comedy – Page 17 – The Movie Gourmet

DON VERDEAN: money changers in the temple

December 13, 2015 by movie gourmet

Don Verdean is a dark comedy from filmmakers Jared and Jerusha Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), a smart and cynical take on the faux scientists embraced by the Christian Right. Sam Rockwell plays the title character, a Christian “archaeologist” of dubious credentials and ethics who keeps “discovering” Biblical relics and marketing them to gullible true believers.

Verdean and his assistants (Amy Ryan and Jermaine Clement) find themselves entangled with rival pastors, both charlatans. One is a former convict (Danny McBride) with a former hooker wife (Leslie Bibb); the other is a former Satanist (Will Forte) with his own bogus academic henchman (Sky Elobar). The cast is all good. Sam Rockwell sounds like he is channeling a TV preacher version of Sam Elliott.

But the real revelation is Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords, who plays Verdean’s Israeli fixer, Boaz. The Hesses start Boaz out as a footnote and then gradually develop him into one of the lead characters. Clement imbues Boaz with an unintentional sneer, a sometimes puzzling Hebrew accent and ascendant venality. Clement even gets a very funny dance bit (less extended and sidesplitting than the one in Napoleon Dynamite but funny nonetheless).

Jared and Jerusha Hess are the team behind Napoleon Dynamite, a pretty solid comedy credential. The Hesses know of what they write. They’re not just Hollywood religion-mockers – both attended BYU.

Here’s an example. The Hesses gave Clement’s character the name of Boaz. Those who know the Old Testament story of Ruth (we’re only talking Jews and Fundamentalist Christians here) will recognize Boaz as a major Good Guy. Some may even know that Boaz was an ancestor of both David and Jesus, who some scholars see as a “pre-figure” of Christ. But Boaz is a Biblical name that nobody gives their kid – so you never meet a Boaz today. Given the arc of the Boaz character in Don Verdean, the name is brilliantly ironic.

There are more cynical chuckles here than there are gut-busting guffaws. In one particularly inspired touch, the Hesses inserted Put Your Hand in the Hand into the soundtrack. Don Verdean is a little movie that’s sure to be overlooked during the big Holiday movie season, but there aren’t many good comedies in theaters now, so it’s a good choice for those looking for a dark indie comedy.

CHI-RAQ: Spike’s plea for peace with justice…and a sex comedy

December 12, 2015 by movie gourmet

Chi-Raq is Spike Lee’s impassioned plea for peace with justice in the inner city. The Chi-Raq of the title is Chicago, where there have been more gun deaths in the past 15 years than there have been Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined – a shocking and wholly unacceptable statistic that opens the movie.

Lee has adapted the Aristophanes play Lysistrata, where the ancient Greek women withhold sex until their men negotiate an end to war. Here, it’s the women of today’s Chicago who suspend the sexual privileges of their gang-banging boyfriends. Lee stays pretty close to the original Lysistrata, with lines sometimes in rap verse and with increasingly dapper Samuel L. Jackson as a one-man chorus who comments directly to the audience.

In a particularly inspired tactic, the men try to soften the woman’s resolve with Oh Girl by the Chi-Lites.

Lysistrata herself, the women’s ring leader, is played by Teyonah Parris, who pulls off the responsibility of being in virtually every scene. In her skanky outfits and massive Afro, Parris is unrecognizable as the controlled and restrained Sterling Cooper secretary Dawn Chambers in Mad Men.

John Cusack plays a bleeding heart priest, whose diatribe against the systems that breed violence is the weakest part of the movie (not Cusack’s fault – it’s the writing). Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Hudson and Angela Bassett are all excellent. Overall, Chi-Raq is pretty watchable.

Stream of the Week: TANGERINE: Two transgender hookers walk into a donut shop…

January 1, 2018December 1, 2015 by movie gourmet

Two transgender hookers walk into a donut shop in Hollywood…that’s not the start of a joke, but it’s the start of this pretty funny movie. The raucous and raunchy high energy comedy Tangerine centers on Alexandra and Sin-Dee, played respectively by the non-actors Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez. Sin-Dee takes them on a quest to track down her wayward pimp/boyfriend, and, although Alexandra makes her promise “no drama”, you know that’s not gonna happen. Alexandra is focused on her own goal – her singing performance tonight at a local club. We also meet the Armenian cabbie Razmik (Karren Karagulian), who has his own secret. And did I mention that it’s Christmas Eve?

