Happy Endings is not a show that is particularly about depth. The characters are one step away from cartoons. What makes the show work (and what powers similarly surface-y shows like New Girl and, to a less successful extent, 2 Broke Girls) is the show’s non-stop commitment to its characters and to jokes*. One of […]
In a lot of ways, the new Disney policy of re-releasing classic films (like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast) in 3D can be seen as a cynical cash grab. After all, it essentially tricks people into paying $16.00 a pop to see a movie they probably already own on VHS, DVD and […]
If you watch NBC’s The Office, you already know Mindy Kaling. Or to be more specific, you know her on-screen counterpart: Kelly Kapur. And maybe you think that Mindy is actually Kelly, and therefore assume that Mindy is obsessed with weight loss, boys, and shopping. But you’d be wrong. Mindy is obsessed with weight loss, […]
Steig Larson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a fast-paced, utterly engrossing, reactionarily feminist mystery novel, with a charismatic leading man and a fascinating lead female. But Larson’s novel falls off when you start thinking about writing style, thematic brilliance, or overall writerly aptitude. David Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, in contrast, is almost […]
I read Matched, the first in the trilogy that includes Crossed, in a sort of breathless blur. Left yearning as I was after finishing The Hunger Games, Matched seemed like its heir apparent. But Crossed actually makes me think retrospectively less of Matched, while still admitting that I’m definitely going to read the third installment […]
Goodbye, 2011. Hello apocalypse. This past year in movies has felt a bit like a holding pattern, a space to get all contemplative and whimsical before the terror of 2012. Despite a few exceptions, it wasn’t a year in which tentpole summer films grabbed a majority of the spotlight (in fact, many of these failed, […]
I have only repeated two movies since last year, even though it’s been very tempting to pull out some old favorites (I miss you, Elf! See you next year!). Those two repeats were my essential movies. Every year, the Christmas season begins with Love, Actually, and ends when my whole family gets together to watch […]
What if angels were real, and one of them wanted to bang your wife? Also… what if he looked like Cary Grant? For my second to last Christmas movie, I wanted something I knew nothing about. I wanted to be surprised. I wanted… well… Cary Grant. In The Bishop’s Wife, Grant plays Dudley, an angel […]