Posts tagged Matthew Stadelmann
“The Invention of Lying” And That’s the Truth
Oct 8th
And That’s the Truth
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE INVENTION OF LYING is a delightful little film that examines how life would be boring if everybody told the truth all the time and how life would be so much more interesting if we just bent the truth in small ways or in large.
Yes, it is a romantic comedy with social overtones.
Ricky Gervais plays Mark, and he is going to have the distinction of telling the world’s first lie when he is put in a situation in which he realizes that he could improve his circumstances if he just said something that didn’t reflect how things actually were.
However, before we get to that momentous event, we watch Mark go out on a first date with Anna, played by Jennifer Garner.
Only the audience is surprised when Anna greets Mark at the door and says, “Hi. You’re early. I was just masturbating.”
Now, you might think that the movie starts off slow, but it gets better as it goes along, especially when you pay attention to the background and all the signs and advertising. Truth in advertising might be refreshing, but it also sure would be boring.
Well, one day Mark needs to clean out his bank account of $300, but when he gets to the bank, the teller says that the computer isn’t working and asks him how much money he has in his account.
Mark has a brilliant thought, and he tells her a number other than 300, and she gives him that amount while apologizing that the computer is down.
Mark is able to turn his life around just by saying things that aren’t really, well, “true,” and he convinces Anna to go out on a second date with him.
But the biggest change occurs when Mark visits his mother in the “Sad Place Where Homeless Old People Come to Die,” which we would call an “Old Folks Home.”
His mother is concerned about dying and her life turning into black nothingness, and so Mark comforts her by making up a story that she is instead going to go to a wonderful place of happiness that is watched over by a “Man in the Sky.”
The story spreads, other people learn about it, and Mark’s life changes completely.
THE INVENTION OF LYING is funny, will ruffle some feathers, and that’s the truth.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Invention of Lying – Movie Trailer
Oct 2nd
Ricky Gervais directs himself in The Invention of Lying, a comedy in which everyone in the world tells the truth except for one misfit in the film industry, who after discovering the act of lying, milks it to become the world’s most phenomenal performer. Matthew Robinson will co-direct from his own script, which he and Gervais collaborated on. Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, and Louis C.K. co-star in the Media Rights Capital production, with John Hodgman, Tina Fey, Christopher Guest, and Jeffrey Tambor rounding out the rest of the cast.
“Rachel Getting Married” Kym Ruining a Lovely Weekend
Nov 20th
Kym Ruining a Lovely Weekend
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED is a disturbing movie for a number of reasons, any one of which can ruin it for the audience.
First, the title doesn’t reflect the story. Yes, there is a character named Rachel, and she does get married at the climax of the weekend over which the story takes place, but she is not the main character and the story is not so much about her getting married as it is about her sister, Kym.
Second, Kym is played by Anne Hathaway, a stunningly beautiful actress, but here she has a short, unattractive hairdo, and she plays a drug addict who is allowed to leave her drug-rehab facility for the weekend in order to attend her sister’s wedding, but because she is a narcissistic addict, she is compelled to turn every conversation to be about her and to take over every gathering of people she intrudes upon.
Third, Rachel’s and Kym’s father is played by Bill Irwin, who had a previous career as an annoying mime, and everybody hates mimes. So, whenever he is on-screen, my eyes were immediately drawn to him, and I caught him always mugging for the camera, even when he had no lines and the scene isn’t about him.
Fourth, Kym did something in the past that tragically affected her family, and before we learn what it was, we get a teasing reference to it when she stops in a convenience store on the way home and the clerk says to her, “Hey, didn’t I see you on ‘Cops’?”
Fifth, every scene gives the impression that it could have been cut shorter and ended up better, particularly the one that consists of a competition on how best to load a dishwasher, which doesn’t seem to have any point at all until the very end of the scene.
Sixth, the musicians for the wedding ceremony are there for the entire weekend rehearsing their music, which the audience has to hear, too, and it just gets to be annoying.
Seventh, Debra Winger plays the mother of Kym and Rachel, she hasn’t made a movie for a number of years, and you might get a shock at how old she looks now.
And finally, the movie gives weddings a bad name.
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED would be more accurate as KYM RUINING A LOVELY WEEKEND.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