The two leads are wonderfully appealing and their misadventures are very funny. A confrontation between an Armenian mother-in-law on the warpath, all the main characters and a pimp is wonderfully madcap. The movie’s ending is surprisingly moving.

Tangerine was shot on an iPhone. This is not a gimmick. The intimacy and urgency of this character-driven movie is a good fit with the iPhone. There really isn’t any call for helicopter shots or the like. The richness of the colors has been enhanced in post-production, so the iPhone cinematography isn’t any distraction at all. (See the shot below.)

You can stream Tangerine on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and some cable/satellite PPV. (Or you can buy the DVD from a retailer.)

To follow the beginning of the film, it helps to know that “fish” is transgender slang for a person born with female anatomy.

There’s also an extremely funny cameo by Clu Gulager(!) as a loquacious taxi passenger.

Tangerine is written and directed by Sean Baker, who made Starlet, another indie about marginal Angelenos that I admired.

Tangerine is available to stream from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

3 STILL STANDING: the comics who spurned LA

November 8, 2015 by movie gourmet

the stars of 3 STILL STANDING: Larry "Bubbles" Brown, Johnny Steele, Will Durst — The stars of 3 STILL STANDING: Larry “Bubbles” Brown, Johnny Steele, Will Durst

The San Francisco comedy club scene of the 1980s was a Golden Age for the art form of stand-up comedy – and its practitioners do consider it an art form, not just an entertainment product. That Bay Area scene launched major careers: Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Paula Poundstone, Ellen DeGeneres, Bobby Slayton, Kevin Pollack, Whoopi Goldberg and Rob Schneider. The documentary 3 Still Standing tells the story of three of their comedy peers who flourished in the 1980s but chose not to “go to LA” and how they’ve dealt with the “downsizing”, when cable TV killed the market for stand-up comedy in clubs.

The three comics – Will Durst, Larry “Bubbles” Brown and Johnny Steele – are what make 3 Still Standing so compelling. Durst is a master of sharp political comedy in a society that is now more interested in vacuous celebrities. Steele’s observations are too subversive for a mainstream that is less hip and a whole lot less smart. Brown, whose appearances on Letterman were 21 years apart, is no longer young enough for the decision-makers who book comedy. But they’re all experts in their craft, and their material is hilarious.

Larry “Bubbles” Brown is a revelation. His comic persona is based on his half-empty world view and his self-deprecating view of his looks.

“It’s been a great day for me. Haven’t passed any blood.”

“I’m in the medical textbooks as one of the major causes of vaginal dryness”.

“Giving me Viagra is like giving a doorbell to a homeless guy.”

We’ve seen the global and technological economic changes that end once-promising career paths and force us to adapt or else. Here, the catalysts are both techno-economic (the supplanting/absorption of the comedy market by cable television) and cultural (the continued dumbing-down of our society). But it’s rare that the aging victims among us are so damn fun to watch as these three artists.

Filmmakers Donna Locicero and Richard Campos started the project “as a Valentine to the era that we enjoyed so much”. That would have been an entertaining movie. But 3 Still Standing gained more depth and texture when it evolved into the character-driven story of these three guys and their plight. In a post-screening Q & A, Campos also noted that “the San Francisco Bay Area is a character in the film”.

Robin Williams and Dana Carvey are prominent parts of 3 Still Standing. Locicero said that Williams had seen several versions of the film, including the final cut – all to ensure that his segments didn’t overshadow the story of the three principals.

3 Still Standing opens on November 12 at Camera 3 in San Jose. On November 11, the San Jose Improv will host a screening with outtakes from the movie and live appearances by Durst, Brown and Steele.

Durst, Brown and Steele are inventive originals and important artists. They prove that you can be on the wrong side of the marketplace and still be on the right side of history. I saw 3 Still Standing at the Camera Cinema Club.

ADDICTED TO FRESNO: mediocre writing sabotages a sex comedy

November 2, 2015 by movie gourmet

Natasha Lyonne and Judy Greer in ADDICTED TO FRESNO

In the limp comedy Addicted to Fresno, the appealing Natasha Lyonne (Slums of Beverly Hills, Orange Is the New Black) plays an inspirational, plays-by-the-rules Fresno hotel maid. She has taken in her wayward sister (Judy Greer), whose sex addiction has made her otherwise unemployable, and gotten her a similar job. Having just left Sex Addiction Rehab, the sister is supposed to be in recovery, but is far from it. Misadventures ensue.

