Posts Tagged ‘Comedy’

  • 23 Oct

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    Toronto After Dark Video Reviews: Father’s Day

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    Check out all The Substream coverage for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2011, including the quite excellent print reviews by Mamo!’s Matt Brown.

  • 27 Sep

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    Survey: Bobcat Goldthwait

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    Although I should have brought this up on the Netflix segment for recent episode of the Cinecast, alas, I did not notice it until late last night: Bobcat Goldthwait‘s 1991 directorial debut, Shakes the Clown, popped up on the Canadian version of the streaming site this week. Goldthwait, as an onscreen performer peaked somewhere in the mid 1980s – most people probably know him as the weird, dirty (literally, not figuratively) Cop from the Police Academy sequels, but the cool kids probably fondly remember One Crazy Summer. he more or less disappeared after Shakes failed to take off beyond a weird cult curio. For about a decade he was MIA before returning as a director in the early 2000s for cable TV programs (Crank Yankers, Chapelle’s Show, The Man Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live) and eventually moving into smart, subversive indie features. With the quite fun, and rather timely, debut of the writer/director/comedian’s latest film, God Bless America (Kurt’s Review) and the fondness for his rather auteur-ish three-word-title laden C.V. (Windy City Heat, Sleeping Dogs Lie, World’s Greatest Dad, God Bless America.) Regular listeners of the Cinecast, know that Matt Gamble raves about World’s Greatest Dad often, and at length.

    Want an overview? Lots video clippings are tucked under the seat.
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 27 Jan

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    VOD Review: Kaboom

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    [In light of its premiere on VOD yesterday (thanks to Gamble for the reminder), here is our festival review of Gregg Araki's latest exercise in 'comedy']

    Probably the best thing audiences will get out of Gregg Araki’s latest joint, Kaboom, is some well thought out and thorough advice on cunnilingus from rising star Juno Temple. Well, that and its very pretty cast parading around in holier-than-thou-coolness. Otherwise, the flat, though colourful, look of the film, its refusal to take anything too serious, or spend too much effort on story or character, leave the film fitfully entertaining but rather stuck in the middle of the directors C.V. It is half-way between the stoner classic Smiley Face, and his more narcissistic-hubris laden debut The Doom Generation.
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  • 17 Nov

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    Your Highness Trailer

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    After several heavy-duty atmospheric arthouse films (George Washington, All The Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels) David Gordon Green appeared to have found a particular niche, indie North Carolina indie dramas with some genre wiggle room from romantic to coming of age to thriller. But then low and behold, The Pinapple Express and work-for-hire gigs on “Eastbound and Down” revealed a very goofy broad comedy side of things, just off-kilter from the mainstream, but not espousing too much pretense. It is not quite a 180 degree turn, but there you have it. Now it looks like he has assembled a lot of Team Pineapple (James Franco, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green and his cinematographer Tim Orr) and picked up two of the cultiest geek-crush girls, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel and dropped them all into a stoner comedy set in the Middle Ages, Your Highness. The trailer does not offer any hint of a framing story, but the contemporary language and wink-wink aspects seem to indicate some sort of drug induced fantasy, as if instead of Peter Falk telling a fairy tale to Fred Savage, you have two stoners self-participating in their own hazy imaginations. Either way, the trailer certainly tickles my funny bone in the same manner as Pineapple Express did, and in lieu of Gary Cole, we have a personal favourite, Charles Dance.

    The trailer is tucked under the seat. Warning: It is a Redbander and raunchy, delightfully stupid and runs a curiously long 3min30sec.

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  • 11 Oct

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    Sitges: Neon Flesh Review

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    Ricky is having a tough day, the bullet with his name on it is quite literally staring him in the face. Structured as a flashback of his life right at the second of final judgment, for (ostensibly) our entertainment, the writer of cult festival hit SexyKiller, Paco Cabezas, blows up his award winning short into a lengthy feature of the same name: Carne de Neón (aka Neon Flesh.) In the world of Carne de Neón you are either climbing the rungs of the sex business (It’s hard out there for a wannabe pimp) or being gobbled up by it. There are cops and John’s to make life difficult or lucrative, but it is the spectacularly screwed-up street folks that are on display here either for a stab at gangster coolness or goofy sight gags. Let us get this out of the way, I will probably not see a worse or more disappointing film in 2010 than Carne de Neón. A film that plays offbeat caricatures of Alzheimer patients, mental halfwits, transvestites and pimps for laughs with the high sheen and cinematographic gloss of a cheeky heist flick. Just the heist elements are disenfranchised prostitutes. It slaps together one of those plots that features several ‘wacky’ misunderstandings and a host of characters that bang into one another in unlikely ways but the actual situations are so vulgar and ill considered – pregnant whores for giggles? No Thanks. I was left feeling pretty dirty after the whole affair that being perfectly frank doesn’t add up to much more than noise and vinegar. The tone and style has had comparisons to Guy Ritchie’s early filmmaking, particularly Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and I can see where that type of comparison comes from, but it is misleading. More that Carne de Neón is aiming to be in the same cinematic territory of Danny Boyle’s Trainspointting, the desires and troubles of a collection of on the fringe folks who get in more trouble than they bargained for. But as a worthwhile piece of cinema, the comparison ends there. Actually, for the record, Carne de Neón makes Revolver, perhaps Ritchie’s worst received crime film, look like Goodfellas by comparison.

