes it seem like ‘The Political Office.’ But the characters are more human than the Dunder-Mifflin crew. And the episodes have proven to be stellar every single week. Plus, it boasts maybe the funniest character on TV: Ron Swanson, a moustached, no-nonsense government guy who spouts straight-faced one-liners, loves breakfast food and hates his ex-wives, both of whom are named Tammy.

The Office
9 p.m.
Not as good as last season, when the show was steeped in what makes it great: farcical comedy sprinkled with human drama. But like Cheers, we watch because we care about the characters. And like Seinfeld, we watch because we yearn to see what story this week brings. Shows like that never fully lose their luster.

30 Rock
9:30 p.m.
Star-Ledger TV critic Alan Sepinwall notes that a while ago, creator Tina Fey decided to veer this show more toward the zany than the human. Thus, it doesn’t always click as much as it used to, when Fey’s character was more human and Alec Baldwin’s big-wig boss was more supporting than lead. But the show is still stellar because the jokes are so frequent and so random. You never know when you’ll laugh out loud. It hits you so quickly.

My favorite program not on NBC’s Thursday nights?

That Metal Show on VH-1 Classic. That channel alone is brilliant for all the great forgotten 1980s alternative rock it plays (hello The Church and The The). But this half-hour — a talk show about heavy metal featuring a trivia-spouting DJ and two standup comics — is addicting. And I don’t even like metal.

(left to right) Jim Florentine, Eddie Trunk & Don Jamieson of That Metal Show

They also nab great guests — Lemmy, Mike Piazza. And Eddie Trunk, the DJ who’s the poor man’s Matt Pinfield, is a music nerd you have to like. Seriously, try an episode, even if you’ve never heard a Slayer
record.

Also worth noting…

Larry David, Anna Paquin and Thomas Jane bring their A-Game to HBO on their respective shows

HBO, the non-network that continues to break TV molds.

Curb Your Enthusiasm‘ is clever this season for reuniting the Seinfield cast without a real reunion. Tell me what’s more thrilling than seeing the Fab Four back in that New York Living room, talking about Superman and prostitutes.

True Blood was one of the few dramas on TV that consistently interested me — mostly because it’s too funny and too ridiculous to be bogged down with the weighty action and heavy-handed melodrama that make a show like 24 so unappealing to me. But Season 2 was a bit too fantastical.

And freshman show Hung — about a high school basketball coach (Thomas Jane) who turns to being a male hooker to make money — was underrated for its sly humor and sturdy acting.

Time is of the Essence- The Only TV I Watch by Bill Bodkin

I don’t have a lot of time in my schedule for TV. Between the blog, my job and my film production company combined with the fact I have a 300 movie Netflix queue and 30 movies on my DVR at any time plus my love of football and wrestling, I don’t have a lot of time to watch original television programming. So these 5 shows are ones that I do/should be watching on a regular basis.

1. Mad Men (AMC): Brilliant cannot begin to describe this show. Take a trip back to the early 60s, America’s golden years so fondly remembered by earlier generations. Enter the world of the charmingly despicable yet tragically sympathetic ad man Don Draper. If the show focused solely on his character alone it would still be great, but writer/creator Matthew Weiner has created a world where every character is vital, where every prop is integral and every line delivered has some sort of ramification. Characters come and go, sometimes not seen for weeks at a time, but their storylines are never forgotten and they are resolved (or not and for a good reason) by the end of the season. Weiner seamlessly integrates major political issues of the time and product placement (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) into storylines. Yet, even with all this, it’s still the performance of Jon Hamm that gives this series the emotional knock-out punch. He’s able to make an audience sympathize with him while still damning him for his wrong doings. A tortured soul with a heart of tarnished gold, Draper’s world is one you cannot help yourself but to watch. As a person who is not a fan of heavy drama for entertainment, I have been a devoted fan of this series for two years and simply cannot wait until next August when Don Draper walks back on my TV screen.

2. Top Chef (Bravo): I originally dismissed this show as “another crappy reality show.” I was wrong. While the show gives some attention to “drama” brewing between the chefs; the focus is, was and always will be the food. Seeing some of the best chefs in the world come up with brilliantly delicious delicacies under intense time constraints is mind-blowing. Their creations will make you salivate immediately and I guarantee the competition will suck you in. Kudos goes to the producers of Top Chef as they have been able to keep this show, which has a very simple and dangerously repetitive concept, fresh by coming up with unique weekly challenges, filming in interesting locales (Vegas, Puerto Rico, Napa Valley) and bringing in special guests like Natalie Portman, The Foo Fighters, Zooey Deschanel and countless celebrity chefs.