The problem with Addicted to Fresno is that the screen-writing is mid-level sit-com, only much dirtier. I generally like sex comedies, but Addicted to Fresno is pretty much unwatchable.

Addicted to Fresno is (justifiably) hard to find in theaters and also streaming on Amazon iTunes and Vudu.

Scare Week: WITCHING AND BITCHING

October 28, 2015 by movie gourmet

The rockin’ Witching and Bitching (Las brujas de Zugarramurdi), by Spanish cult director Alex de la Iglesia, features a gang of robbers – one is dressed as a silver Jesus on the cross and another as a Green Army Guy – on the lam rocketing into an occult nightmare. They run smack dab into a coven of witches – the full-out Macbeth-stir-the-cauldron kind of witches. This film has the feel of an early Almodovar madcap comedy – if Almodovar were into goth horror. It’s all rapid-pulsed fun – and surprisingly smart.

The underlying theme is misogyny. The male characters grouse about the stereotypical complaints about women – all while themselves exemplifying the worst of the stereotypical male flaws. For example, one guy complains that his ex won’t consent to joint custody on the grounds of his irresponsibility – yet he brings their seven-year-old along on an armed robbery. One underlying joke is that the men see women as bitches, but it’s the men who spend the whole movie bitching. Another is that the men become trapped by REAL witches whose ball busting far exceeds the men’s most negative misogynistic fantasies.

These Spanish actors are wonderful, including the great Carmen Maura (Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Volver) and appropriately named hottie Carolina Bang. They’re very adept at the deadpan delivery of lines like this:

Driver: This village is damned. They hold witches sabbaths.
Boy: What’s that?
Robber: Like a kegger but medieval.

De la Iglesia maintains a deliciously frantic pace throughout. The final orgiastic ritual goes on a long time but maintains audience engagement.

This was the first de la Iglesia movie that I’d seen, but I’m definitely going to check out more of his work. Speaking of which, he nicely sets up a sequel. But go ahead and watch Witching and Bitching now – streaming in Amazon Instant, iTunes and Xbox Video.

MEET THE PATELS: a documentary funnier than most comedies

September 24, 2015 by movie gourmet

Meet the Patels is both a documentary and a comedy – and ultimately, a satisfying crowd-pleaser. Over several years, filmmaker Geeta Patel filmed her own brother Ravi and their parents in their quest to find a wife for Ravi. Ravi and Geeta’s parents were born in India, had a traditional arranged marriage which has resulted in decades of happiness. Their American-born kids, of course, reject the very idea of an arranged marriage. But Ravi finds the pull of his Indian heritage compelling enough to dump his redheaded girlfriend and try to find a nice Indian-American girl. His parents try to help him with unbounded and unrelenting enthusiasm.

Meet the Patels is very funny – much funnier than most fictional comedies. It’s always awkward when parents involve themselves in their child’s romantic aspirations. That’s true here, and produces some side-splitting moments. It helps that the Patel parents are very expressive, and downright hilarious. The dad is so funny that I could watch him read a telephone book for 90 minutes, and the mom is herself a force of nature.

We learn that the Patels of Gujarat have adapted an entire menu of marriage opportunities to American society: a matchmaking profile system called “biodata”, matrimonial fairs, “the wedding season” and more.

Meet the Patels has its share of cultural tourism and the clash of generations. But is so damn appealing because it’s much more than that – it’s a completely authentic saga of family dynamics, dynamics that we’ve all experienced or at least observed. The family members’ mutual love for each other drives family conflict and, finally, family unity.

I saw Meet the Patels at the Camera Cinema Club earlier this year, and it opens in the Bay Area tomorrow. It’s hilarious and heart-warming. Go see it.

DVD/Stream of the Week: WILD TALES

September 23, 2015September 22, 2015 by movie gourmet

Okay, here’s the first Must See of 2015 – the hilariously dark Argentine comedy Wild Tales. Writer-director Damián Szifron presents a series of individual stories about revenge. It’s still high my list of Best Movies of 2015 – So Far.

