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A Podcast Q&A with John C. Reilly, star of Magnolia, Chicago, Stepbrothers and the new film Cyrus

By Adam Lippe

Here’s a podcast q&a with the star of the Duplass brothers’ new film Cyrus, John C. Reilly. The interview was held after a Philadelphia screening of Cyrus. There’s nothing mindblowing about the questions, they cover the expected topics like working with Will Ferrell, Marisa Tomei, and the differences between playing comedy and playing drama. However, […]

Straightlaced: How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up

By Adam Lippe

Miracles can happen. I have seen proof. An interesting and insightful documentary was made by someone who directs with complete condescension and an overabundance of obnoxious video effects. Consider the evidence: A filmmaker who treats sexually confused teenagers like Bill Cosby talks to five-year-olds on Kids Say the Darndest Things. Cutesy music and graphics that […]

Leonard Part 6

By Adam Lippe

Certainly the greatest film ever made, at least of those featuring Jane Fonda and killer tunas that read Playboy. The Cos reached the pinnacle of his career with this, one that he proudly produced, co-wrote the story, and picked up several awards for his efforts. Only Martin Short’s masterpiece, Clifford, could ever be considered as […]

The Cosbys Are Aliens

By Adam Lippe

In 1984, America was introduced to what was then a mystery to them, a happy and extremely wealthy black family on The Cosby Show. This was particularly bewildering to white people, who had been trained to believe that black people were rarely doctors or lawyers, and here was one family who had both, as well […]

Some Kind of Monster

By Adam Lippe

Some Kind of Monster, about the production of Metallica’s St. Anger album, is a 140 minute explanation for how forgettable, corporate metal gets made. While a featurette for a movie that is bad in a rather traditional, boring way, is rarely going to be detailed, and certainly not going to really reveal the depth of […]

Palindromes

By Adam Lippe

Maybe it would have helped had I seen the movie with a suck up audience, the kind of Sundancy viewer that writer-director Todd Solondz pretends to mock but clearly desires their recognition. In fact all 8 of the people in attendance at the screening were silent the entire 100 minutes, except for myself, when the […]

Now on DVD and Blu-Ray

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.