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  • 18 Sep

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    TIFF Review: Lapland Odyssey

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    Director Dome Karukoski sure knows how to set a tone. In order to get you into the spirit of his occasionally blackly comic single night road trip film Lapland Odyssey, he introduces you to a tree – a long-dead pine tree that has served as the hanging spot for 5 generations of suicidal Finnish men. From the early settlers of the area who were enticed via promises of cheap land to modern day young men who have no jobs, see no future and can’t even catch a break when Finland makes it to the final of the Hockey World Championship (how cruel is it to be up 5-1 against rival Sweden and then still lose?) there have been a long line of swinging bodies. Around Christmas time – a period of typically very high unemployment, massive amounts of snow and very little sunlight – that dead tree is looking pretty good.

    Our narrator informs us he even did an elementary school report on it as part of a project on local tourist attractions – apparently the highlight of his academic and professional careers. You get the feeling he’s considered visiting that tree up close and personal. This isn’t his story though – it’s the tale of his best friend Janne’s journey to find a digital TV recorder before 9 AM the next morning. If he doesn’t, his live-in girlfriend will leave him. Before you think, “Well, that’s harsh”, understand that she’s been asking him for 3 years, has actually given him the money to pay for it and specifically asked for him to do it that day so that they can watch Titanic together later that night. Since he failed at even getting that simple task done before the stores closed – wasting time sleeping and hanging with his similarly lethargic friends – she’s laid down a final ultimatum.

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  • 31 Aug

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    Toronto After Dark: High School Review

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    The stoner comedy High School wanders in a haze between well-executed smart comedy and stupid humour. Sometimes awkward, sometimes hilarious and sometimes just a little bit slow on the uptake, the movie itself acts as stoned as the entirety of the student body (and most of the teachers) during the one particular day on which most of the movie is set.

    Henry is a star pupil all set to wrap up his high school phase and move on to what lies ahead at M.I.T. Aside from a last minute battle for the top G.P.A. score of the school, his life seems pretty much on track. So he decides to throw caution to the wind and try, for the first time, getting high with his old elementary school buddy. After several years of divergent paths, they reconnect one day and Henry accepts his stoner buddy Travis’ offer to take a few tokes. Unfortunately, he does this the day before militant school principal Gordon decides to test the entire school for drug use – with anyone showing positive signs getting expelled. Worried that he’s ruined his life, he begs Travis to help him. They come up with a bold plan: get the entire school high before the drug test and the results will have to be thrown out.

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  • 19 Aug

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    Review: The Switch

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    The Switch Onesheet

    Directors: Josh Gordon & Will Speck (Blades of Glory)
    Screenplay: Allan Loeb, Jeffrey Eugenides (short story)
    Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa
    Starring: Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Goldblum, Juliette Lewis, Patrick Wilson, Thomas Robinson
    MPAA Rating: PG13
    Running time: 100 min.

    (3.5/5)

    The problem with The Switch isn’t the movie itself (though it too has its misses) but the marketing. Yes, it’s difficult to sell a dramedy to the male population at large but to sell it as a romantic comedy is disappointing, especially when it features a great performance from the male lead. Perhaps it will work to the film’s benefit and women will see it with their girlfriends, like it and drag the men or heck, date night might be lady’s choice but however you cut it, this film is unlikely to reach the audience who will appreciate it most: new dads.

    The Switch Movie StillDirected by the duo who brought us the travesty that is Blades of Glory, The Switch is a completely different ballgame, one that feels like the duo traded themselves in for someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

    Based on a short story by Jeffrey Eugenides, it’s the drama of a woman (Jennifer Aniston) who wants a child so badly, she decides to find herself a donor. Her best friend Wally (Jason Bateman), a one time romantic interest who is too much of a realist to be Kassie’s boyfriend but who makes for perfect friend material, is against the idea but shows up to the “I’m getting pregnant” party to support the woman he secretly loves. A series of lightly amusing events later, we learn that Kassie’s pregnant, moving away to raise her son outside of New York and just like that, seven years go by. With a new job lined up, Kassie moves back to the Big Apple, reunites with Wally and the seed donor and then things get complicated.

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  • 17 Aug

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    DVD Review: The Festival Collection: Le confessionnal, Nô, La face cachée de la lune

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    The Festival Collection: Robert Lepage

    Continuing with their release of festival favourites, Alliance truly outdo themselves with his collection of films from one of Canada’s leading (yet often overlooked) directors: Robert Lepage.

