Comedy Archives

23

T he trailers for The Lost City filled me with dread. I feared an expensive, gauche knock-off of Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones, and a half-dozen other, better movies. And don't get it twisted--this…

19

May 2022

The Archive The Podcast

Father of the Bride (1991)::rating::2.5

F ather of the Bride is a fluffy little comedy, in which perfectly amiable people grapple with an assortment of First World problems. We watch a millionaire fret about spending…

04

May 2022

The Latest

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)::rating::4

N o film in recent memory gets a more appropriate title than Everything Everywhere All at Once. Over the course of its dizzying, dazzling 140 minutes, multiple movie genres smash into each other,…

02

May 2022

The Archive The Podcast

Major League (1989)::rating::3

M ajor League is a bawdy, disposable little sports movie. Long ago, I filed it away as Porky's at the Dugout. And thirty-plus years out, it's still all of those things.…

13

Apr 2022

Podcast The Archive

A League of Their Own (1992)::rating::4

A s with all the best baseball movies, A League of Their Own captures all the joys, monotonies, and superstitions of a long season. But unlike other classics of the genre, League also captures…

30

Mar 2022

The Latest

The Adam Project (2022)::rating::3

M odern filmmakers borrow so much from Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Robert Zemeckis, I'm beginning to wonder if they've worked out some kinda payment plan for the royalties. Either…

10

Mar 2022

Greatest The Latest

Licorice Pizza (2021)::rating::5

L icorice Pizza is an eccentric, shapeless masterpiece. It follows Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), a precocious, entrepreneurial teenager, as he hustles his way through the San Fernando Valley, circa 1973. As…

18

Feb 2022

The Archive

Superbad (2007)::rating::4

T een movies centered around graduation are always bittersweet affairs. Look beneath the flow of booze and morally flimsy sexcapades, and you'll find an undercurrent of yearning, regret, and deep…

10

Feb 2022

The Archive

CODA (2021)::rating::3.5

T he title for CODA is a fascinating play on words: In the context of this film, its most obvious use is an.acronym--Child of Deaf Adults. But a coda is also…

02

Feb 2022

The Archive

As Good as It Gets (1997)::rating::3.5

A s Good as It Gets provokes a dilemma I've never encountered before: On one hand, it blazes a trail through difficult issues, such as OCD and homophobia, places Hollywood had long…