IDIOTS. The promise of an R-rated, “gross-out” comedy, especially one anointed for theatrical release, is especially tempting (if equally risky) in an era of corporate trepidation and hobbled creativity. What was once a proven, often overly relied-on subgenre has become risky, a niche proposition unlikely to yield the sort of box-office windfall upon which studios […]
John J. Bennett
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You Might Go Home Again
GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS. Wet Hot American Summer (2001) is as much a tenet of my marriage as any of the shared values upon which it is founded. For a quarter century, it has been a source of solace, celebration and common ground unlike any other for my wife and I. It […]
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“Super Troopers 3” Keeps it Stupid
SUPER TROOPERS 3. One might rightfully wonder — as I did, while watching Straight Time (1978) on the Criterion Channel on Saturday Night — if there is any reason to go see a third installment of a willfully dumb cop-comedy franchise. At best, it seems unlikely to add anything to the cinematic lexicon (or even […]
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In On the Joke
THE DINK. Awash as we are in a new wave of underdog sports comedies, usually centered on has-beens or never-weres, it should come as no surprise that Pickleball should have shuffled into the crosshairs. The newfound passion of a generation, what was once a middle-school time-filler has become, in this age of idleness and catastrophe, […]
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Homecoming Surprises
THE INVITE was titillatingly teased (for what felt like years) as a sex comedy of manners, a will-they-or-won’t-they about two couples of a certain age circling each other in an apartment brought uncomfortably close by erotic tension. And while it certainly is that, one of the many pleasant surprises it holds — and a testament […]
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Schnabel’s Inferno
IN THE HAND OF DANTE. It can be reflexive — instinctive, even — when confronted with a grand-to-grandiose work, especially one that spans genres as quickly as it does centuries, to dismiss it as muddled, misguided or unaware of its own intentions. But this reaction dismisses the work’s substance, the meaning that compels the artist […]
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Micro Hustlers
In news that’s not really news, Jackass is quite old and the cinema branch of DC has issued a sputtering salvo in the pointless, unwinnable, poorly timed war with Marvel. In the case of the former, Jackass: Best and Last would appear to be a pragmatic coda, a sort of clip-show send-off from a group […]
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Master Classes
DISCLOSURE DAY. When I last wrote or even thought critically about Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans, 2022), I recalled my adolescent resistance to his work, realizing in hindsight that my affinity for snark and edginess (it was the 1990s) had veiled my eyes, or at least inured me, to the integrity and mastery underpinning all of […]
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“Tow” Might Be Good for You
TOW. Is a judicial system, ostensibly built to protect the citizenry but susceptible to the manipulations of commerce and greed, inherently cynical? Possibly. Is a movie, replete with marketable stars, that explores an individual’s struggle against such a corruptible system, also cynical? Hopefully not. What about the critic who, in the face of such an […]
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The Limits of Imitation
IN THE GREY. Guy Ritchie has, for almost 30 years now, traded on his charming, distinctly British brand of cleverness as heavily as anybody in the movie business. In the early days — Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000) — when so many of us were caught up so willingly in the […]
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‘Outcome’ and ‘Apex’ Almost Summit
OUTCOME. Jonah Hill’s second scripted feature — following Mid90s (2018), the documentary Stutz (2022) and number of music videos and episodes of television — might be seen as a response to the erosion of his public image after the leaking of some controlling, sexist text messages to his former girlfriend. Obviously, I can’t say that […]
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Beneath the Surface
NORMAL boasts more than enough bona fides to excite a certain kind of audience (me): a script by creator of John Wick (2014) Derek Kolstad, again collaborating with star Bob Odenkirk (Nobody, 2021); Ben Wheatley directing; the promise of small-town, Main Street gunplay. Any one of which should be sufficient to assure a good time […]