Smiley Face
December 30th, 2007
Gregg Araki’s stoned follow-up to Mysterious Skin, playing now at the IFC Center and out on DVD in January, deserves a proper review on About.com. For now, a few screenshots to prove that Anna Faris’s fearless performance owns this movie the way Luisa Williams owned Day Night Day Night — only funnier. One girl’s buzzed screwball odyssey through L.A., Smiley Face had me laughing hard for the entire duration… until the most unforgivable ending since Yella ruins it all.
Smiley Face. Gregg Araki, 2007. ***
The trailer:
AlternaTube
January 26th, 2007
“America’s Greatest Living Writer” Neal Pollack is on the road promoting his hipster parenting memoir Alternadad. I caught Neal last week at Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction; here’s the entire reading–poo, vaporizers, bhotman and all–cut into four bite-size chunks for your enjoyment.
Part 1: Prologue and Amsterdam
Part 2: Blog Posts
Part 3: Q&A
Part 4: The Silver Surfer
[tags]neal pollack, alternadad, books, readings, nyc, mo pitkins, video, youtube, poo, parenting, fathers, drugs, amsterdam, diapers, marijuana, muckfilm[/tags]
Weeds - Season 2
November 5th, 2006
MILF weed, DEA husbands, lost toes, and Zooey Deschanel: the plotting on Weeds is outstanding. Season 1 ended with a revelation that opened all sorts of dramatic possibilities, but I was stunned by how quickly the show exploited them, topped them, or sidestepped expectations altogether. On some episodes, things happens so fast there’s a giddy joy to the whiplash turns and twists. Despite a strong undercurrent of absurdity, the show never swirls out of control because Mary Louise Parker gives it such a sweet-but-tough center. There might have been one or two dud episodes, but it’s entirely plausible that they were necessary to set up the finale’s wicked cliffhanger ending. Can’t wait for more.
[tags]tv, 4 stars, mary louise parker, zooey deschanel, marijuana, soap opera, suburbia[/tags]
A/K/A Tommy Chong
June 10th, 2006
Well-made documentary about the stoner comic’s run-in with John Ashcroft’s Justice Department and subsequent 9-month jail term for selling glass over the Internet. In equal parts amusing and infuriating.
