Tag Archives: Comedy

2026

Sundance Dramedy “Chasing Summer” Showcases Talents of Comedienne Iliza Shlesinger

Leave a comment

Viewed as part of Virtual Sundance Film Festival 2026

Based on her spirited original screenplay, comedienne Iliza Shlesinger stars as a global humanitarian licking her own wounds after losing both her job and her love interest in Josephine Decker’s joyful dramedy Chasing Summer (B). When her character retreats to her Texas hometown, she experiences a kind of Millennial coming-of-age that starts screwball and evolves to sentimental. There are good ensemble performances by Cassidy Freeman and Megan Mullally as family members, Lola Tung as a new friend and Tom Welling as a high school sweetheart, but it’s Garrett Wareing who rises to the top as a handsome and confident new younger boyfriend, providing our protagonist with a memorable age gap relationship which could either be a summer fling or much more. Shlesinger is largely a hoot as her fish out of water maneuvers a summer job at the skating rink including extracurricular keggers. The actress demonstrates considerable sass and spunk; and as screenwriter she gives herself some pretty fun situations and scenery to chew. It’s not the most original film (it’s telling it’s not even the only Sundance movie this year about the insights one learns on a return to one’s hometown: see – or rather don’t – Carousel). The romantic plot is electric, and our leading lady is funny opposite the more traditional Lone Star State women as she flexes her character arc. It’s well filmed and entertaining thanks to Decker, and a screen star is born in Shlesinger.

2026

Savage Good Time! Raimi’s “Send Help” His Best Work in Years

Leave a comment

Let these lyrics wash over you as the latest examination of office toxicity plays out in a modern milieu: “They just use your mind and they never give you credit / It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it.” Sam Raimi’s buoyant horror/comedy Send Help (A-) functions as both a delirious deserted island escapade and also a twisted battle of the sexes, with pulp friction aplenty to scratch the itch, feed the beast and satisfy the gods of carnage attuned to his particular directorial sensibilities. Rachel McAdams brilliantly creates a singular character: an undervalued cubicle denizen with mad coping skills who finds herself on shipwrecked shores with a boss most boorish, played with a dashing grimace by the ever-more-fascinating Dylan O’Brien. This deeply entertaining two-hander traces the peculiar power dynamics of two incredibly committed actors, all the while steeped in the tropes of a survival story. This adventurous allegory offers continuous fresh takes and mixed genres, with plentiful splashes of giddiness and gore. Bill Pope’s crystalline cinematography and Danny Elfman’s understated score add zest to the demented dynamics. It’s watercolor meets watercooler as corporate culture get an epic seaside skewering. 

2025

As “Roofman,” Channing Tatum is Prancing on the Ceiling with Endearing Performance

Leave a comment

Equal parts chewing the scenery and emoting with grace, a modern matinee idol has matured into an ideal role for his talents. – a true step-up, if you will. Derek Cianfrance’s true crime comedy Roofman (B+), so named because of its antihero’s penchant for entering his retail robbery targets from above, is a tour de force for Channing Tatum in the title performance. It’s a wild real-life story of a down-on-his-luck U.S. Army veteran who uses his skills at observing patterns to commit a crime spree to provide for his Charlotte family, and Tatum clearly relishes both the comic and tender side of the role and the fancy footwork of action in the exciting escapades. The better part of the film takes place in a secret bunker hideout the character creates inside a Toys “R” Us superstore, and many of the film’s joys are akin to those of Castaway, in which playing off physical objects becomes a central acting challenge. Along with the strong title character, Kirsten Dunst is the film’s other major standout as a toy store associate and single mom whom Roofman encounters via surveillance and at a local church; the “meet cute” has darker undertones as it’s fairly clear things may careen into danger for the unconventional couple. Tatum and Dunst bring their finest energies to their respective roles; and although there isn’t a hugely consequential theme to the proceedings, the featherweight story is consistently witty, touching and engrossing. In his screenplay collaboration and direction, Cianfrance also proves a deft observer of human intimacy and draws consistent excellence from his ensemble. This movie is a shaggy, entertaining romp with hearts worn on even the sleeves with guns. 

