July 30th, 2009 admin
Starring: Thomas Jane, Jane Adams, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, Charlie Saxton, Anne Heche, Eddie Jemison, Rebecca Creskoff
Created By: Dmitry Lipkin, Colette Burson
Network: HBO
Showtime: Sundays, 10:00pm EST
These trying times of increasing economic hardship are certainly an odd basis for a comedy, but that is precisely where HBO has set out its lemonade stand for their latest half-hour offering. Opening with a dime tour of the once mighty Motor City, now dilapidated and depressed, Hung’s irreverent hero Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane of Punisher fame) glumly offers an assessment of our nation’s fiscally drowning underclass. Peppered with shots of junkyards, car graveyards, and images of abandoned industry, Drecker characterizes his troubled city as “Headquarters on the river of failure.”
Despite a mildly taboo premise, and tantalizing shots of Jane’s shirtless, impossibly ripped torso occurring with the frequency of a Chippendale show, this isn’t really a sex comedy at all. Rather Hung is a comedy about male angst, about the emasculating nature of recession. It’s a comedy about America. In fact almost every aspect of this show has an underlying economic message. A high school teacher and coach of the town’s luckless, winless basketball team, currently riding the wave of an unprecedented losing streak, we learn that Ray earns more than a waiter and slightly less than a plumber.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
July 29th, 2009 admin
Starring: Ruby Gettinger
Executive Producer: Sarah Weidman
Network: Style Network
Original Air Date: 11/09/2008 -
At first glance there might seem something slightly odd about a show centered on the efforts of a morbidly obese woman to slim down from upwards of 500 lbs appearing on the style network. At second glance Ruby might in fact seem to be the very worst, most insidious idea so-called “reality television” has ever vomited forth from of its diseased orifice. After all, here is a woman so beyond obesity that to continue her lifestyle even one more day invites debilitating sickness and death that nonetheless is prepared to exhibit her impossible struggle on television for mass consumption. And compelled by the very nature of reality television you can be sure that on the other side of the camera is a room full of “development” people, commanding a salary, whose sole purpose is to dream up ways for her to potentially stumble and fail and then somehow integrate them into the show.
What a blessed relief than that at no point does Ruby ever allow this to become just another cynical sideshow. A bright and bubbly Savannah southern belle, Ruby Gettinger is an irresistible force of personality whose warmth and openness about herself and her condition just draw you towards her. Joining her on this epic odyssey of weight loss and rehabilitation are Ruby’s live in roomies and self-confessed serial enablers, the camp-as-a-row-of-tents Jeff, and her hilariously gormless home schooled “nephew” Jim, who bizarrely lives there because his parents “got a cat and he’s allergic.” (!)
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
July 29th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Shane West, Ed Burns, Ving Rhames, Sergey Gubanov, Martin Sheen, Tamara Feldman, Jonathan Pryce
Director: Greg Marcks
Runtime: 105 Minutes
Distributor: Paramount
Rating: PG-13
With its thunder somewhat stolen by Steven Spielberg and Co’s similarly plotted, infinitely superior techie romp Eagle Eye, this poor budget, poorly imagined cousin found it’s wide release slashed to a handful of theaters on its way to what is sure to be a long and productive shelf life as a staple of the Wall*Mart $5 bin. Billed as a “tech-charged conspiracy thriller” Echelon Conspiracy skirts dangerously close to violating the Trades Descriptions Act, as the closest this colossal borefest will take you to the edge of your seat is if you happen to slide off it having nodded off.
Echelon Conspiracy finds IT security consultant Max Peterson (Shane West of E.R fame) inexplicably embroiled in a global conspiracy via a series of mysterious and prophetic text messages from an anonymous sender. From Bangkok, to Prague to Washington D.C Peterson becomes a pawn of Martin Sheen’s shady NSA suit, finds himself perused by Ving Rhames FBI agent, and a target of Ed Burn’s former-Fed-turned casino security boss.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in Feature Films, Reviews, Thriller | No Comments »
July 27th, 2009 admin
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July 27th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend, Chloe Moretz, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Gregg
Director: Marc Webb
Runtime: 95 Minutes
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Rating: PG-13
On the surface there would appear to be very little that’s fresh about this feature debut from music video director Marc Webb, who turned down a lot of offers of teen comedies to make his mark with this sweet indie rom-com. From the jumbled chronology of the story, to the sketchpad illustrations that serve to indicate which of the titular 500 days we’re currently observing, to the token precocious child, the ingredients of the colorfully quirky Sundance indie are all present and correct. Yet despite that there is enough charm and knowing detail in Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter’s script, backed by two irresistible performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel to potentially maneuver (500) Days of Summer into position as this year’s indie sensation.
