2029: Wanderlust

I wanted to see this when it first came out and never got around to it.  It tells the story of a couple who gets beaten up by life a bit and tries to make a go of it on a commune - hilarity ensues.  I like that the film doesn't just take a crap on hippies and make super obvious jokes despite the fact that it's a big comedy - can you make fun of this stuff - sure - but these are people too, and their way of life is a worthy way to live if that's your thing.  Aniston and Rudd do their usual thing and are super enjoyable as always.  Lauren Ambrose steals the film in a birthing scene near the end for me.  This isn't a film that blew me away, but it's enjoyable enough if you like the cast and want something light and fun for your viewing pleasure.

1972 - Girls: season three

I didn’t love the second season of this show - but I found this season to be back in fighting form, and probably at it’s strongest.  It’s lose, but we’re starting to see some serialization happening.  I guess my largest critique of this season would be the underuse of some of the supporting characters.  Don’t give me wrong, I love watching Hannah being a selfish twat as much as the next person - but I also really love checking in with the rest of the foresome.  And for a show about girls, the guys really do steal it for me, especially Adam Driver, who is enjoying being a break-out star, I imagine - and deservedly so.  I love how self aware this show is - and it really is the kind of thing that makes me jealous as a storyteller.  I think what Lena Dunham has done here is something a lot of us would love to be in the position to do - and I think she’s doing a bang-up job.  I’m very curious to see how the end of this season will resolve itself moving forward - but I’ll be there for sure.  If you haven’t started yet Season 1 is widely available - and while I don’t love Season 2 it’s worth blasting through to get back to the good stuff in this most recent season.

1933 - Walk Hard: The Dewey Coxe Story

I saw this film in theatres and haven't revisited it - one thing that surprised me was the amount of cameos in the film, or at least they'd be considered that now - the little bit parts with Ed Helms and Craig Robinson, the inspired casting for both the Beatles and Elvis - even that alone make it worth watching.
When I first saw this I hadn't see the American version of The Office yet, so the thing that leaped out at me here was Jenna Fischer.  I fell in love with her the first time I watched this.  I thought that she was easily one of the most beautiful women on the planet - first because she's ridiculously attractive, especially in this film - but also because her comedy timing and chops are sensational.  It's been a delight to watch her since then - I'd love the chance to work with her.
This film still holds up - the comedy is over the top - but it sure does take a piss on bio pics - which I recall there was a plethora of around that time, so good on them.  The music is sharp, the attention to the time periods as well.  It's a really enjoyable flick that's funny and smart at the same time.  If you've never seen it and you're a music lover, or just a lover of comedy that's a bit over the top, look no further!

1859 - The 40 Year Old Virgin

Today's my day at home to get some office work done so I'm also re-watching some much loved classics.  I rewatched this last year with the commentary but it's been a LONG time since I've watched the actual film - and it's a good reference for something I'm developing.  This is a cast that would be hard to assemble today if you look at the tremendous talent that's in all of the supporting roles.  What I love about this is that it's, technically, a dirty movie but it's done with such a sweetness.  Steve Carrel is just goddamn delightful here.  You buy into him and his situation without a second thought.  It's so interesting to look at how far Apatow has come since this, especially visually.  No offence to him or his team, but it's not a great looking film - it's not overly cinematic - which makes sense since I believe all his directing experience up to this point was in sitcom, and this absolutely looks like it. 
If you haven't seen this it's kind of a classic by this point.  If you're a fan of comedy you owe it to yourself to check it out.

1815 - Girls: season two

The first season of this series was easily one of my favourite things about television last year.  It was one of those things that made me jealous to my core.  It had a language, a style, that I was envious of.  Whenever I thought of a series I wanted to create I'd often ask myself "What is MY 'Girls'?"

And then this second season happened.  And… well… I don't know… If I'm honest I'm not sure that I entirely recognize this show right now.  It's characters just felt like they wanted to be angry and terrible to each other for an entire season only to become happy again at the VERY end.  A lot of reviewers have commented that this seasons end doesn't feel earned and I'm inclined to agree. 

There is so much about this series that I love still.  I'll still be tuning in when season three comes around.  I adore Adam Driver, and all the other guys on this show.  The women are a bit frustrating for me.  Hannah's, out of the blue, OCD, just felt like another crutch for a character who's entire existence appears to be about making excuses for why she isn't further along with life.  She's, clearly, a self saboteur, and we know that - and while I admire Lena's decision to do that with her character, it makes you not like her a whole hell of a lot. 

