Part family drama, part mystery, part slapstick comedy, and part mad-scientist movie, Men & Chicken is one of the most bizarre and original films I’ve seen. Writer and director Anders Thomas Jensen combines all those elements like a mad-scientist himself, conjuring up an absurd story full of grotesque characters, and translates it on-screen in an…
“Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room before you save the world. Then save the world.” — Ron Padgett, “How to be Perfect” Interior, bedroom — Monday morning. An aerial shot on a sleeping couple. It’s about 15 seconds before the clock hits 6:12 and Paterson (Adam Driver, “Star Wars:…
Dedicated to Ozu star Setsuko Hara, Argentine director Matías Piñeiro’s Hermia and Helena follows his three previous films, “Viola,” “The Princess of France”, and “Rosalinda,” with a work depicting characters loosely based on female heroines in William Shakespeare’s comedies. Shot in Buenos Aires and partly in New York, the film centers on Camila (Agustina Muñoz,…
Upon the release of “The Human Centipede (First Sequence),” many were rightfully disgusted and offended. Despite feeling very amateurish in its filmmaking, it garnered legs by playing on its audience’s morbid curiosity, and it often did so through mere suggestion rather than explicitly showing you horrifying things. However, once the the film’s popularity was at…
It’s difficult to make a comedy these days without it devolving into either juvenile slapstick buffoonery or an ignorant vulgarity-laden vehicle for the nation’s lowest common denominators. It’s especially hard when such a film’s protagonist is so completely devoid of intelligence or even common sense as to be totally unrelatable and unsympathetic throughout. Oh, and…
Comedy is big business. It can also be a very lucrative business. Many aspiring comics from all walks of life have sacrificed to make it their personal goal to become professional laugh-makers. The world is at their jocular fingertips if and when that elusive break comes down the opportunistic pike. One can imagine the humble…
Allison Hillstead (Marie Barker, “Horror Hotel: The Webseries”) has enough on her plate handling the house she just inherited and trying to lock down a post graduation job. With a time sensitive interview in mere hours and a Wilderness Scout knocking on her door, the last thing she needs is any more problems, but apparently…
