I am an established fan of Alexander Payne. His films usually deal with strong concepts. You engage with them through strong and funny character-driven stories. He also has an interest in middle America and people stuck in their tracks. There’s ...
Read More »The Death of Stalin: We need change
Censorship! State execution! Gulags! This is the stuff great comedy is made of. The Death of Stalin is an adaptation of a French graphic novel being brought to the screen by satirical maestro Armando Iannucci. The helmsman behind The Thick ...
Read More »Utopian future: Is this the end of dystopian fiction’s reign?
Publishing industry insiders are predicting that 2017 will find readers turning to happier tales of escapism and hope. As a result, genre publishers are talking about the This is a big shift from the pessimistic dystopias that have dominated bestseller lists ...
Read More »Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Parody films of this nature are like a blanket and a cup of tea on a cold day. Pure comfort. Popstar was never going to break the mold, say anything particularly new or incisive, or be the next big thing ...
Read More »The Almighties
With the popular consciousness of comics so dominated by the BIG TWO and their movie-fodder superhero fare, it is nice to get a chance to dip into the independent alternatives. Life on the fringes comes with all manner of originality ...
Read More »Con Man: Because convention man doesn’t sound as cool
Those of us who attend conventions aren’t as scary or weird as we’re often made out to be – though that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of scary weirdos (or terrifying people in Alien costumes that like to sneak ...
Read More »Entourage: One vagina closes just as another opens
With every year that passed following the HBO series’ successful 8-season run, an Entourage movie looked less and less likely. The series creator, Doug Ellin, completed a script for a feature film back in 2012, but the film suffered production ...
Read More »Political satire with John Oliver
John Oliver is my new hero. I loved him on Community but I didn’t catch any of his appearances on The Daily Show. Now that he has his own series on HBO (and let’s face it, who else would have him?), Last Week Tonight ...
Read More »An ode to Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23
When ABC picked up Don’t Trust the B(itch) in Apartment 23, I was surprised. Having originally been in development with Fox, it moved to ABC before getting a pilot and then a half season order. The show that was delivered ...
Read More »Everyone needs a good laugh: Comedy and satire
I don’t know about everyone else, but these days I prefer a good comedy to endless hours of depressing drama. And yet, most of the widely praised TV and film are hopelessly depressing. Even some of my favourite shows get ...
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