It's a series that is not for everyone.  I loved the first season, and found this one enjoyable in parts and frustrating in others.  I remain cautiously optimistic about the next season.  I want to love the shit out of it.  I really do.  I hope this review doesn't turn anyone off.  That's not my intention whatsoever.

1795 - This is 40

I'm a big fan of Judd Apatow - I like how much he throws himself into and this little empire and network of people that he's created - it's quite something.  Throw that and Paul Rudd into the mix and I'm a happy camper.  This is by no means a perfect film.  And it's not for everyone - if you like slice-of-life family drama that connects pretty deeply, you'll dig it - but if you like big stakes then I imagine a film about middle class white people not being able to afford their amazing lifestyle isn't going to quite do it for you.  And that's fine too.
The Apatow "method" of improv heavy films has never been quite so obvious as it is here - and I'm not passing judgement or suggesting that it doesn't largely work, but at the same time I find it difficult to justify the running time for this sort of film.  There's no need for a 2hr, 14 minute film about a mid-life crisis comedy.  Good for Judd for getting away with it, but I think that this is a film that could benefit from a good deal of pruning.  As it is I like it, but I probably could have loved it.
If you've liked his previous films, this one is worth checking out - although I feel like it's his less heart-filled film.  At the end I don't know if I felt like Pete and Debbie so much resolved their issues as they just stopped bitching at each other about their current problems.  I sound like I didn't like the film, but I swear I did.  Can't wait for the special features that'll be loaded to the tits on the BluRay.

1758 - Knocked Up (commentary

This film is a huge leap forward for Apatow as a filmmaker.  Not only is it visually miles ahead from his first film, but the storytelling feels tighter (even in this extended version) and the emotions more toned.  You get a real sense that he's in command of his craft here.  The commentary was was entertaining enough with Apatow, Rogen, and Bill Hader along.  They start off promising that it's going to be like a film school in a box, but it's not really.  Still enjoyable enough for fans though!  Made me want to re-watch it with the commentary off!
One more night of unpacking in the shop... one more Apatow film :)

1757 - The 40 Year Old Virgin (commentary)

I've been getting my studio space set up for editing my new film Sex After Kids, so I threw this on in the background with the commentary which includes a ridiculously large amount of people.  It's interesting listening to commentaries with actors because you very quickly get a sense of who are interesting and fun people, and who are very desperately trying to be as interesting and fun as the people whom it comes naturally to.  It's goddamn awkward to listen to sometimes.  As I'm going to be working around the studio for the next few days in the evening there's a good chance I'll check out the commentaries on the other Apatow films as well.
Part of the issue with watching an Apatow film on DVD is that you never get the theatrical cut, you get his bloated version - which isn't a bad thing - but it's tricky to make a comedy really work after it's pushing two hours.  It's interesting to hear them on the commentary talking about how most of the crew had no idea how they were going to possibly string this thing into a film in the end.  A large part of what Judd does is he slaps down two cameras and just has the actors throw a bunch of stuff out and see what happens.  I can see how this could work quite well, but it's also a reason that the visual style of the film is pretty damn ugly.  It looks like a badly shot three-camera-sitcom in some scenes - which I'm not sure if I noticed before. 
The commentary doesn't offer a whole lot of insight into their productions, but it is entertaining if you like this group of people.  If you don't, then steer clear. 

1747 - Girls: season one

I'd seen Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture a while back (still on netflix, I believe) - you can find my thoughts on it by clicking her tag below.  And I was pretty intrigued to see that she'd scored a show with HBO and Apatow working with her.  And then I totally forgot about it until twitter went all ablaze the day after it's debut.
No point in burying the lead - I loved it from the get-go.  The characters were all real and interesting, fucked up, yet loveable.  It's the world of people just trying to figure out who the hell they are and what they hell they're doing - and it's done with such a strong sense of self mockery that you can't help but be absolutely charmed by it.  The show has this bizarre backlash to it, that was almost condemning it for being the level of quality that it is, feeling the need to attack it in other ways like saying that the cast was "too white".  I know it's the hip thing to do, but any time I see a show where there's the token black friend I almost always roll my eyes.  I'm not against ethnic diversity in casting at all.  My rule is always - best person for the job.  But there's a lot of people in this industry that cast roles and enforce racial diversity where it doesn't perhaps fit.  And that's all I'll say on that.
It's hard to describe this series.  It's about a group of twenty-something women who are trying to find their place in the world - pretty low concept idea - but the execution is wonderful.  Dunham is a tour-de-force on screen, but then when you realize that she penned and directed a good bulk of the series as well, you realize just what a tremendous talent she is.  She's not interested in making herself or her cast mates look pretty or likeable.  She makes them interesting and that's more than enough.  This isn't Entourage where the characters go through hell and then some magic offer comes in that puts the characters back on top - this is the real world where the characters go through hell… and then they are stuck in hell for a little bit and have to fight their own way back out.
I'm trying to avoid spoilers so that you can discover this beautiful show on your own, but one thing I will say that was the absolute stand-out of the season for me was the relationship between Adam and Hannah - the way they shifted perspective and gave you insights into these people and then turned that around on us was absolutely masterful. 
The only thing that sucks now is having to wait till season two comes back around.  I want to do a spec of this show for my writing portfolio and so now it's just a matter of coming up with the perfect episode concept.  Other than that I can't wait to check in on these girls when they return.  It'll make my wife happy too (it's her new favourite show - and could be mine as well...).