We all feel aggrieved, and Wild Tales explores what happens when rage overcomes the restraints of social order. Think about how instantly angry you can become when some driver cuts you off on the highway – and then how you might fantasize avenging the slight. Indeed, there is a story in Wild Tales that has the most severe case road rage since Spielberg’s Duel in 1971. Now Wild Tales is dark, and you gotta go with it. The humor comes from the EXTREMES that someone’s resentment can lead to.

One key to the success of Wild Tales is that it is an anthology. In a very wise move, Szifron resisted any impulse to stretch one of the stories into a feature-length movie. Each of the stories is just the right length to extract every laugh and pack a punch. The funniest stories are the opening one set on an airplane and the final one about a wedding.

The acting is uniformly superb. In one story, Oscar Martínez plays a wealthy man in a desperate jam, who buys the help of his shady lawyer fixer (Osmar Núñez) and his longtime household retainer (Germán de Silva) – until their prices get just a little too high. The three actors take what looks like it’s going to a thriller and morph into a (very funny) psychological comedy with a very cynical view of human nature.

One of the middle episodes stars one of my favorite film actors, Ricardo Darín, who I see as the Argentine Joe Mantegna. I suggest that you watch Darín in the brilliant police procedural The Secrets in Their Eyes (on my top ten for 2010), the steamy and seamy Carancho and the wonderful con artist movie Nine Queens.

Wild Tales has been a festival hit (Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and Sundance) around the world and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar. I saw Wild Tales at Cinequest 2015. It’s now available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu and Xbox Video.

SHE’S FUNNY THAT WAY: comic fluff from a master

September 18, 2015 by movie gourmet

Jennifer Aniston in SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY — Jennifer Aniston in SHE’S FUNNY THAT WAY

The new comedy She’s Funny That Way from 75-year-old master filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich is a light-hearted diversion about the unlikely career path of an escort-turned-screen actress (Imogene Poots). Bogdanovich is responsible for the screwball comedy masterpiece What’s Up Doc? and the grossly under-rated comedy romance They All Laughed. So he knows knows how to choreograph mad cap moments. There’s also an unexpected cameo at the very end, along with very funny end credits.

Along with Poots, Bogdanovich has attracted a top tier cast: Owen Wilson, Rhys Ifans, Will Forte and Kathryn Hahn. It’s especially welcome to see survivors of Bogdanovich’s 1970s oeuvre – Cybill Shepherd, Tatum O’Neal and Austin Pendleton.

But the real revelation here – and the main reason to see the movie – is Jennifer Aniston’s turn as the most emotionally unhealthy therapist conceivable. It’s written as an extreme character – absolutely no boundaries, utterly self-absorbed, dangerously resentful and completely unprofessional. But Aniston’s performance is so full throttle that the audience delights every time her character comes on-screen.

She’s Funny That Way is just fluff, but it’s well-crafted fluff. It’s is now available to stream from Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

DIGGING FOR FIRE: a couple goes wild, then looks inside

September 16, 2015 by movie gourmet

The romantic comedy Digging for Fire is a reflection on that moment when two people who have loved each other have become so consumed by day-to-day child rearing that they have lost heir way as a couple. She’s (Rosemarie DeWitt) fed up and drops the three-year-old with her parents, hoping for a wild weekend with girlfriends while he (Jake Johnson) does the taxes. Of course, he invites his guy buddies over for a bro-bacchanal. Things don’t go exactly as planned for either of them, and their separate weekends morph into adventures that challenge their marriage and trigger some self-examination.

Writer-director Joe Swanberg has a gift for creating characters that act like real people – and NOT like they know they are characters in a romantic comedy. Swanberg created the 2013 Drinking Buddies, a film I found to be “an unusually genuine romantic comedy” and the first Mumblecore movie that I’ve ever liked.

DeWitt and Johnson are very good, and Brie Larson is outstanding as a good time girl who is more – and looking for more – than she seems. Digging for Fire also features Anna Kendrick (against type as an uninhibited party girl) and Sam Rockwell (who has made playing an unreliable character into its own art form). We also see almost everyone who has been in an independent film: Mike Birbiglia, Chris Messina, Melanie Lynsky, Sam Elliott, Judith Light and Jane Adams. Orlando Bloom even drops in as a boor at a bar (albeit an upscale bar).

Two thing for sure: Joe Swanberg’s characters are never predictable and he is definitely a romantic. Digging for Fire is available for streaming from Amazon, Vudu, You Tube and Google Play.