3. How I Met Your Mother (CBS): This sitcom is based around a simple gimmick- a father (the voice of Bob Saget) would regale his children with the story of “how he met their mother.” Clues are dropped regularly, which initially drew viewers in. It was the air of mystery that made this show sitcom unique. However, this mystery is not what makes How I Met Your Mother one of the best sitcoms going. It’s jam-packed with razor-sharp dialogue, tremendously funny dream sequences and cut scenes and is anchored by outstanding comedic performances from Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel. If you’re a fan of British sitcoms like Spaced, this is definitely a show you need to be tuning into.

4. The Soup (E!): I was a huge fan of Talk Soup with John Henson back in the day. After Henson left for TV shows that never panned out, he was abysmally replaced by Hal Sparks and Aisha Tyler. Luckily in 2004 someone decided that character actor Joel McHale would be a good fit to write and host the show. McHale not only brought back the witty one-liners (including digs on E! itself), zany intros and extremely random guest appearances but he shifted the show’s focus from just talk shows to cover reality TV, morning network news and absurd celebrity spots (e.g. It’s Miley!). You can always count on this show for good laughs.

5. Bored to Death (HBO): I will be completely honest here, I have only seen one episode of this series. However it’s an episode that completely hooked me. Jason Schwartzman plays Jonathan Ames- a pot smoking alcoholic yet lovable neurotic Brooklyn novelist who has severe writer’s block. After losing his girlfriend and doing extensive research for a possible detective novel, he decides to become a private detective. Along for the ride are his best friend & cartoonist Ray (Zach Galifianakis) and his publisher George (Ted Danson). The trio embark on a series of ridiculous capers, mostly while stoned. The combination of hipster humor, film noir and pot make this show a very engaging, breezy and utterly enjoyable series. It will most likely never meet “Entourage” levels of success but it’s a thinking man’s comedy that should entertain for years to come. And if that doesn’t sell it for you, then watch it for Galifianakis, who is an absolute understated comic genius.

A meandering mess of a movie, Funny People is all the more disappointing because early scenes sparkle with brilliant potential, crisp comedy and poignant drama. The movie is Judd Apatow’s third directorial project, continuing the producer/director/screenwriter’s tendency for overlong pictures with its 145 minute runtime.

One of the key problems with Funny People is its uncanny ability to kill its own momentum. Apatow starts with an interesting, humorous and touching premise and sets it up beautifully, drawing characters we care about and letting us into the world of stand-up comedy with some unique sequences. He uses his stars well, too, having them perform comedy in front of live crowds and shooting the reactions. But it’s when Apatow creates a mountain out of a subplot that Funny People loses everything it could have been.

Adam Sandler stars as comedian and actor George Simmons. He is, essentially, playing a slightly different version of himself. Simmons’ career has been built on a series of lowbrow comedies and he lives a luxurious lifestyle. The problem is that George is suffering from a rare blood disease and is, as a result, expected to die. He’s isolated himself from family and true friends, so he decides to use the situation to better himself.

In bettering himself, Simmons takes an interest in a young comic, Ira Wright (Seth Rogen). Wright is working a day job at a deli and lives with roommates who are in various stages of success in the entertainment industry. Simmons eventually hires Ira to write some jokes and the two bond with George telling Wright about his medical predicament. This relationship develops and remains an interesting component until Apatow forces an angle with George’s ex-wife (Leslie Mann) and her Aussia husband (Eric Bana) that drags things to a standstill.

When Funny People focuses on George’s return to his roots as a stand-up comic and with his relationship with Ira, it is actually a good movie. Unfortunately, Apatow abandons the premise for something else only weakly linked to Simmons’ illness and this abandonment makes for a bizarre, unfunny, boring second half punctuated by Mann’s abysmal performance and Sandler’s inability to drum up chemistry with her.

There are a ton of guest spots here, too, but those are confined to the better portions of the movie. Eminem shares a hilarious moment with Ray Romano, while comics like Norm MacDonald, Sarah Silverman and Paul Reiser drop by. There’s also a performance by James Taylor in the mix, which helps cement the aura of celebrity Sandler’s Simmons exists in. It helps things feel real that Sandler tries his best, too, but in the end there’s little to be done with Apatow’s bloated script.

