This meteoric rise and fall is chronicled in Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, a documentary that both celebrates and vilifies its subject, because it tells the truth. Mort would’ve loved it; Mort would’ve hated it. I love it. Predictably, directors Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger gain much mileage from the prodigious […]
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Posted inArts & Culture
Detective in underpants
Many of us were concerned when Andy Samberg retired from Saturday Night Live last spring. Would the comic genius get trapped in more forgettable movies like Hot Rod, then disappear? We needn’t have worried. Samberg stars in Brooklyn Nine- Nine, a single-camera sitcom that perfectly showcases his talent (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Fox). He plays hotshot detective Jake Peralta, who […]
Posted inArts & Culture
This Is the End
I wasted so much of my 20s hanging out with these 420-types, sitting bored in their thrift-store-furnished living rooms, desperately looking at my watch while the person who was usually my ride sank deeper and deeper into the couch as the thick whiffs of chronic sunk deeper and deeper into their lungs. They were all […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Identity Thief
Yes, it’s stupid. But it stars Jason Bateman, one of the scant few actors currently working who can turn the otherwise throwaway line “The fuck you are” into a genuine laugh. Recently seen showing his dramatic side in Disconnect, Bateman reunites with Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon as Sandy Patterson, a Denver family man whose […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Funny or Die Presents: The Complete Second Season
Played with flawless deadpan by Steve Tom as an ersatz Leslie Nielsen, Haligan is the host of Funny or Die Presents, but also the Head of West Coast Sales & Marketing for the fictional Funny or Die Network, programming from which this sketch series is built. For season two, Haligan may have traded his sterile-white […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Frozen
Mike knows Emma isn’t thrilled about the trip. What he doesn’t know is that she’s just found out she’s pregnant. That’s an issue they can deal with later, however; more pressing is that their snowmobile crashes, leaving them injured and no cell signal to call for help. Plus, it appears they are being followed. It’s […]
Posted inMusic
Bros before woes
Photo: Moses Namkung Some bands rue the day where they play in massive arenas and amphitheaters instead of midsized concert halls. Folk rock’s The Avett Brothers, however, relish it. “We have more tools at our disposal than we ever have. There’s been a gradual progression, watching the size of the rooms we were playing in […]