Tagged with comedy films

Review: Trainwreck, 2015, dir. Judd Apatow

Review: Trainwreck, 2015, dir. Judd Apatow

“Think of Trainwreck as Amy Schumer’s comedy fed through Judd Apatow’s directorial dehydrator: It’s 124 minutes of everything we love about Schumer deprived of just enough bite and flavor to keep us tantalized, and not enough to make the experience special. To the credit of both Apatow and Schumer, who wrote the whole damn thing, … Continue reading

Review: Ted 2, 2015, dir. Seth MacFarlane

Review: Ted 2, 2015, dir. Seth MacFarlane

“Asking whether we really needed a sequel to 2012’s Ted is almost unfair to Ted 2. Sequels, follow-ups, and part twos (and threes and fours) make up an ever-increasing percentage of our moviegoing diet these days. Questioning their necessity has nearly become reflexive. Treat it like a Mad Lib if you like. (Did we really … Continue reading

Review: The Overnight, 2015, dir. Patrick Brice

Review: The Overnight, 2015, dir. Patrick Brice

“Making new friends isn’t easy when you’re grown-up and married. It’s that kind of anxiety first felt by the leads in Patrick Brice’s sophomore feature, The Overnight, a dizzying, debauched, excruciatingly funny film about knitting new connections through discomfort. Brice has made the trend-forward sprawl of suburban Los Angeles his backdrop, and his story begins … Continue reading

‘While We’re Young’: Noah Baumbach Q&A

‘While We’re Young’: Noah Baumbach Q&A

“If While We’re Young leaves you itching to know whether the footage Adam Driver’s character shoots via a conspicuous GoPro camera will ever make it on the Blu-Ray as a special feature, prepare for disappointment: it’ll never see the light of day. “Part of the problem is that if we showed anything in Jamie’s movie … Continue reading

Review: Get Hard, 2015, dir. Etan Cohen

Review: Get Hard, 2015, dir. Etan Cohen

“When do wry race jokes stumble over the line and devolve into straight-up racism? People like Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor and Louis C.K. have proven that color barriers can indeed be funny, but only because those barriers beg to be broken down. Etan Cohen, director and co-writer on Get Hard, can’t even plant a single … Continue reading

Review: Unfinished Business, 2015, dir. Ken Scott

Review: Unfinished Business, 2015, dir. Ken Scott

“There are details about Ken Scott’sUnfinished Business worth respecting, or at least admiring. Scott has made a movie rooted in an indistinct business environment in which a woman holds a position of top authority; she’s allowed to be bluntly, even crudely alpha without being caricaturized or defamed for it, at least until an unfortunate display … Continue reading

Review: Mortdecai, 2015, dir. David Koepp

Review: Mortdecai, 2015, dir. David Koepp

“Who is this dashing, mustachioed Mortdecai chap? An art dealer, you say? A man of high breeding with impeccable taste in paintings and wines? A scalawag, a ne’er-do-well, a man of shady intentions? That clears things up a bit, but still, who isMortdecai? A putz, a schlemiel, a real screwup, an oaf dressed in aristocrat’s … Continue reading

Review: Appropriate Behavior, 2015, dir. Desiree Akhavan

Review: Appropriate Behavior, 2015, dir. Desiree Akhavan

“The delightful byproduct of living in a post-Girls pop-culture-verse is that even if you don’t care for Lena Dunham, or if you find her creative output too preciously self-effacing (or self-aware, or self-interested, or any other self-[blank] adjective you can muster), her influence is likely to inspire other media that does tickle your fancy. Case … Continue reading