This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"! Starting in May 2016, many of the reviews for new feature films have been done on a hosted Wordpress site, and this blog now mostly does shorts and older films.
Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!
"Trainwreck": Amy Schumer drives a non-stop farce about improbable love and committment
“Trainwreck”, directed by Judd Apatow (“Bridesmaids”; “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”), is an “unlikely
couple’s” romantic comedy, structurally like “Wingman, Inc.” (July 21), but on
a much grander scale. It’s non-stop chatter from Comedy Central’s Amy Schumer,
who wrote the script and stars as the overbearing girl whose dad had made her
cynical about love and monogamy.
She’s a “real” writer (Amy) for a NYC gossip magazine and is
assigned a story by her uncompromising boss (Tilda Swinton) about sports doctor
Aaron Conner (Bill Hader). After some
silly one night stands with gross language (one number is totally hairless even
in the crotch) she finds herself actually drawn into a relationship.
The movie (long for a comedy at 124 minutes) takes some side
trips that are indeed curious. There’s a
lot about pro basketball, as Aaron has to do a knee operation on a pro player (LeBron
James plays himself). She throws up in the scrub room seeing the knee opened
up. It doesn’t seem as if the hospital
practices too much infection control.
Aaron also sometimes works with Doctors Without Borders (remember
the 2003 film “Beyond Borders”). When Amy gets a cell phone call from her boss
in the middle of his speech, she has to run out, threatening the relationship.
The double-edged relationship with her dad (shared by sister
Vanessa Bayer) gets noted at her dad’s graveside ceremony (short of a memorial
funeral, after his spell in assisted living).
Daniel Radcliffe appears in a fictitious black and white film
“The Dogwalker” (which has been the name of a real film in 2002, reviewed Sept.
19, 2006).
Even as she draws closer to a possible actual marriage to
Aaron (who constantly says he loves her), she has an encounter with 16-year old
intern Donald (Ezra Miller, actually 22, but made to look 16).
The film was released with Universal’s own brand (rather
than Focus Features, and with an R rating).
The official site is here.
I saw the film at Angelika Mosaic in Fairfax VA before a
very full weeknight audience (Wednesday July 22), which laughed constantly.
Update: Later July 23
There was a serious gunfire incident at a showing of this film in Lafayette LA, at a major multiplex, at around 7:30 PM CDT Thursday July 23, 2014. At least three, including the gunman, are dead. At least seven others are injured. The shooter seems to have been an older white man, and this event sounds unlikely to be related to international terrorism, but more likely "mental illness" or other domestic extremism. NBC News has a rapidly changing account here.
No comments:
Post a Comment