Hot Guy/Funny Guy: A New Comedy Dynamic?
With this month’s hilarious comedy Neighbors, starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, and next month’s 22 Jump Street (the sequel to 2012’s hit, 21 Jump Street), starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, my friends and I began to notice a kind of trend emerging. The duos at the forefront of these films exhibit a kind of hot guy/goofy guy dichotomy— a sort of binary between a traditionally funny actor and an actor who is, traditionally, considered eye candy. I wanted to explore this dynamic a little further, but I found it difficult to think of films besides these recent ones that truly fit. In the past, I think it was more common to see a straight man/silly man dichotomy, more generally: Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) might be a good example of this...
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The Foreign Mainstream: Why Cinema’s Biggest Oxymoron Deserves More
When I was in Berlin, Germany for a few months last spring, I wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to movies, despite my understanding that Berlin has always been, to varying degrees over time, a major European film hub. I was there for the Berlinale International Film Festival, and there were art house cinemas all over the city as well, showing everything you’d expect an art house movie theater to show regardless of location, really. I saw a couple foreign films being shown at the festival, and they were good, don’t get me wrong, and I was expecting them to be good. But besides the art house, and the festival fair, and the American films dubbed into German (which played at every larger multiplex in the city), what did German audiences really watch, anyway? The question didn’t...
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Ten Years Later: Celebrating ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Everyone has that one movie that changed their life first. Even if many films thereafter astound, mesmerize and enchant you, you’ll always remember the first that made you capable of even seeing other films in those kinds of ways. For me, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, released in March of 2004, is that very film. When I first saw it, I didn’t necessarily get it—I understood it to some degree, but I didn’t get it, and yes, there is a difference. But, it hooked me somehow; it hypnotized me in a way that no other film had up until that point. It begged me to watch it again, and again, and again. Ten years later, and I still watch it, with fresh eyes and a sense of wonder, of whimsy, and of intense admiration. But, I have never...
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Could Emmy Be Bigger Than Oscar?
The day after watching 12 Years a Slave win Best Picture at the 86th Academy Awards, I sat down to watch the season finale of True Detective. The show had unfortunately aired against the Oscars, and I made the choice to watch some solid movies be declared “the best” in one category or another. The irony of it all: The real “best” everything was airing on HBO that night. This isn’t a new phenomenon. We’ve been talking about how television is better than film for years now. It’s something that started with The Sopranos and The Wire going on right up until Breaking Bad, Mad Men and True Detective. The storytelling is richer on TV these days and the productions more cinematic. Even the pop programs like Scandal, Arrow and Vampire Diaries are more entertaining than any comparable film....
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Lupita Nyong’o Joins Long List Of Rumored STAR WARS VII Actors
Who isn’t meeting with J.J. Abrams for Star Wars VII these days? We’ve got 5 actors now shortlisted for the lead and everyone from Benedict Cumberbatch to Gary Oldman to Chiwetel Ejiofor has been connected with the film in one way or another. Now it looks like Ejiofor’s 12 Years a Slave co-star, Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o, has apparently met with Abrams for a role in the film. According to THR, the meeting took place just before Nyong’o, who may now be the hottest actress in Hollywood after her stunning awards season run, won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Rumor is she could be playing a descendant of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which has been described as a non-Caucasian role. THR points out that she isn’t up for either of the male or female leads. Whatever happens, it’s clear that Nyong’o is in for...
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The VERONICA MARS Movie Will Delight Fans & Newbies Alike
Veronica Mars (2014) — *** Okay, marshmallows. Here’s the deal. The Veronica Mars movie is everything we hoped it would be. There are nods to our favorite moments from the show. There’s that turbulent Logan love story. And of course, there’s that oh-so-snappy Rob Thomas dialogue that made the show a fan favorite. The question here isn’t whether Veronica Mars is just a movie for us fans who donated their dollars to the Kickstarter campaign that funded it in the first place, though. The real test is whether Veronica Mars could succeed where so many other TV series to film adaptations have failed. It does. Veronica Mars is a solid, snappy mystery that could earn the former teenage detective as many new fans as she already has old ones. Why? For pretty much the same reason the show was a success...
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