Playing Catch-Up

I haven’t had much free time lately, hence the lack of posts. So I figured I’d play some catch-up today. Let’s go!

I saw Two Lovers on Saturday (go figure). It was pretty good. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance was typically impressive, Gwyneth Paltrow played an annoying whiny bitch rather perfectly, and the direction was aptly low-key. The only problem I had with the movie is that it doesn’t really feature any likable characters yet wants us to sympathize with them, and in its third act it starts to drag on endlessly. It’s based on a Dostoevsky story, though, so I guess it makes sense that it would be long and depressing. It’s worth a viewing but I don’t know if I’d see it again.

Sex Drive looked funny based on commercials I saw, and its early reviews were rather positive, but I was pretty disappointed. It was only marginally entertaining and came across like a really lame Superbad attempt at raunchy teen comedy. There are a few decent cameos (David Koechner is worth mentioning) but as a whole it falls flat, and it’s so crude that its sweeter moments feel artificial. I could also go a full lifetime without seeing Clark Duke in a film ever again.

There is, however, one saving grace: James Marsden. Channeling all the cliched “bad older brother” roles from ’80s teen flicks (my first impression was Bill Paxton from Weird Science), Marsden’s psychotically macho performance is deserving of a better film. The unrated cut of the film (which gives Marsden extended scenes of gay jokes) also deserves some credit — to separate it from typical cash-grab Director Cut DVDs, the filmmakers included random shots of porn stars against green scenes and integrated them into the film, just to make it truly different from the theatrical cut. Lots of penises and vaginas dropping out of nowhere. Funny in a gimmicky way, but it wears thin rather quickly, and is ultimately just a greater example of the film’s sleazy edge.

Now, on to television. I’ve been watching The Wire and Nip/Tuck the past couple months. The former is a great show, although I’m not sure it really lives up to all this hype I keep hearing and reading about – I think EW or Time listed it as the greatest show of all time, and that’s just hyperbolic, in my opinion. The first season was addictive, but I found myself struggling to maintain the same level of inerest with season two – the subplots felt quite forced and predictable (the quality of both story and acting with the dock workers was reminscent of a straight-to-TV movie), and some storylines just seemed thrown in as filler. The season, as a whole, was still very good — but I wouldn’t rank it with The Sopranos. Maybe season three will improve.

Nip/Tuck is like Bret Easton Ellis’ version of 7th Heaven, and like Ellis’ novels, it’s at once terrible and entertaining. It does get on my nerves after a while, though. And the actor who plays Troy’s son is the most god-ugly Michael Jackson clone I’ve ever seen. He’s also about 30 years old so it’s weird seeing him play a 16-year-old.  This is the sort of stuff that ruins the show, but maybe it will get better as the seasons go on.

30 Rock and The Office are going strong – I’ve been keeping up with them every week. Funny stuff. The new Flight of the Conchords started, and – despite criticisms from some fans – I think it’s better than season one. Murray is in it more, which, for me, is a good thing, because I think he’s hilarious. He deserves his own spin-off. “The Murray Hewitt Show.” I’d buy that for a dollar.

As for music… new Franz Ferdinand is good. I discovered this cool instrumental hip-hop album by a guy called Onra, which I’d highly recommend. The new Lonely Island record is funny despite lame interludes; I never understood Andy Samberg’s appeal to people on SNL but “On a Boat” (ft. T-Pain) is the greatest thing I’ve heard in forever. Oh, and the new Chris Cornell album sucks and blows. The first track has the worst sound effects ever. It’s like Timbaland gave him all the scraps that Timberlake and Robin Thicke didn’t want. Very sad, especially the album cover, which shows the rock icon smashing a guitar. Get it? Oh, it’s so, like, deep! And symbolic! May have been somewhat cleverer if the album had actually turned out halfway decent.

So that’s it for now.

Tagged as: 30 rock, flight of the conchords, james marsden, joaquin phoenix, sex drive, the wire, TV, two lovers