Comedy

Mistress America

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mistress America
  • IMDb: link

Mistress AmericaWritten and directed by Noah Baumbach (and co-written by the movie’s star Greta Gerwig), Mistress America is an uneven comedy that has a tone and feel more befitting a stage play than even an independent theatrical release. That’s not to say it should be easily dismissed. Despite its issues, when the film gets it right it gets it just right (such as an extended sequence in a yuppie suburban home where the quick-hitting back-and-forth dialogue finally hits on every note). Taken as a whole, Mistress America is neither as good as its brightest moments or as bad as it valleys where the lack of laughs exposes just how thin a story Baumbach is working with.

Lola Kirke and Gerwig star as strangers in New York brought together by their parents’ impeding wedding. Tracy (Kirke) is struggling with both life in college and the big city, neither of which see fits in all that well. Brooke (Gerwig) is a force of nature whose outgoing personality masks her own litany of personal issues. Tracy, of course, immediately latches on to her first real friend in the city while Brooke is happy to share her knowledge and experience with a young would-be sibling who obviously adores her.

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2000 – Bring It On

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Bring It On
  • IMDb: link

“I am a choreographer.  That’s what I do.  You are cheerleaders.  Cheerleaders are dancers who have gone retarded.  What you do is a tiny, pathetic subset of dancing.  I will attempt to turn your robotic routines into poetry, written with the human body.  Follow me, or perish, sweater monkeys.”

bring-it-on-posterReleased on or around this date 15 years ago, here’s a look back at 2015’s Bring It On. Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst) gets her dream when she becomes the captain of the Fighting Toros cheerleading squad, only to find her world go downhill faster than a cheerleader on the football captain.

On her first day one of her teammates is injured (Bianca Kajlich) causing a mad search for a replacement.  Torreance, against the wishes of most of her teammates, chooses new transfer, punk girl Missy (Eliza Dushku), who has the gymnastic background but not the usual cheer spirit.

Torreance’s world gets even crazier when Missy informs her that the award-winning cheers the Toros are using were stolen by the former captain of the Toros (Lindsay Sloane) from a nearby urban high school (led by Gabrielle Union).  An attempt to use a choreographer (Ian Roberts) to create the team a new routine blows up in her face, and her cheating and unsupportive college boyfriend (Richard Hillman) destroys he confidence and prevents her from acting on her feelings for Missy’s brother Cliff (Jesse Bradford).

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American Ultra

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: American Ultra
  • IMDb: link

American UltraThe tail end of the summer movie season is pretty much a crap shoot. While I was pleasantly surprised with the under-appreciated The Man from U.N.C.L.E., director Nima Nourizadeh‘s stoner-action comedy is more what I’ve come to expect from this time of year. American Ultra isn’t a bad film, but it’s not all-together a good one either. A hodgepodge of ideas from both better and worse movies, American Ultra is an occasionally enjoyable B-movie mess.

Jesse Eisenberg stars as stoner convenience clerk Mike Howell with a girlfriend (Kristen Stewart) too good for him, friends (most notably John Leguizamo) just as mentally-challenged, and a brain full of secret CIA training which has been locked away for years until the most over-the-top Topher Grace ever captured on film decides to have Howell killed by agents that make the bad guys in Hudson Hawk look like Bond villains.

Activated by the former leader (Connie Britton) of the project, Howell soon finds himself with the ability to instinctively kill in a variety of bizarre ways without ever understanding exactly how, why, or what he’s doing. Dumb, but at least it looks cool on camera.

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Clipped – Reunion

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Clipped – Reunion
  • IMDb: link

Clipped - Reunion

Clipped closes out it’s First Season with a high school reunion finale for most of the employees of the barber shop. Along with introducing us to the prom date Danni (Ashley Tisdale) dumped in favor of A.J. (Mike Castle), and allow Ben (Ryan Pinkston) to confront an old bully (or at least attempt to), “Reunion” also reveals Charmaine’s (Diona Reasonover) secret wish to have been a cheerleader in high school.

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Clipped – Free Wednesday

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Clipped – Free Wednesday
  • IMDb: link

Clipped - Free Wednesday

In “Free Wednesday” both the main story and B-story play on ongoing themes of the show’s First Season. The episode gets it’s name from an embarrassing event from Ben’s (Ryan Pinkston) high school years which is brought up by the passing of a former high school teacher (Larry Miller) who collapses from a heart attack outside the barber shop after Ben berates the elderly man. The lack of Ben’s remorse doesn’t sit well with the rest of crew, but his attempt to rectify the situation by attending the man’s funeral only ends in more embarrassment for everyone involved.

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