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(09/24/14 12:10am)
It is not a secret that America has a shameful history in regards to race. That truth is so obvious that to belabor the point would warrant not only its own article or its own book, but entire libraries. Let's just say that in terms of arts and entertainment, it is very telling that last year's Oscar winner for best picture, Steve McQueen's gut-wrenching "12 Years a Slave," was referred to by many critics as being "timely."
(09/24/14 12:05am)
It is a tricky bit of sorcery to review a television pilot, because the individual episode's quality is largely inconsequential. Sure, a show must be good in order to mandate continued viewership, but a television show is as much of a relationship as it is a piece of popular art. Viewers and critics alike are not just looking for a good episode during the onslaught of fall premieres, but a show they can see themselves enjoying week after week.
(09/19/14 12:00am)
Any time a popular work of art is poised to be remade or adapted in some capacity, its legions of fans cannot help but to lose their minds. Hell hath no fury like a fan of a book or movie who has just found out another artist wants to deviate from the source material. Reverence to original material is never a guarantee of quality, nor is a complete departure always a bad sign. That said, there is always a reluctance to take a radically different approach to tried-and-true material.
(09/17/14 12:51am)
Image courtesy of Netflix/Entertainment OneFrom 2001 to 2008, Canadian television viewers had the distinct pleasure of spending their time with the "Trailer Park Boys," three Nova Scotian degenerates drawn to absurd trouble like moths to a flame. With a mockumentary film crew following their every move, the guys repeatedly get caught up in increasingly dubious get-rich-quick schemes and low-level criminal activity. The show gathered a large cult following in Canada, resulting in a seven season run on Showcase and a couple of feature films.However, the show has never been broadcast on American television, yet somehow it has developed legions of fans in the lower 48. It could have never happened without Netflix, the streaming media giant who took Canada's dirty little secret (dirty being the keyword) and turned it into a worldwide hit in the years after the show came to an unwanted end.Netflix does not reveal usage data, but one can read the tea leaves and see that "Trailer Park Boys" has proven to do exceptionally well for the service. How is that obvious? In partnership with the show's stars Robb Wells, Mike Smith and John Paul Tremblay, who acquired the rights to the series from the original producers and financed the production themselves, Netflix is releasing the newest season of "Trailer Park Boys" years after its initial run.This is not the first time Netflix has brought back a beloved series long after the cameras stopped rolling. In 2013, Netflix released a fourth season of "Arrested Development," years after the show languished on Fox for three years. The reception to the show's fourth season was divisive. Many applauded the show for taking bold creative risks that played with the largely untapped potential of crafting a show specifically for binge-viewing. On the other hand, many were peeved that the show they loved seemed to have become something else entirely as the years went on. As they say, you can never go home again.Fans of "Trailer Park Boys" need not worry that their show will succumb to the same fate. While everyone looks a little fatter and a lot older, very little has changed about the show's distinct charm. Sure, it is in widescreen HD now; the aesthetic differences between its distinctively lo-fi former self and now are clear. This considered, it never once feels in the season's 10 episodes that the show went away and came back, nor does it feel like they're picking up where they left off. It is almost as if "Trailer Park Boys" has kept going on this whole time.The reason why is actually quite simple. "Trailer Park Boys" never really did go away, as it evolved into a traveling live show. As a result, it's abundantly clear that Mike Smith did not have to get used to Bubbles' iconic bottle glasses all over again. Nobody had to go back to the drawing board to give Ricky more creative uses for hash. Crazy things always continued to happen at the trailer park.It is important to note that the revival of "Trailer Park Boys" does not serve as a particularly welcoming introduction to new viewers. It is rewarding to those who already have a firm understanding of who the characters are and what drives them to do what they do. This show has never really been for everyone, and its appeal definitely has not broadened during its absence.Luckily, every prior season as well as the films are also available via Netflix stream. For those who share its unique sensibilities, it is worth the effort.Reach the reporter at zheltzel@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @zachheltzel. Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
(09/12/14 12:29am)
From the very first frame of "Duran Duran Unstaged," it became clear to a theater packed for this one-night-only event that they were not in store for a traditional concert film. The film begins with an older gentleman whose hair is as tall as his voice is weird speaking in what can only be described as glib nonsense while the camera shakes violently. For the uninitiated, it seems like they walked into the wrong movie.