2025

2025 “Naked Gun” Reboot Lets Deadpan Liam Neeson Be Frank to Fun Effect

Leave a comment

Surely/Shirley Hollywood can’t be serious that the gag-a-minute spoof comedy genre is brazenly dropping trou into our collective consciousness again, and Akiva Schaffer’s 2025 legacy sequel The Naked Gun (B-) is mostly crackling, cackling kindling on the formula fire. More effective than imagined in the lead role playing against type, Liam Neeson is dreamy deadpan. He plays the son of Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen in the original film trilogy and short-lived Police Squad! TV show) who must succeed in his father’s footsteps to prevent a tech billionaire baddie played by Danny Huston from achieving mass mind control over L.A. society. The parade of sassy sight gags and plentiful plays on words play out with feckless abandon in a tidy hour and a half laugh-fest. Pamela Anderson is an absolute joy as a bombshell novelist, who gets to effectively ham it up in jazz speakeasies and an absurdist alpine adventure. Paul Walter Hauser is also funny as the straight man to the straight man as the dad jokes play out one after another. Co-screenwriters Dan Gregor and Doug Mand milk every laugh they can get out of the action and antics, with clear inspiration from the comic classics and undeniable nifty notes from goofball producer Seth MacFarlane. The film is often giddily retrograde, with knowing knock knocks centered around such novelties as TiVo devices, the Black-Eyed Peas, mobile phones, body cams and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer catalogue deep-cuts. Sometimes viewers will see the joke coming from a mile away (I’m looking at you, dropping new year’s balls), but the familiarity doesn’t make many of the proceedings any less chortle worthy. And many of the jokes do actually miss; for all the buzz about the tight running time, there’s certainly still room for pruning. But the act of laughing together in public in a movie theatre is nearly a lost ritual, and I encourage it.

2025

Real-Life Couple Fuse “Together” with Eyes Wide Stuck in Comedic Body Horror Film

Leave a comment

Talk about a two-hander! And every other limb, for that matter! Together (B), the body horror comedy movie directed by Michael Shanks and subsequently buzzed about at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, centers on real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a fictional pair finding themselves scientifically and supernaturally fusing into one being. She’s a plucky teacher, and he’s a hapless guitarist, and moving from city life to countryside seclusion proves a prescient change of scenery for taking their relationship to the next level. In a form of magnetic attraction even Plato couldn’t have contemplated, the film depicts the sometimes scary and often funny misadventures when two become one. The movie’s production values are consistently high, even when the makeup effects and particular plot devices become the most far-fetched. The central actors are effective and endearing, and they represent a variety of dimensions about the stages of co-dependency in relationships. A few final act missteps can’t take away from the effectiveness of the generally wise and witty thesis, with an especially awkward post-coital sequence and refreshing takes on how couples drift from intimacy and intensity to sometimes blatant disregard. It’s not graphic or terrifying enough to scare off casual viewers but has enough twisty content to simultaneously appeal to hardcore horror fans. Strangely, it’s an appealing date movie with lots of personality for those willing to examine just how close they’re getting. 

2025

“Happy Gilmore 2” an Abject Calamity

Leave a comment

Kyle Newacheck’s legacy sequel Happy Gilmore 2 (D-) has such a “grip it and rip it” feel, it almost doesn’t even qualify as a movie at all. Undoubtedly a documentary about making this film would have yielded more laughs than those captured and presented on the streaming screen. Slapshot direction meets a scattershot script as the title character played by Adam Sandler returns nearly three decades later to battle alcoholism, incidental deaths on and off screen and a new extreme league of his adopted sport of golf. There’s nary a real threat, a funny gag or a compelling subplot to add to the first film in any substantive way. It just feels like the makers are casually marking time because they know there’s an appetite for more fun on the fairways with a character they’ve grown to love. Fan service flashbacks and throwbacks fill much of the bloated run time, with strained sequences on parade so Netflix can clock viewer eyeballs for a smidge longer. Adam Sandler exudes little of the rowdiness or rage present in the title character before, and his story arch about getting his life turned around and funding his daughter’s dance dreams prove quite incidental. A flurry of real golf stars largely ill-equipped to add to the comic or dramatic timing round out a cast of many actors from the original. It’s an indictment when Bad Bunny appears to be acting the hardest as Gilmore’s new caddy. This outing is a mulligan from nearly any perspective. 