Rogen keeps to his usual self, never quite reaching for much and never quite hitting it, but he does reasonably well when he works with Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman. He’s tossed an unnecessary bone in the form of a small romantic angle with comedian Aubrey Plaza’s character, but this goes nowhere and remains completely uninteresting after it’s swept up by Apatow’s need to give his wife something to do.

In the end, Funny People is its own worst enemy. It becomes a bloated waste of talent, completely abandoning the momentum drawn up by a pretty good first half. It’s ambitious, overly so, and tremendously long all things considered. While it does have the support of a good Sandler performance, there’s just not enough other stuff here to recommend this movie.

3.9/10

Trailer:

The past few months have been rough. Vegas zapped a bunch of funds, some work fell through, other work has been delayed, and just this week I had oral surgery to remove my four wisdom teeth. Ouch. This means I have exactly zero money to go out and do things, you know, see movies, concerts, buy books and games. Nothing, nada. I’ve been sitting in my bed with a Vicodin induced zombie stare and old episodes of Batman: the Animated Series looping for hours. So if I haven’t been talking about anything recently, there you go. And if I don’t talk too much this whole winter, well, same story. I’ll try. I really will, but I also don’t want to be posting pointless entries (like this one) just to feel I’m “keeping up” with this blog. This is my blog, and I’ll slack if I want to, dammit!

Wait, who am I yelling at? Sorry. Everyone who reads this with any kind of regularity is the reason I keep it up. So let’s see, stuff to talk about, stuff to talk about…

Bored to Death

This is easily one of the best new shows on TV right now. It airs on HBO, which means I have to watch it online and risk computer viruses, but for Jason Schwarztman, I’d do anything. Anything. He stars as Jonathan Ames, who is actually the creator of the show, an author suffering a mild crisis after his girlfriend dumps him. Instead of writing the new novel everyone wants from him, he goes out as a unlicensed private detective. Hilarity ensues.

The rest of the cast is great too, Ted Danson is as funny as ever, playing Ames’ friend and sometimes employer. Zach Galifianakis also stars as another friend of Ames, a comic book writer with relationship problems of his own. All of the characters are perfect, they interact so naturally and so brilliantly. There’s also a good number of cameos, like Jim Jarmusch riding a bicycle around a warehouse, and wacky cases to investigate. All together, it keeps the show just off kilter enough, just bizarre enough that we never question the insanity of these characters.

Schwarztman has been something of a hero figure for me ever since I saw Rushmore as a fourteen year old. And Galifianakis is pretty much the best and fastest rising comedian in America right now, so it’s just amazing to watch this all go on. Of course the plots are ridiculous, but you’ll never roll an eye. You’ll be too busy laughing out loud.

Lastly, the story takes place in New York, and having never been there myself, I want to go more now than ever. All the little shops and cafes these guys hang around just feels so right. I don’t know. There’s only been a handful of episodes so far, but I am hoping this keeps up.

Community

This show is a little harder to swallow, but still not without its merits. It stars Joel McHale, who has been the best part of the entire E! network for over 5 years now. As the host of the Soup, McHale is always great, but here he seems a little stilted, unsure of where he fits into an ensemble comedy rather than being the only guy on screen for 22 minutes.

There are some other great actors here, most notably Chevy Chase. That’s right. Chevy fucking Chase. The man is a legend, whether you want to admit it or not. You can deny it in your comments, but your heart knows better. From classics like Fletch and Caddyshack, to masterpieces like Three Amigos and National Lampoon’s Vacation series (well, most of it anyways), the chevster is synonymous with funny. And really, he delivers the goods here too. He may be the funniest part of the show. I crack up everytime he’s on screen, like when he dresses up as Beastmaster for Halloween and then trips out on pills. Classic.

The story is basic. McHale gets disbarred from practicing law, and goes back to community college. He meets up with some people, has some laughs, takes Spanish for some reason, and learns a little bit about himself along the way. The show is decent enough, but it definitely has more of those eye rolling moments that Bored to Death steers clear of. It’s a network comedy, it is what it is. It’s one of the better network comedies out there, so it’s not exactly Two and a Half Men or According to Jim bad. It’s just very bright and shiny and wraps up nicely at the end of every episode. Take it or leave it. I don’t really care.

Hannah Takes the Stairs

This is a film in the sub genre known as Mumblecore. That means the characters are young, dumb, and ugly. The dialogue is mostly improvised obviously, and the camera is held shakily and zoomed liberally around the room. This trend came about as struggling filmmakers decided, “Screw it. We don’t need budgets or actors or any of that high falutin’ movie crap.” And they’re right. You don’t. But it helps.