(09/10/14 12:39am)
Courtesy of Drafthouse Films The idea of actors being disposable is not an especially new one, made abundantly clear not only in actors' mediums but in the way society treats and responds to celebrities. There exists a symbiotic relationship between acting as a job, a craft and a search for truth and as a symbol for the world's model citizens, its cautionary tales and its SmartWater spokespersons. It is a requisite of the job to fully inhabit the shoes of a celebrity projection. In turn, the person fades as the celebrity reaches the date of their planned obsolescence.While this concept has been the centerpiece of classic films like "Sunset Boulevard" and contemporary period pieces like the Oscar-winning "The Artist," no film has accurately depicted the simple brutality of fading artistic relevance in the digital age. Many have tried (see Andrew Niccol's "S1m0ne"), but were too ahead of their time to accurately convey a world where actors such as the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Walker have been digitally recreated to plug holes in the work they left behind. Enter Ari Folman's startlingly ambitious "The Congress," a cruel, beautiful, messy epic that takes this theme to the furthest extreme. Starring Robin Wright as a fictionalized version of herself, "The Congress" throws its lead through the ringer as a major Hollywood studio develops a process to digitize her physical and emotional likeness, promising her a large sum of cash and the guaranteed success of her persona. In exchange, Wright cannot act in any capacity for 20 years and is required to stay out of public, so as to make sure she does not tarnish the reputation of her algorithmic self.Based on the density of the film's initial conceit, the first half-hour of "The Congress" would have been ample to sustain an entire film. Wright, along with co-stars Harvey Keitel, Paul Giamatti and Danny Huston, give captivating performances that rank alongside their best work. Each scene is wrought with tension as each character's complex motivations are at odds with one another and time proves to be excessively fleeting. Then things get weird, or should we say, weirder. Mileage may vary.Twenty years pass and the world of 2034 is a chemically induced distortion. Wright, who is now one of the biggest stars in the world, is invited to partake in the film's eponymous Congress, taking place in a zone of the world that is only accessible when on a drug that turns everything into a cartoon. In this animated world, people are entitled to their own version of reality and identity. Citizens of the animation zone take on the appearance of everyone from Michael Jackson to what can only be described as a bouncing baby Hitler.Yes, this is a very weird movie.Around this point, the film's narrative becomes nearly incomprehensible and convoluted, perhaps intentionally. Wright, who continues to carry the demeanor of a person from 2014, is as confused as the audience in a world which one character describes as "Cinderella on heroin."Multiple viewings may result in a less murky perception of what is going on, but the sentiment is clear. Folman emphasizes feeling over comprehension, as the film's impeccable art direction and production design are as precise as the narrative trajectory is blurry."The Congress" may not fulfill the promise of its astounding first act, but at least the reason for its inconsistencies are commendable. There will likely not be a more ambitious science fiction film to play stateside this year. Folman's willingness to try and fail after the equally inventive and universally praised "Waltz with Bashir" is ballsy and makes even the more trying stretches of "The Congress" a rewarding and inspiring experience."The Congress" is now playing in select theaters and is available on most major Video On Demand services. You can view the trailer here. Reach the reporter at zheltzel@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @zachheltzel.Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
(09/03/14 1:11am)
From the walk-only zones to the ban on kegs and drinking games during tailgating events, it may come as a surprise that this serious institution has a funnier side. ASU has educated several A-list comedians and comedy writers, including legendary late-night trailblazer Steve Allen, Jimmy Kimmel, David Spade and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" writer John Hughes.
(09/03/14 12:23am)
In this age of cable television where demographic segmentation runs so deep there is a channel for every type of viewer, networks are specific enough for their content to practically be their own genres. The SyFy Channel movie is synonymous with low-budget Roger Corman supernatural disaster film, for instance. Similarly, Lifetime is the network for female-centric true crime stories and deliberately trashy biopics.
(08/29/14 2:00pm)
It is an unfortunate coincidence that fledgling cable startup FXX decided to begin its unprecedented marathon of unarguably the most popular television show of all time on Thursday, Aug. 21, the first day of the fall semester. Airing for 12 consecutive days with only a typical amount of commercial interruption, this is the first chance anyone has ever had to binge watch all 522 episodes of "The Simpsons."
