Movies
Not a great comedy, but at least it's a full-blown comedy. You don't see many of those around anymore, I guess a film like this could mean there's light at the end of the tunnel again. It's a pretty straightforward, often raunchy affair, the only problem is that it leans too much on common clichés. PJ and Josie are two lesbian girls who are shunned by the rest of the school. To increase their popularity, they start a little fight club and make up a story that makes them look a lot tougher than they are. Their little plan seems to work, but they can't keep their lies from surfacing. I appreciated the dedication to the comedy, the film is silly from start to finish, but the jokes were pretty simple and predictable, and I've grown tired of that typical US school culture (the jocks vs the nerds and all that). Not the worst way to spend 90 minutes, but I'd hoped for something a bit funnier.Read all
Like its faraway cousin Uncut Gems, Shiva Baby makes a real effort to be as nerve wrecking as possible. And just like Uncut Gems, it fails horribly. It leans way too hard on Jewish shatter, the somewhat aggravating soundtrack simply wasn't effective enough to pull all the weight. Danielle doesn't really fit in with her family, so she makes up stories to impress them. When she goes to a Jewish funeral she bumps into the guy she's screwing for money, who is there with his wife and kid. If that wasn't stressfull enough, her old girlfriend is there too, and everybody wants to know how she's doing. Shiva Baby tries to be tense and uncomfortable, but its attempts are just too weak. The comedy never crosses the line, the characters aren't quite as edgy as they are made out to be, the soundtrack is underwhelming, and the single setting is dull. It pales in comparison to films like Happiness or even American Beauty, pretty disappointing.Read all