Reflecting on the tonal shift that characterised “On All Fours,” Girls’ darkest episode yet, it occurred to me that the show has been a generally optimistic show. Its characters haven’t always shared that positive outlook, but the overall feeling has been hopeful, that these crazy kids will sort out their problems. That’s why the relentless…
It’s perhaps surprising that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the last of Kevin Smith’s films set in the View Askewniverse (just pretending that Clerks 2 doesn’t exist), has held up best in the preceding years. Mallrats and Chasing Amy aren’t really contenders, and Dogma’s “ain’t-I-a-stinker!” take on organised religion seems quaint nowadays: it’s funny…
Purity Ring’s music has an intensely personal feel, like a peek at the scrapbook/diary entries of a troubled teenage girl. It’s fitting, then, that their live show felt hand-made. The stage was draped with papier-mâché lanterns, and the music was produced by a custom-built tree-instrument, featuring drum-pads that produced xylophonic notes and flashed with their…
Excision is a bizarre film. I picked it up purely on the basis of its attention-grabbing Blu-Ray cover… …expecting some kind of horror film, probably heavy on the blood and gore. Excision has that, but it’s primarily a black teen comedy, focusing on the struggles of main character Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) to find her own…
This week of Justified might not quite reach the highs of last week’s tour de force, but it’s still an entertainingly dense episode of television, bringing the Drew Thompson plotline to a head with the reveal – hinted at in “Outlaw” – that Sheriff Shelby is indeed the elusive Drew. It may not have been…
Argo’s recent release on Blu-Ray gave me the chance to watch the Best Picture winner, and it’s easy to see why Ben Affleck’s film won the Oscar. It’s classic Hollywood from beginning to end; a crisply-filmed tale of good versus bad where everything important happens at the last possible second. Affleck uses an expansive budget…
The premiere of Please Like Me had funny bits, awkward bits, but the rarely the two at once, and suffered from a lack of conflict. “Portugese Custard Tarts” makes an improvement on pretty much all of these issues, with a throughline of Josh’s ambivalence of whether to come out serving as a conflict of sorts…
I’m still not quite sure how to feel about “It’s Back,” an episode that’s equal parts messy and compelling. It reminded me of a later-era Sopranos episode, gently pushing against the boundaries of traditional television storytelling; feeling like no other show on television. It’s full of sharp writing: I loved how the show contrasted Shoshanna’s…
Save the Date might look like another forgettable romantic comedy. With Alison Brie (Community), Lizzy Caplan (Party Down) and Martin Starr (Knocked Up) involved – all talented actors who excel at taking comedic roles and extending them beyond the stereotypes – I had higher hopes. For the most part, my expectations were met – the…
Let’s take a moment to consider how far Spartacus has come. The first episodes are justly maligned, more a cut-rate rip-off of 300 than the complex, thoughtful yet deliciously trashy melodrama we’ve since enjoyed. But even as the first season hit its stride, it remained a small-scale show, filled with scrappy battles and petty political…
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