1673 - Bridesmaids

I caught this when it was in the cinema, but I was happy to find the bluray in a discount bin (WTF?!) at the grocery story.  The bottom really is falling out of the home video market when a film like this ends up going on sale for $10 just a few months after it's release.  Bizarre.
I don't think I need to regurgitate the storyline of this film since it was a pretty massive hit when it came out, and rightfully so.  It's a damn funny film.  It's got a great cast, but the story and the writing is pretty stellar as well, and I think that a lot of that comes from the mentorship of Judd Apatow.  I think I mentioned this in my first little review of this film, but I think that anyone looking to study comedy writing really needs to study this film, in particular the first part of the second half of the film.  Once things start going poorly for Annie they go really poorly.  The film carefully sets up her life and then absolutely crushes it in one massive sweep - that is how to deal with a character in a comedy - you punish the shit out of them, and all the while you keep the audience smiling.  I think that has a lot to do with why this film is such a success - sure it's funny and a tad raunchy, but as with most Apatow projects, the story is pretty damn solid.  He understands that your first job as a writer is to punish your characters as much as you can - put them through a shit-storm.
I look forward to watching the special features on the disc - the line-o-rama features on Apatow's discs are a really great insight into how they work the comedy and come up with some fantastic alternate material.  (helps to cast really funny, smart people :) ).
So if you still haven't see this, and you aren't a stick in the mud, do yourself a favor and get on it!

1642 - Undeclared: complete series

I missed both this and Freaks and Geeks during it's original run.  It's a shame that neither of these were given a fair shake, although who knows how their success would have shaped the futures of their respective casts.  Perhaps if Freaks had of gone several seasons we never would have gotten this series.  Let's not think about that.
As far as network college comedies go this is probably one of the better (if not best) I've seen.  These actually feel like people that are in college, what they deal with, how they talk to one another.  How it's slightly awkward.  Really enjoyed that about it.  Not a bad character in the bunch, and I loved how they managed to get pretty much the entire cast of Freaks in somehow (where the hell was Franco?!). 
The cast is great, I'm a fan of all of them, and it's nice to see them all doing pretty damn well for themselves.  If you missed this great show during it's (too short) run you can find it on DVD now.  Seventeen episodes, and the box set is loaded with commentaries and other goodies.

I Found This Funny

Although Apatow's name is slathered all over the cover, I think it's mostly just clever marketing - I'm not sure how one "edits" a collection... outside of selection... regardless the proceeds for this book go to a good 'cause and not his wallet, so it's all well and good! 
I have a love and hate relationship with short fiction.  When it's good it's absolutely phenomenal, but I'm also a person who likes to be told a story, and there are many a short fiction writer who just likes to play around with tangential material in short fiction, and I find myself skimming that stuff.  This collection was a little from column A and a little from column B in that regard.  I won't go into details on them, but below are the ones that really stood out for me in the collection:

Judd Apatow - How I Got Kicked Out of High School: a Freaks and Geeks Diary

Raymond Carver - Elephant

Dave Eggers - Your Mother and I

Paul Feig - And Now a Word from the Booth

Jonathon Franzen - Two Ponies

Ian Frazier - Coyote v. Acme

Jack Handey - My First Day in Hell

Simon Rich - Six Selected Pieces

Rodney Rothman - Vivian

Paul Simms - For Immediate Release

Robert Smigel - & Conan O'Brien - Lockwell: a TV Pilot

Jon Stewart - Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Sitcom

The collection is a nice mix bag of different styles as well.  In addition to the above there are some pretty fantastic cartoons in there as well.

If you like to laugh, or read intelligent funny writing, I'm sure that there's something in here for you.