It was years before Heavy Traffic — Bakshi’s second theatrical film — would find its way into my VCR. It came my way long after I had digested his PG-rated fantasy films like Lord of the Rings and Wizards and had memorized every line of dialogue to Coonskin, Heavy Traffic’s uber-controversial follow-up. And when I […]
comedy
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Ishtar
Derided before it even premiered in the spring of 1987, the last stand (directorial, at least) of Elaine May cast Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty against type: Hoffman is Chuck, the P-magnet; Beatty, Lyle the dolt. Both are struggling songwriters stuck in the New York City supper circuit. The joke is that they’re struggling because […]
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I’m So Excited
From internationally acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, I’m So Excited is a futile attempt to explore crisis-induced catharsis from 30,000 feet up in the air. When employees at an airport in Spain fail to properly prepare a plane before takeoff, the pilots and crew are left to deal with the repercussions. Opening Friday at AMC […]
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Street Trash
Debuting on Blu-ray in Synapse Films’ “Special Meltdown Edition,” the 1987 skid-row epic centers on an auto junkyard populated by homeless winos. One of them, who looks like famed Torgo from Manos: The Hands of Fate, finds that a decades-old bottle of Tenafly Viper purchased at the local liquor store causes those who drink it […]
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Disorderlies
While most of it is my fault, I like to take comfort in the idea that I was doomed from the get-go: • Blame a Depression-era father who forced me to clean my plate through shame and guilt.• Blame a public school free-lunch system that taught gravy as a food group.• Blame cable television for being so […]
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The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec
In his first live-action directorial outing since 2005’s Angel-A, Besson adapts the first story from Jacques Tardi’s acclaimed comics, which began in 1976. The titular heroine (played by Louise Bourgoin, Black Heaven) is a professional tomb raider in early 20th-century Paris, like Lara Croft but sporting frilly outfits and feathers. This grandiose dose of […]
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Starbuck
The equally shlubby Patrick Huard plays David, a middle-aged man with no ambition who seems perfectly content delivering meat for his family’s butcher shop, even if he’s not very good at it. He’s $80,000 in debt; his ex-girlfriend (Julie LeBreton) has announced she’s pregnant with his child; and, worst of all, his past years of […]
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The To Do List
Among her high school’s class of 1993, Brandy Klark (Aubrey Plaza, Safety Not Guaranteed) has less merit as valedictorian and more notoriety as the uptight virgin. Everyone knows, and no one lets her forget. Brandy seems to have accomplished everything, from her full-ride scholarship to Georgetown University to her self-published feminist magazine. Despite her penchant […]
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Women Who Kill
As anyone who’s seen the last couple of Comedy Central roasts knows, Schumer is a fearless comedian, and no topic is too potentially offensive for her to tackle without apology. Here, that includes Jewish concentration camps, choking your grandmother, peeing in the ocean, giving your boyfriend HPV, volunteering for the Special Olympics, and on and […]
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Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal
Boris Rodriguez’s low-key Canadian comedy concerns Lars (Thure Lindhardt, TV’s The Borgias), who moves to a small town to become an art teacher at a tiny, underfunded school. Once was a gifted painter himself, Lars has been stuck in a 10-year creative rut. One of his students is Eddie (Dylan Scott Smith, 2012’s Total Recall), […]