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Call it the eternal loneliness of the superhero. Or a secret-identity crisis. In what must be quite the most tenderly tragic comic-book movie ever made, Our Hero contemplates chucking all that great power and great responsibility for a quiet, ‘normal’ life.
God help us if the “best” the FBI has to offer cannot distinguish between overprivileged, anorexic, skanky white society brats and their own strapping moronic black male colleagues in terrifying whiteface drag. Even worse: The close friends of the society brats fail to notice that they’ve been replaced by strapping moronic black FBI agents in … more…
The first time Michael Moore met George W. Bush — which is how Moore describes the moment when he introduced himself by shouting his name at Bush across a crowd — Bush smirks and shouts back: ‘Behave yourself!’
Where did this come from all of a sudden, organized humiliation, both physical and psychological, as American bloodsport? Cruelty is undoubtedly an inherent human quality, but how did we get to a point at which we, as a culture, celebrate it, revel in it? Far be it from me to suggest that crude and brutish ‘entertainment’ is a root cause of grinning grunts leading prisoners around on dog leashes — I’m of the school that movies and TV reflect the culture more than inspire it — but it hardly seems like satire to suggest that we’re on the verge of *Survivor: Guantanamo* or *Who Wants to Run Abu Ghraib?*
If there’s one thing that makes this 20-year-old sitcom worth revisiting — and there is only the one thing — it’s its value as an ethnographic specimen. What’s all the more startling is that such a thing is unlikely ever to be said in the vicinity of a Tony Danza vehicle again. But look how … more…
Upstart millionaire entrepreneur buys ancestral estate of upper-crust but destitute patrician. Gently witty class comedy ensues, as only the BBC can produce. Over the course of 20 half-hour episodes spread over three years — 1979 to 1981 — Richard DeVere (Peter Bowles) and Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) spar over matters of taste, propriety, and the … more…
There’s a blustery charm to the gothy outcasts of writer/director Todd Stephens’s beautifully realized Gypsy 83, two unlikely best pals who cling to each other in the cultural wasteland of cool-deprived Sandusky, Ohio. Gypsy (Sara Rue: A Slipping-Down Life) is a 25-year-old wannabe singer with some genuine talent, if not quite the drive to pursue … more…
Delightfully bizarre, in a pecularily British way, and a spectacular hoot, Dame Edna Everage in a singular woman: Australian housewife, megastar, and mistress of a marvelous charisma, as she herself will inform you given half a chance. She’s also a huge put-on, of course, alter ego of comedian Barry Humphries and something of an institution … more…
Tricky things, high school reunions, dredging up all sorts of uncomfortable memories about navigating that cusp between childhood and adulthood, and all sorts of newfound fears about the disconnect between the expectations we had at the time for our future lives and where we actually ended up. The whole awkward, conflicted emotional muddle takes center … more…
A lot of care and concern — evil care and concern, but still — went into *Pitch Black,* into making a big movie on a little budget (reportedly $23 million). With *Riddick,* a lot of money — $100 million more than last time; not $100 million, a $100 million *more* — went into making a colossal movie. And by that I mean colossally awful.
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