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Reviews
June '13 Digital Week V
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 01 July 2013 01:27
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Call the Midwife—Complete Season 2
Film Review: "The Heat"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 27 June 2013 04:00
- Written by Matt Oakes
"The Heat"
Directed by Paul Feig
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock, Demián Bichir, Marlon Wayans, Michael Rapaport, Thomas F. Wilson, Tony Hale, Kaitlin Olson
Action, Comedy, Crime
117 Mins
R
After working on television series such as The Office, Weeds and Bored to Death, director Paul Feig emerged as a voice for a very particular brand of female comedy with Bridesmaids that has extended somewhat over into The Heat, but the ruse is up. Attempting to subvert status quo, Feig has executed a whitewash rebranding of the female comedy, collapsing gender norms and racial stereotypes into a generic mass so indistinct and overextending that it'll be a miracle if he hasn't set back the female comedy 20 years. While there are genuine moments of laugh-out-loud comedy to be had throughout, the female buddy cop angle is overdone and coated in a saccharine glaze. Top that off with a ceaseless dose of broad and overbearing comedy, a total of exactly 190 useless f-bombs and "action" situations so fantastical that the sense of stakes melts in your mouth like a filet mignon and you have a film just beating you over the head with a dead fish to the point of surrender.
Off-Broadway Roundup: “Far from Heaven” and “The Explorers Club”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 25 June 2013 23:46
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Far from Heaven
Book by Richard Greenberg; music by Scott Frankel; lyrics by Michael Korie
Directed by Michael Greif
Performances through July 7, 2013
The Explorers Club
Written by Nell Benjamin; directed by Marc Bruni
Performances through July 21, 2013
Todd Haynes’ 2002 film Far from Heaven, a ham-fisted, obvious melodrama modeled after director Douglas Kirk, is set in 1957 and filled with visual and thematic allusions to Sirk’s ‘50s pictures. That Haynes deals with Serious Issues—homosexuality and interracial relationships were taboo then—only makes his movie more manipulative, not any more meaningful.
June '13 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 24 June 2013 03:55
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Ariadne auf Naxos