As the comforting warble of the unnamed narrator (a fruit basket to Wes Anderson is sure to be on its way) informs us, this is indeed a story about boy-meets-girl – but it is not a love story. Rather it is a story about love, which is not necessarily the same thing. Disregarding the conventional arc, which would surely bring heart-wrenching break-ups right around the seventy-fifth minute and a mad dash to the airport five minutes before the end, this story opens after the relationship has already collapsed.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Comedy/Romance, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
July 27th, 2009 admin
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Sarah Smart, Tom Hiddleston, David Warner, Jeany Spark, Sadie Shimin
Created By: Henning Mankell (Novels)
Network: BBC
Original Air Date: 11/30/2008 – 12/14/2009
The enigmatic protagonist of a series of dark Swedish detective novels penned by author Henning Mankell, the impressively named Kurt Wallander is something of a global phenomenon within the crime fiction genre. In Germany his adventures outsell those of Harry Potter and the series boats sales of over twenty-five million copies worldwide. Fine literary pedigree we can all agree, but this TV mini-series adaptation, the first of any kind for the English language sadly loses something in the translation.
In a bid for authenticity, something that is always admirable, the BBC set up shop in Ystad, Sweden to film the series; three self-contained episodes, ninety minutes a piece. But rather than casting locals who could speak English and then simply having Branagh adopt a Swedish accent (something he is surely capable of) they instead adopted for an all English cast. The result are stories where all the signs, newspapers, and billboards are in Swedish, all the names are Swedish, and yet everyone speaks with a non-regional English accent, the overall effect of which is to constantly remind you that you’re watching a very polished reproduction.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in British Television, Reviews | No Comments »
July 24th, 2009 admin
Check out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
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Posted in Opening This Week | No Comments »
July 24th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi, Gina McKee, Chris Addison, James Gandolfini, Mimi Kennedy, Anna Chlumsky
Director: Amrando Iannucci
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Distributor: IFC Films
Rating: R
Though little known outside cult circles as a name and even less recognizable as a face, curiously named, diminutive Glaswegian Armando Iannucci has a decorated track record as the driving force behind some of the finest British comedy of the last fifteen years. Co-creator of faux news program The Day Today (think The Daily showed but played absolutely straight), Ianucci carved out a niche as a writer/producer of a string of hit projects that began to showcase a pattern – they were surreal, sarcastic and so clever as to be positively intimidating.
Latching onto the mock-doc sitcom style popularized by The Office, Iannucci developed a short run political series showcasing the absurdity of regional government titled The Thick of It (an update of Yes, Minister for the New Labour movement). Transposing that template to the raging sea of International politics, Iannucci’s riotously funny big screen adaptation candidly reveals that, while the stakes are higher, the games people play are just as familiar.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Comedy/Romance, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
July 24th, 2009 admin
Starring: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, William Sanderson, Michelle Forbes, Deborah Ann Woll
Created By: Alan Ball
Network: HBO
Original Air Date: 06/14/2009 –
Despite a slow start, Season One of HBO’s vampire fiction True Blood turned out to be as sweet and sticky as the red beverage of choice for its downtrodden protagonists. A southern gothic with a blend of macabre humor and dark romance sprinkled with copious amounts of sex, gore and recreational drug use, it was catnip for lovers of the undead everywhere.
In contrast to the sanitized, lookie-no-touchie version of vampire-human amore put forth by the global smash Twilight, Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball (working from Charlaine Harris’ novels The Southern Vampire Mysteries series) embraced the overt sexuality of the subject matter head on. Employing his singular penchant for ultra graphic lovemaking, Ball used the emergence of vampires into mainstream society and the fear and suspicion that greeted them as a painted allegory for the ongoing struggle of the gay community all across America. Purportedly archival news footage in the opening credits features the KKK, reminding the viewer of this country’s long standing battle with bigotry as it cuts to contemporary footage of vampire protests complete with signs reading: “God Hates Fangs.”
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
July 17th, 2009 admin
2007
Starring: Carla Ribas, Vinicius Zinn, Ricardo Vilaco, Ze Carlos Machado, Felipe Massuia, Dona Jacira
Director: Chico Tiexeira
Runtime: 92 Minutes
Distributor: Indiepix
Rating: NR
While domestic dissatisfaction has long been a staple of European film (notably British) the stylistic explosion of Brazilian cinema has left a distinct impression that the Latin American nation is all about fighting and favelas, seemingly ignoring the large urban centers where people live out their lives in relative normalcy. Taking us inside the titular Sao Paulo dwelling, helmer Chico Tiexeira drifts amidst a humid air of simmering resentment, raging hormones and boorish male entitlement that illustrates how it can indeed be grim down south, too.
Mother to three lay-about teenage boys and wife to a neglected wife to a skirt-chasing hubby, Alice is a portrait of ruined passion and quiet melancholy. Toiling as a manicurist at a local beauty parlor where her day is typically filled buffing the feet of women such as stuck up regular Carman who delights in embellishing every detail of an infinitely more interesting romantic life.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in Drama, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »