Editor's note: There are no new ideas in Hollywood – only new spins on old ones. This occasional column looks at new releases and argues why you should see old ones first. Stand-up comedians are self-absorbed, narcissistic, snobbish, petty, antagonistic people. It’s a blanket statement, but it’s born of a stereotype that I’ve found true no matter how many places … [Read more...]
Engaging ‘Away We Go’ marks advance for Mendes
Has Sam Mendes turned into an old softie?The proficient director has earned the reputation, perhaps unfairly, as a chronicler of suburban discontent and alienation, thanks to the breakthrough success of American Beauty and last year’s Revolutionary Road, a histrionic study of a couple’s picket-fence-stifled disintegration.Like Revolutionary Road’s subtler, inverted flipside, … [Read more...]
‘Year One’ an unfunny comedic fossil
Year One is grounded in a premise so thin it’s practically invisible. “Hey, studio executives, wouldn’t it be great if we cast Jack Black and Michael Cera doing and saying exactly the same things they do and say in every modern picture, but set it in Biblical times? What a riot!”This is what the filmmakers are banking on: that you’ll find the very idea of Black and Cera talking … [Read more...]