Spoilers abound: The story of Hannah (who by the way never takes any stairs that I could see) is one of confusion and awkwardness. She dumps her boyfriend, even though he really likes her and is super nice, presumably because he is broke and directionless. Cause she has it all going for her. She then promptly takes up with co-worker #1 and sleeps with him. She doesn’t actually seem to like this guy, and who would? He’s dull. Enough said.

So she gets to know co-worker #2 and he’s totally cooler. He talks in audible phrasing. He doesn’t look fourteen. He’s a catch. So she does him and dumps numero uno. Too bad they all three share an office space, as in one room, one table, one couch. So the film ends without resolution or any real conclusion. Hannah is a selfish little girl who rather than reflect on her life decisions and their consequences before she makes them, just goes for it. Breaking hearts and fouling work environments.

Lessons learned? Don’t sleep withthe girl in your office who just got out of a bad relationship. It will not go well.

That’s enough for now, thanks again to everyone who reads this stuff. It means a lot to me.

-Charlie

I felt a little off my game for last night’s radio show, but I think it came together alright even though there were a couple wrong button presses. I got to play The Lawrence Arms again and I was able to play a song by The Drums for my co-worker who as been talking about them nonstop for the past couple of weeks. I want to find some time to spend with the Castanets and Kitty, Daisy, And Lewis records though. The songs that I played were awesome, but I haven’t had time to listen to the rest yet.

Source: 90.3 The Core

Yay, it doesn’t suck! Read my review.

Slackers: 3 guys cheat their way through college, one falls for a girl and jeopardises their masterplan. There’s some slapstick, gross outs, weirdness and a few solid running gags to keep you entertained throughout. All actors do as good a job as you’d expect from a teen comedy but Schwartzman tops the class by making “Cool Ethan” seem genuinely aberrant and spooky – probably what Max Fisher would be like when he grows up! Quite a few big names in this; Jason Segel before he became Mr generic comedy, Devon Sawa while he was on form and a some blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em cameos from the likes of Gina Gershon (!!) and Cameron Diaz. Despite a low budget it has a certain charm, unique style and the songs throughout are genuinely funny. You get the feeling that it was trying to ride the wave of success from then-recent college flicks like Road Trip and American Pie and although it’s falls short, any teen comedy will find it hard to match those heavyweights. One of my personal favourites, mostly for the gags. Totally watchable comedy / stoner flick.

Score: 6/10

We’ve hit that time of year. You know what I’m talking about. The time of year when you drive to work in the morning in the dark and the sun drops from the sky without warning in the afternoon. This is the time of year that I stop caring about things. I abandon MSNBC for HBO and Showtime. I avoid conversation by plugging into my iPod. I put the kids to bed early and hit the sack by 9:00. Oh motivation, you mischievous badger, why must you hibernate through the winter when I need you most?

I don’t watch a lot of network TV. I pretty much just watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and then move outside basic cable for the good stuff. With Nurse Jackie and Weeds on hiatus, I’ve been turning to a couple of other old standbys—Californication and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

With the exception of the introduction of Sue Colini, this season of Californication has been a disappointment. I get it. David Duchovny has a sex addiction problem. I thought this was about Hank Moody? What happened to the story?

Curb Your Enthusiasm this season has been great with the addition of the cast of Seinfeld. Hollee thinks I am Larry David incarnate. I don’t know that I necessarily agree with that. But her point is duly noted.

This season also brought a new show to HBO, Bored to Death. This season has already come to an end and I really loved it. Hollee didn’t care much for this show. For some reason, I just really like Jason Schwartzman. I think the timing of his dry humor is perfect. Teamed up with Ted Danson in the role of his career makes it that much better.

Well, folks, there you have it. My take on my favorite television shows currently on the air. Maybe tomorrow I’ll thrill you with a breakdown of my top five favorite foods. Or maybe my all time favorite quotes. Oh oh oh, or maybe I’ll breakdown the elements of a great ballad (which must include a killer guitar solo and a tear).

But more than likely I’ll just be writing about how idiotic conservatives are who criticize Obama for showing respect to other cultures. In the meantime, check out these shows. They are way better than How I Met your Mother or House.

Until next time, peace out playas!