2025, Rent It Tonight

Celine Song’s Smart “Materialists” a Heavenly Match for Hollywood Trio in NYC

Leave a comment

Writer/director Celine Song conjures career-best performances out of a trio of popular actors and serves up a sophomore triumph of a “rom dram” in the marvelous Materialists (A). The auteur with an eye and ear for the art of companionship delivers fresh takes on the nature of love and gives audiences many reasons to care while consistently questioning the conventions of coupling. It’s all more complicated than its seemingly routine log-line implies, as it’s ultimately an incredibly profound meditation on life and love. A young New York City matchmaker played by Dakota Johnson finds her business and personal life getting complicated as she finds herself torn between the perfect match, Pedro Pascal as a wealthy private equity exec, and her imperfect ex, Chris Evans as a struggling actor). The story takes its time to hit effective beats and positions its characters with precision to cast its spell. Johnson is wonderfully empathetic in the lead role, funny and vulnerable and so evocative of her famous mom Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. Lushly photographed by Shabier Kirchner who also lensed Song’s Past Lives, the heroine’s unexpectedly lonely travails in Manhattan are brilliantly  juxtaposed against the bevy of brides and brides-to-be celebrating blissfully in various backgrounds. Her character is obsessed with brokering relationships leveraging the math of modern dating, and the film questions many of the equations with pluck and logic. Song superbly stages dialogue-heavy sequences with spark and has a delicate way of depicting characters making connections as if they are the only two people in the whole world, which is quite a wonder in the concrete jungle. Pascal and Evans are both incredibly charming, despite the suspension of belief needed by viewers to imagine Evans without confidence. They both provide lots to love. Prepare for a few trick endings and some surprisingly moving subplots. This is a great summer date film for adults. After becoming the prominent purveyor of the modern love triangle, it will be fascinating what she does next.

2025

Comedy “Friendship” Depicts Bonkers, Botched Buddy System

Leave a comment

Lead actor Tim Robinson is honorary jester of the cringe festival that is writer/director Andrew DeYoung’s dark comedy Friendship (B-), often more interesting for its twisty takes on a funny theme than any passing resemblance to reality. Robinson plays a suburban husband and dad who falls hard for a charismatic new neighbor played by Paul Rudd. A series of increasingly unfortunate – and often quite funny – events threatens to send the burgeoning bromance asunder. The premise is a hoot, that modern men have lost the ability to properly forge functional friendships, but the details in the detours offer a decidedly mixed bag. Rudd is quite enjoyable in his role and Kate Mara is solid in a thankless part as wife of Robinson’s absurd protagonist but much of Tim’s schtick feels overly engineered for awkwardness. There’s comedy gold in many of the embarrassing episodes; a recurring joke about Marvel movie spoilers, physical pratfalls involving spontaneous singing and a curious incident opposite a psychedelic toad stand out in the askew stew. Ultimately the threadbare lead character doesn’t give the ensemble much to work with in terms of truly plumbing the insights of the film’s premise. It’s amusing but could have been more.

2025

Jason Mamoa Salvages Comic Gold from Mayhem of “A Minecraft Movie”

Leave a comment

Director Jared Hess, cult auteur of films such as Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, helms a high-concept studio movie based on what’s considered an “open sandbox game,” meaning he could choose his own adventure and use IP freely in the box trot of world building. Hess generally fares better in sequences set in his already off-kilter human world, even though most of the plot stays firmly planted in the cubic region. His approach is as tentative as the title: Sure, he’s ostensibly made A Minecraft Movie (C) populated with denizens, domiciles, atmospheres and accessories which a nostalgic generation will find familiar, but equal parts whimsy and writer’s block make quicksand of the situation. Of the misfit protagonists who journey Jumanji-style into the unknown, only Jason Mamoa gets an interesting character: As a paunchy, washed-up gamer-bro from the days of standing arcade championships, he is channeling a go-for-broke humor that lifts most of his sequences to a higher plane. Alas the child actors don’t stand out with inert characters amidst low-stakes peril. Jack Black brings only the screech of high decibels, and a game Danielle Brooks does what she can with a cheery throwaway role. Always funny Jennifer Coolidge makes the most of her divorced schoolmaster character on a date with a “Villager,” and her scenes feel like they’re as much from a different universe as he is. The movie has fun with creative crafting and contraptions, and there are a few funny and exciting sequences leveraging science and gadgetry, especially a flight of fancy with Black riding Mamoa’s back Pegasus-style through a sky battle. The subtext to make stuff not war and to wield one’s imagination to solve challenges has occasional appeal, but the jaundiced journey and strained visual pallet reeks of warmed-over Super Mario Bros., which looks like a high watermark in comparison. Black’s half-baked songs show further desperation in a meandering story that at least answers the question about whether pigs will fly (they do). Despite its box office potential, this is a bricklayer of the bracket season when it comes to much appeal for the adults who accompany the little ones who will undoubtedly will want to see it.

