Comedy

Manhattan, with bonus musical slideshow

By Adam Lippe

Though it might have been his open plea to loosen monogamy’s grip on society, sex columnist Dan Savage’s veritable mantra that “all relationships end, except the one that doesn’t,” is oddly logical. At first it seems callous and cynical, relying on the notion that we all die alone, but, apart from ignoring the notion of […]

Dragged, Kicking and Screaming to Answer Year-End/Best of 2011 Questions

By Adam Lippe

I am not a fan of year-end lists. They are entirely reductive and self-congratulatory. However the text below was triggered by another critic, Examiner.com’s Jason Roestel, who asked me to contribute to his year-end piece. So this is a version that fixes as many grammatical errors as I originally had, as well as some significant […]

Roadracers

By Adam Lippe

Whenever there’s a genre parody or ode to a specific era of films, such as Black Dynamite’s mocking of Blaxploitation films or Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the second half of Grindhouse, the danger is that the film might fall into the trap of either being condescending without any particular insight, or so faithful that it […]

The Brain

By Adam Lippe

In the history of fantastic bad ideas, none may seem as foolhardy as the fact that Ed Hunt, the director of the schlocky Canadian horror film The Brain, originally intended for the titular character, an alien from outer space encased in gelatinous goo who wants to use TV to brainwash the human race, the ability […]

Tatie Danielle

By Adam Lippe

There’s a wonderful scene in the inconsistent satire Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy where an older lady, Mrs. Hurdicure, looks back fondly on a memory where her family came to visit her for Christmas. Ignoring the reality of the situation, her family spends less than 5 minutes in her house, drops off the presents […]

Surf II: The End of the Trilogy

By Adam Lippe

It may sound like a truly terrible idea, but I’ve based my entire life on lessons learned from the films of John Travolta. Watching Battlefield Earth, I gleaned that in order to control a planet of human beings; one must wear enormous platform shoes as well as repeatedly hit your head on low ceilings. This […]

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Roadracers

By Adam Lippe

Whenever there’s a genre parody or ode to a specific era of films, such as Black Dynamite’s mocking of Blaxploitation films or Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the second half of Grindhouse, the danger is that the film might fall into the trap of either being condescending without any particular insight, or so faithful that it becomes the very flawed thing it is emulating.

Black Dynamite has nothing new to say about Blaxploitation films, it just does a decent job of copying what an inept [...]

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Featured Quote (written by me)

On Cold Fish:

Though the 16 year old me described the 1994 weepie Angie, starring Geena Davis as a Brooklyn mother raising her new baby alone, as “maudlin and melodramatic,” Roger Ebert, during his TV review, referring to the multitude of soap-operaish problems piling up on the titular character, suggested that it was only in Hollywood where Angie would get a happy ending. “If they made this movie in France, Angie would have shot herself.”

Well Cold Fish was made in Japan, where Angie would have shot herself and that would have been the happy ending.