[Photo Credit]

A wily fox uses his formidable cunning to outsmart three feeble-minded farmers, who resort to extreme tactics to protect their chickens in director Wes Anderson’s animated adaptation of the popular Roald Dahl children’s book. For 12 years, Mr. and Mrs. Fox (voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep) have lived a peaceful life in the wilderness with their son, Ash (voice of Jason Schwartzman). Shortly after their young nephew Kristofferson (voice of Eric Anderson) arrives for a visit, Mr. Fox’s long-suppressed animal instincts begin to take over and the faithful family man resorts back to his old ways as a cunning chicken thief, endangering not only his family but the entire animal community as well. When evil farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean force the animals underground in a desperate attempt to capture the audacious Mr. Fox, dwindling food supplies force the frightened animals to band together in one last attempt to fight for the land that is rightfully theirs. Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson provide additional voices.

This is one of my favorite new shows. Bored To Death. And this is a video about the making of it. I think every aspect of the show is amazing. It’s a completely unique storyline and the actors in it play the parts amazingly. Jason Schwartzman also does the music for it. And if you have listened to Coconut Records at all then you know it should be good.

Jason Schwartzman

A couple weeks ago I blogged about upcoming movies based on books. In anticipation of the film adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox (the movie is currently out in limited release – it won’t make it to Nashville until November 25), I enjoyed watching an interview about children’s literature and childhood reading with Jason Schwartzman. In Fantastic Mr. Fox, Schwartzman voices Ash Fox, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Fox (a new character that did not appear in the original book). The interview was hosted by Read Kiddo Read, James Patterson’s website that promotes kids’ reading.

In the interview, Schwartzman talks about his favorite books from childhood – The Phantom Tollbooth, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. Although he loved to read, Schwartzman says he was a slow reader himself. “Reading is a hard thing to learn, and the only way you can get better is by reading,” he said.

Schwartzman also discusses the popularity of Roald Dahl (whom we blogged about in August). In his books, “there is an element of mystery and some darkness – but it’s real,” he said. “Kids are intrigued by adventure. With all adventure, there is an element of danger. If there was no danger, there would be no adventure, it’d just be a vacation.”

When asked about playing an animal, Schwartzman said that he did the “human side” of the character and let the animators “do the foxing.” He identified with Ash’s struggles: “feeling littler than the rest, not having many friends, getting pushed around by bullies, liking girls who don’t like him back. . . All of that is part of my experience in my own life.”

Watch the interview below the jump. And tell us: What’s your favorite Roald Dahl book? My favorite has to be Dahl’s autobiography, Boy.

Part 1:

Part 2:

El otro día comentábamos en casa que últimamente estamos siguiendo muchas series de televisión. Y es verdad. No sólo seguimos las típicas (aunque por suerte algunas terminan este año…) sino que vamos añadiendo nuevas series y nuevas tramas y nuevos personajes. Esto provoca que en conversaciones sobre Flashforward en lugar de llamar a la protagonista por su nombre (Olivia) la llamemos Penny… o a Dom Monaghan Charlie… o que Juliet sea la prota de V (todavía no me he aprendido el nombre del personaje de V)…

Pero es que este fin de semana hemos empezado otra: Bored to death. La suerte es que es una miniserie de 8 capítulos, lo que ayuda a verla de forma rápida. Aunque el título lleve a engaño (para aquellos que les cueste el inglés significa “aburrido a morir”) la serie pinta bien.

Trata de un escritor que tras la ruptura con su novia lee Adiós, muñeca de Chandler y decide convertirse en detective privado… teniendo en cuenta que es de lo más patoso y anti-detectivesco que te puedas encontrar. El primer capítulo es ameno, simpático, logra que creas que realmente el protagonista es así de patoso… tiene escenas muy buenas como cuando este en el hotel tras encontrar a su primera persona desaparecida…

Yo recomiendo la serie, total son 8 capítulos. Y están firmados por HBO! Que más se puede pedir.

P.S.: El tema detectivesco me mola. Me veo reflejado en este tipo de historias. Mis primeras pelis con amigos eran sobre una maruja espía…. en la Universidad escribí un par de historias cortas sobre un detective que reslvía casos a estudiantes de cine…. así que series como ésta o películas como Brick me apasionan, porque veo que no soy sólo yo el que tiene en mente la traslación del mundo de detectives a la vida real.

P.S.2: Os dejo un video con los títulos de entrada de la serie… para ir abriendo boca!

P.S.3: Cuando haya visto la serie entera comentamos como ha sido la primera temporada!