Note: “The Creeper” echoes this review on TikTok at FilmThirst.

2025, Rent It Tonight

“A Nice Indian Boy” Works Wonders

Leave a comment

It’s official: The romcom of the year is a gay Hindu love story hot off the film festival circuit. Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy (A-) is an utter delight, with Karan Soni as a repressed doctor falling in love with a sentimental photographer played by Jonathan Groff. This sweet romance told in five sharp chapters disarms aspects of the central culture clash by making Groff’s character the adopted son of Indian parents, aligned in faith with an otherwise star-crossed lover. Soni’s droll, deadpan running meta commentary into his own courtship provides such an intensely cynical world view that he seemingly can only be conquered by Groff’s sunny demeanor. Two supporting women also steal the show including Sunita Mani as the protagonist’s lone sister and Zarna Garg as their mom. Garg in particular is hysterical in her attempts to understand her son’s orientation; she is wonderfully affecting in the role. The movie is full of lush colors with enjoyable music and Bollywood styled rituals. Its comedy is tinged with heartfelt and bittersweet lessons about how one can discover the love of a lifetime when least prepared. Even viewers with clinched hearts will find new capacity to love this movie and its lively characters.

Note: Thanks to Atlanta’s Out on Film and Tara Theatre for the early screening for an enthusiastic crowd!

2025

Hearty Foal Becomes Party Foul for Quirky “Death of a Unicorn” Denizens

Leave a comment

Protruding from its mythical head is a dubious “L.” A24’s anticipated creature feature debuted at South by Southwest; and in one sour swoop this mediocre movie diminished both the lure of an infallible indie studio’s track record and the lore of its buzzy film festival launchpad. A vehicular collision with a mighty beast possessing a horn of plentiful power presents complications for an ensemble of morally dubious characters in Alex Scharfman’s comic cautionary tale Death of a Unicorn (C). It’s a film that rarely lives up to the convictions or creativity of its outrageous high concept, despite some initially funny flourishes. As father and daughter at the movie’s core, both Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega fail to showcase why they are usually regarded as such agreeable stars. Their uninspired characters could no sooner train a dragon or drain a unicorn of its majesty than deliver a compelling line of dialogue. Thankfully two supporting characters living a life of leisure, mother and son played by Téa Leoni and Will Poulter, understand the assignment and provide the story’s main laughs with outrageous affronts to dignity and decency. Scharfman rarely sharpens the teeth or social commentary of his “eat the rich” and “don’t mess with Mother Nature” parable platforms, simply rehashing Jurassic Park style chases but with underwhelming visual effects. He ultimately abandons the wit of the successful first act for a series of stunts and silly sequences representing diminishing returns. A few fun kills provide brief thrills, but the movie lacks imagination and surprises. The film’s novelty is initially nifty but then is revealed for what it is: all horned up with no place to go. 

Note: Our partner TikTok channel FilmThirst features a brief review of this film as well.

2025, Rent It Tonight

“Novocaine” Painlessly Pulls Off Action with Charm and Surface Fun

Leave a comment

Doused with deliberate doses of both sweet and sadistic sequences, co-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s action comedy Novocaine (B) offers constant injections of surface fun in a high-concept package. Durable actor Jack Quaid plays a bank executive with a rare condition: he is incapable of feeling physical pain. He’s also smitten with his co-worker and emerging girlfriend played beautifully by Amber Midthunder, but the burgeoning courtship is hastily interrupted by the actions of a criminal ring led by the very charismatic Ray Nicholson. Spidey saga sidekick Jacob Batalon is also effective as the film’s amusing wingman. Quaid fully commits to the peculiar physicality of the role, and the story keeps upping the ante in terms of its Everyman ensconced in epic urban action. Mostly the story is outrageous, but the joke of being immune to a constant cavalcade of tortures keeps delivering. Early sequences between Quaid and Midthunder portend a more romantic, possibly better film; but pain is so close to pleasure as silly adventure ensues. It’s a giddy, guilty pleasure experience.

Note: Our partner TikTok channel FilmThirst features a brief review of this film as well.