Posts tagged Emily Tremaine
Obvious Child “Not the Worst Movie”
Jul 6th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
OBVIOUS CHILD has been getting outstanding reviews, but as with most movies these days, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Heck, it won’t even be everyone’s glass of water.
Jenny Slate stars as Donna Stern, a struggling stand-up comic living in Brooklyn, New York, who is almost 30 years old and who also works in a bookstore to help pay the bills, because her comedy sure won’t.
We can tell this not only from what we see of her comedy act, but also from where she performs at a small bar and comedy club on open-mic nights.
Donna uses her own life and being a woman as material in her act, and not everyone will find jokes about vaginal discharge in women or her boyfriend Ryan particularly funny.
Especially Ryan, who says that he feels weird when she always makes jokes about him in her comedy act.
So, while Ryan is talking to Donna and breaking up with her, he keeps looking at his phone, saying that he doesn’t know where to look.
Donna uses her hand to circle her face and says, “Well, this is probably a good area.”
Donna learns that Ryan has been sleeping with her friend Kate, and the next day she stands across the street from Ryan’s apartment and sees Ryan and Kate come out to walk a dog, which really upsets her.
In the meantime, Donna learns from her boss at the bookstore where she has been working for five years that the bookstore is going to be closed.
Then one night at the comedy club, Donna meets Max, essentially picks him up, they have common interests and taste, they get drunk together, they go back to his place and dance and drink some more, and the next thing we see is Donna sneaking out of bed the next morning while Max is still asleep.
So, a few weeks later, Donna learns that she is pregnant, and she decides to have an abortion.
Even this new aspect of her life becomes material that she uses in her comedy act.
Well, what do you know, but Max has taken a liking to Donna, and he keeps showing up in her life.
OBVIOUS CHILD has an ending that might really annoy you, but it is not the worst movie I have ever seen.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Obvious Child – Movie Trailer
Jun 29th
For aspiring comedian Donna Stern, everyday life as a female twenty-something provides ample material for her incredibly relatable brand of humor. On stage, Donna is unapologetically herself, joking about topics as intimate as her sex life and as crude as her day-old underwear. But when Donna gets dumped, loses her job, and finds herself pregnant just in time for Valentine’s Day, she has to navigate the murky waters of independent adulthood for the first time. As she grapples with an uncertain financial future, an unwanted pregnancy, and a surprising new suitor, Donna begins to discover that the most terrifying thing about adulthood isn’t facing it all on her own. It’s allowing herself to accept the support and love of others. And be truly vulnerable. Never failing to find the comedy and humanity in each awkward situation she encounters, Donna finds out along the way what it means to be as brave in life as she is on stage. Anchored by a breakout performance from Jenny Slate, OBVIOUS CHILD is a winning discovery, packed tight with raw, energetic comedy and moments of poignant human honesty. Writer/Director Gillian Robespierre handles the topic of Donna’s unwanted pregnancy with a refreshing matter-of-factness rarely seen onscreen. And with Donna, Slate and Robespierre have crafted a character for the ages – a female audiences will recognize, cheer for, and love.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” an Exercise in Excessive Excess
Jan 13th
“Exercise in Excessive Excess”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Wolf of Wall Street was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio based on a 2007 memoir of the same name written by Jordan Belfort.
DiCaprio plays Belfort himself.
Right at the beginning of the movie Jordan says, “I always wanted to be rich,” and we see him at the start of his career as a licensed stockbroker for a big firm on Wall Street.
Matthew McConaughey plays his mentor at the firm, and he tells Jordan, “The name of the game is to move the money from your clients’ pockets into your pocket.”
Unfortunately, Jordan’s first day as a broker was October 19, 1987, the biggest plummet of the stock market since the 1929 crash, and Jordan was out of a job before he even got started.
Jordan believes that Wall Street swallowed him up, but he finds a job with a tiny firm that sells penny stocks and is surprised to learn that he receives a 50% commission on his sales whereas his previous job would have paid him only 1%.
So, Jordan is selling garbage to garbagemen, as he puts it, and he begins making money hand over fist, so much so that one day in a restaurant he attracts the attention of Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, and Donnie tells Jordan that if Jordan can prove how much money he is making, Donnie will quit his job right there over the phone and come work for Jordan.
Donnie does, they start their own company with some misfit salesmen, and Jordan teaches them how to sell penny stocks to rich people.
The firm becomes highly successful from practices that are not always entirely legal, Jordan meets and marries a beautiful woman named Naomi, and drugs, wild parties, prostitutes, and naked women become a large part of everyone’s lives in and away from the firm.
And, of course, they attract the attention of the FBI, which starts investigating Jordan, Donnie, and their brokerage firm.
So, the merry band of brokers go through the intricate and illegal process of moving their money into Swiss bank accounts, but of course everything doesn’t go according to plan.
Nothing ever does in the movies, does it?
The Wolf of Wall Street might be too rough for many people’s taste and is just an exercise in excessive excess.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
