Office Christmas Party
“The overstuffed plot and forced sentimentality undermine any bite the film strives to have.”
Ep. 86 – Sausage Party, Gleason, and a whole bunch of rambling
[iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4594664/height/100/width/480/thumbnail/yes/render-playlist/no/theme/standard” height=”100″ width=”480″ scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen] This week on The CineSnob Podcast, a hyper-lucid Cody chats with Jerrod about “Sausage Party,” “Gleason,” “Stranger Things,” Kyle Chandler, and a whole lot of other random stuff while Kiko is enjoying the Olympic games somewhere. [00:00-36:41] Intro/South Park tease/random chatting [36:41-48:58] Sausage […]
Sausage Party
“Hilarious at times. With a little more stamina leading up to the climax, it could have been legendary.”
Cinematic Spillover: Short Reviews of Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, Ladyworld and Itsy Bitsy
With a title like Itsy Bitsy, horror fans might anticipate a campy creature feature starring a cluster of eight-legged freaks, but visual effects producer and first-time writer/director Micah Gallo has something a little more sinister up his sleeve. The story follows Kara Spencer (Elizabeth Roberts), a nurse and single mother who moves with her two children to a small town to take a job as a private caretaker to Walter Clark (Bruce Davidson), a world-traveler with an affinity for collecting tribal artifacts. When a cursed relic is brought to him by a friend of his deceased wife, it releases a dog-sized, venomous spider that takes up residence on Walter’s property. Surprisingly, the spider itself doesn’t play into the narrative much until the third act. Itsy Bitsy is more about Kara and her insecurities as a mother and the depression she has to confront because of the death of a third child. Despite Gallo’s ability to keep a consistently creepy vibe, the script, which is also co-written by special effects and makeup artist Jason Alvino (Sucker Punch) and writer Bryan Dick (911 Nightmare), doesn’t bring all the dramatic and horror elements together in a cohesive enough way. Gallo, however, builds some solid tension. Ironically, Itsy Bitsy might’ve worked better as a conventional and minimalist ghost story instead of a gooey monster movie. The arachnid is irrelevant. Itsy Bitsy hits VOD platforms August 30.
Cinematic Spillover: Short Reviews of Good Boys, Gwen and The Amazing Johnathan
No movie with this many dick jokes has any business being this funny. That said, Good Boys is just that – an obscenity-laced comedy with just the right combination of audacious humor and heart that will win over adults who don’t mind hearing 6th graders drop F-bombs. Sure, you won’t see evangelicals get on board for the R-rated raunchfest, but without the script featuring the phrase, “Grab them by the pussy,†is that really a surprise? Taking a few pages from its most obvious cinematic inspiration, the 2007 comedy Superbad, Good Boys is just as side-splitting hilarious and a lot more adorable – like the Little Rascals if the Little Rascals wielded dildos and shot people in the face with paintballs. The film stars Jacob Tremblay (Room), Keith L. Williams (TV’s The Last Man on Earth) and Brady Noon (TV’s Boardwalk Empire) as best friends Max, Lucas and Thor. When Max gets invited to a “kissing party,†he makes it his mission to go, so he can kiss the girl of his dreams. But when the boys accidentally lose Max’s father’s expensive drone and then unknowingly steal a bunch of ecstasy pills from a couple of high school girls, their afternoon turns into a race to put everything back to normal before they get grounded for life. Co-written by Lee Eisenberg (Year One) and Gene Stupnitsky (Bad Teacher), who also makes his directorial debut, Good Boys works because of its incredibly likeable trio of tweens who are actually really sweet characters. If Max, Lucas and Thor were mean-spirited little punks, this would be an entirely different movie. Luckily for audiences, even with a few lowbrow jokes that don’t register as much as others, Good Boys earns high marks. Good Boys opens nationwide August 16. Grade: B+
Feliz Ramirez – Grand Hotel (TV)
“Carolina is such a fun character even though she’s not the nicest person.”
Gaspar No̩ РClimax
“I always dreamt of being as free as [legendary French filmmaker Jean-Luc] Godard could be at that time.”
Jon Heder – Napoleon Dynamite
“He wouldn’t be very good at social media. He’d probably just post pictures of food.”
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
“Combination of dark comedy and drama builds on the narrative’s stranger-than-fiction premise.”
James “Murr” Murray – Impractical Jokers (TV)
“I like when they punish me in a way that attacks my emotions and my ego.”
Eighth Grade
“Like the best that director John Hughes offered in the 1980s, ‘Eighth Grade’ will span generations.”
The Seagull
“A fleeting 98-minute stopover with a cast of particularly grating characters.”