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From Graveyard to Traffic Jam: The Strange Evolution of the Summer Movie

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Originally published on Flavorwire, 6/1/16 . The story goes that the suits at 20th Century Fox were so certain George Lucas’s  Star Wars  was going to flop (since, the marketing department insisted, the two words of its title were certain death at the box office), they gave it what Alan Ladd Jr., the film’s sole booster among the Fox brass, dubbed “the dead date, the deadest date in the history of movies.” That date was May 25 – Memorial Day weekend. Yes, once upon a time, nobody wanted to open their movie on Memorial Day; what’s more, they didn’t much care to put their movie into the summer season it kicked off. What changed? In a word:  Jaws . Before the release of Steven Spielberg’s gigantic smash on June 20, 1975, the summer was, according to author (and the provider of that  Star Wars  anecdote) Tom Shone, “pretty much the graveyard shift for the movie theaters. You would get a lot of exploitation, the really cheap end of the stick, there was no prestige to it whatsoever. It was c
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Here's a Bunch of SXSW Reviews

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  AUSTIN, TX: Well, I'm back at SXSW, which I've attended every year (well, every year they've had it here) since 2012 and have said, more than once, is my favorite film festival. And I'll say candidly that it's not necessarily for the quality of the films (which are frequently very good) but for the quality of the food and drink and vibe in Austin (which is always  very good).  I reviewed seven world premieres for The Playlist this year: ‘Late Bloomers’ Review: Karen Gillan Is Hilarious And Heartbreaking In A Predictable But Enjoyable Dramedy [SXSW] ‘Parachute’ Review: Brittany Snow Makes a Fine Directorial Debut With A Candid & Nervous Romantic Drama [SXSW] ‘Self Reliance’ Review: Jake Johnson’s Directorial Debut Is A Suitable Vehicle For His Shaggy Comic Energy [SXSW] ‘Bottoms’ Review: Emma Seligman’s Sophomore Feature Is No ‘Shiva Baby,’ But Still Delightfully Subversive [SXSW] ‘Hypnotic’ Review: Robert Rodriguez & Ben Affleck Team For An ‘Inception’-Ish
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Was Albert Brooks’ ‘Lost In America’ the Quintessential ’80s Comedy?

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  Originally published on Flavorwire, 7/28/17 “My God, sometimes I wish we really  were  irresponsible,” Linda tells David, and because they’re who they are, born when they were, he takes it as an insult. “Calling me responsible is like calling me old or stodgy!” he insists, and besides, he’s got it all figured out: when he gets the big promotion, with elevated title and the huge salary bump and the big new house it will let them buy,  then  he’ll be free. Being in a position of responsibility, you see, will allow him to be  irresponsible . That’s the kind of logical and linguistic curlicue that Albert Brooks does best, and he never did it better than in his 1985 comedy  Lost in America , which makes its Blu-ray debut this week via the Criterion Collection. It’s an endlessly funny and often uncomfortable piece of work, featuring some of the sharpest, deftest writing Brooks and frequent collaborator Monica Johnson ever crafted. But it’s particularly noteworthy for the way in which it sh
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How Scorsese’s ‘King of Comedy’ Influenced a Generation of Film, Television, and Stand-Up

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  Originally published on Flavorwire, 6/23/16 Roger Ebert’s  original review  of  The King of Comedy  is a useful tool for understanding exactly how indifferently Martin Scorsese’s comedy/drama was received upon its release – coming as it does from one of the director’s earliest and loudest boosters, and even  he  can’t figure out what to make of it. Calling it “one of the most arid, painful, wounded movies I’ve ever seen,” Ebert describes the film as “an agonizing portrait of lonely, angry people with their emotions all tightly bottled up. This is a movie that seems ready to explode — but somehow it never does.” And this was one of the  kinder  notices; Pauline Kael insisted, “It’s so – deliberately – quiet and empty that it doesn’t provide even the dumb, mind-rotting diversion that can half amuse audiences at ordinary bad movies.” And yet, like antihero Rupert Pupkin in a waiting room,  The King of Comedy  refuses to go away. A box office failure in 1983, it’s since been pinpointed a
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Archival Interview: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on ‘The World’s End,’ Spoilers, and How They’re Like the Avengers

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Originally published on Flavorwire, 8/21/13 It began as a throwaway joke during the promotional tour for  Hot Fuzz , the second film directed by Edgar Wright, produced by Nira Park, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Wright and Pegg. Cornetto ice cream was a prop in both  Hot Fuzz  and  Shaun of the Dead , and ( according to Wright ), “someone pointed out the Cornetto connection, and asked if we were going to make a trilogy. And I said yes, it’s going to be like Kieslowski’s  Three Colors , but three flavors. So it was a silly joke in an interview that got recycled and repeated.” And thus we have the third film of the “Cornetto trilogy,”  The World’s End , which finds estranged friends Pegg and Frost (along with three of their mates) going on a pub crawl in their hometown in the midst of — well, that much is a bit of a spoiler. I talked to Pegg and Frost about those spoilers, the genesis of the story, and their place within the canon of great comedy teams during the fil
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