    Known and recognized most widely for his stage work and with only five film titles to his credit, Lepage has often been referred to as a master of the transition, something which has been evident from his first film.

    Lepage’s film debut, Le confessionnal (The Confessional), blends two story lines taking place in different time periods which are tied together beautifully to tell the mystery of a family’s past. One of the stories takes place in 1950s Quebec City where Alfred Hitchcock is directing I Confess while the second takes place in the early 90s with a man’s return to Quebec City for his father’s funeral. Aside from being an engaging and intricately built family drama and mystery, the film also captures old Quebec City and frames it against the modern, showing how dramatically the city has changed over the years.

    In 1998′s Nô (No), Lepage takes on the referendum. Setting his film during the October Crisis, the film once again strattles two stories. This time we have Michael, an FLQ sympathizer who, through his less than genius friends, ends up in the middle of some heavy FLQ action (which, in a hilarious series of events leads to the blowing up of his appartment) while his girl friend, an actress, is in Japan trying to decide whether to keep the baby (a baby she isn’t sure Michael is the father of) while trying not ruin her dinner with the visiting Canadian ambassador. It’s a witty, smart script full of great comedic moments delivered to perfection by a great group of actors.

    Based on his play of the same title, Lepage’s final film La face cachée de la lune (The Far Side of the Moon) is a touching, sometimes comedic story of a man searching for meaning in his life. Starring Lepage himself in the lead role, this is the story of Philippe. Having just failed his Ph.D. dissertation for the second time, working a dead end job selling news paper subscriptions, dealing with the after affects of a failed marriage and the recent death of his mother, Philippe’s world seems to be falling apart until three incidents change his life completely. Set to the backdrop of the USSR/US space race of the 1960s, Lepage’s film is both humerous and poignant as well as beautifully directed-

    Though it’s a shame that Lepage has, in the past few years, directed most of his efforts to the stage, his short filmography leaves behind a legacy of great Canadian films, films that manage to be both humerous and heartfelt while never speaking down to their audience.

    Rating for the set:

    (5/5)
  • 13 Aug

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    Review: SOUL KITCHEN

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    This is one of the most crowded release weekends of the year, and the wide releases are splitting demographics wildly – Scott Pilgrim for the hipster nerds and gamers, The Expendables for manly testosterone, and Eat Pray Love for the Harlequin/Estrogen set. But opening on a lone screen in Toronto is a light comedy that should have appeal to nearly all demographics. It’s a broad German slapstick food comedy and it is excellent. Opening to funkadelic beats and high gloss cinematography, Soul Kitchen may confuse fans of German/Turkish director Fatih Akin, who is perhaps best known for the energetic and raw drama Head On (Gegen die Wand).

    Piling on pratfalls, meet-cutes, wacky neighbors, montage sequences and an abundance of ‘Fox Searchlight’-isms (think of the plots and tone of films from that company: The Full Monty, Saving Grace, Juno) and the old stand by of good food equating to good sex, Akin does not reinvent the wheel, but he does deliver one of the better comedies stuffed to bursting with living-in-the-margins characters. When all of the elements come together this well, it is hard not to surrender to the pleasure of a simple yet well-made dish (Ratatouille if you will).

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  • 14 Jul

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    Review: The Secret Reunion

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    Secret Reunion

    No one is currently doing movies that combine moments of horror, comedy, action and drama like the South Koreans in my opinion and the leader of the pack in cross-theme movies is actor Song Kang-ho. He somehow makes the character trait of bumbling-but-oddly-proficient seem like it makes sense. In Hun Jang’s The Secret Reunion the focus is the cold-conflict between the North and the South spies. North Korea has sent assassins into South Korea and Lee (Song Kang-ho) is a special agent tasked with bringing down the insurgents.

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  • 11 Jul

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    Review: Mandrill

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    At one of the after parties for Fantasia a few of us we’re discussing the Chilean film Mandrill and how its star Marko Zaror should play the evil boss’s henchmen in the next Bond film. This was not just some random thought as just like Daniel Craig in the new Bond films Zaror has the suaveness and screen presence to play Bond but the physical stature to be the next Jaws. While I am sure that he will be noticed and is destined for a big hollywood career I am also happy to say that I would be content to watch him in Chilean films if Mandrill is the standard. 

    Mandrill is a top notch hit man who has been trying to track down a mob boss called Cyclops. When Mandrill was a child he witnessed Cyclops kill his parents and has been wanting vengeance since. His quest is finally looks like it is coming to an end as he now has Cyclops in his sights. It looks like the easiest way for him to get to his enemy is through Cyclops’ daughter played by Celine Reymond. The basic story revolves around his hunt, the romance and then the showdown between Mandrill and his enemies. There are a few aspecects to the film which set it apart from similar revenge movies. 

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