(08/28/14 12:00am)
3.0 Pitchforks
(08/25/14 12:00am)
It is no secret that Los Angeles is a bizarre place full of wealth disparity, glamorous excess and rampant desperation. Alongside New York City, it is the birthplace of most modern American entertainment, creating a mythical aura around its city limits that can easily be defined as unreal; nowhere else can animalistic behavior look so posh and meaningful.
(08/25/14 12:00am)
An exponentially oversized T. rex stomps through the River Thames. From a reasonable distance, a diverse group of Victorian Londoners including an extraterrestrial humanoid lizard gawk in horror as the dinosaur galivants around Big Ben.
(08/22/14 12:35am)
Like it or not, Australian hip-hop wünderkind Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" was undoubtedly the song of summer 2014.
(08/15/14 4:00am)
1.5 pitchforks
(06/12/14 7:00pm)
It was not very long ago that there was not even a term for the idea of "binge watching," the act of devouring an entire season or more of a television series in just a few sittings. In just a span of a few years, even the definition of the word television has gone out the window, as shows released by Netflix and Amazon have won Emmy awards despite never broadcasting on a television channel. Starting with "House of Cards" in February 2013, Netflix has fundamentally changed an artistic medium by releasing every episode in a season simultaneously, removing the constraint of the timeslot from creators and audiences alike.However, perhaps to the surprise of Netflix, it is not their intended flagship series "House of Cards" that is leading the revolution. Released in June 2013 with marginal hype, Jenji Kohan's "Orange Is the New Black" has grown into a smash hit, earning attention not only for its release platform. From its vast and diverse ensemble cast to its fearless depictions of the complexities of race and gender, the first season found itself breaking new ground in every direction.The second season, released in its entirety on June 6, is even better.Hardened from her intensely dramatic fate at the end of an otherwise mostly comedic first season, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) remains the show's core protagonist. That said, she is the subject of the show's first major formula change; Piper is less of a fish out of water than she is a vital part of a perpetually more crowded tank. While always an ensemble show at heart, season two zooms out to focus on expanding groups inside and out of the prison; a creative decision undoubtedly influenced by another series that dived into the heart of crime and punishment, HBO's "The Wire."The macro-oriented approach to storytelling in season two is almost foolishly ambitious. The number of characters involved in a multitude of ongoing subplots becomes overwhelming, but in a testament to how strong the show's writers and cast are, never unruly. Kohan and her team know how their bread is buttered, as broader plot threads involving racial division and institutional corruption are intercut between the intensely personal flashbacks that bring incredible amounts of depth and complexity to the actions of even the show's most secondary players.In order to achieve being a scathing rebuke of the American prison industrial complex as well as a sympathetic study of strong yet vulnerable women with scars to bear, it is no wonder that "Orange Is the New Black" is even lengthier in its second season. Individual episodes last as long as 92 minutes, more than double the length of a traditional television drama.This calls attention to how the show can be so good in the face of its lofty ambitions; on top of everything else, it is hysterically funny and compulsively watchable. A series that takes a serious, heartfelt look at a women's prison is unavoidably a drama, yet "Orange Is the New Black" revels in the absurdity that comes with tragedy and the inherent suffering that drives comedy. Season two of "Orange Is the New Black" has cemented the show as one of the best on television, assuming that is what it is still called in the near future.Reach the reporter at zheltzel@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @zachheltzel
(04/16/14 1:00pm)
Every year, young Hollywood descends upon one of the many amphitheaters of Los Angeles to promote their hotly anticipated summer movies at the MTV Movie Awards. With categories such as Best Kiss and Best Shirtless Performance, there is no pretense that the festivities are anything more than televised bubblegum, filled to the brim with comedic sketches and segments aimed at the things MTV's demographic holds dear.
(03/27/14 9:54pm)
When Darren Aronofsky was just 13 years old, he wrote a narrative poem based on the biblical story of Noah. In the 30 years since, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker has made several critically acclaimed movies, including "Requiem for a Dream," "The Wrestler" and "Black Swan."
(03/21/14 12:02am)
Ending the first two episodes of HBO's new limited series "Doll & Em" is War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?," which evokes a different reaction each time. At the end of the first episode, its inclusion is humorously ironic. Over the course of the show's second episode, its repeated usage strikes a deeply unsettling tone. In both cases, the chord struck could not be more deft.