December 2011
8 posts
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Best of the Year - TV
Best Show:
1) Friday Night Lights
One of the all time great TV shows that, by and large, nobody is even aware of here in the UK. Friday Night Lights finished its final year in 2011. Whilst it’s had its low points (the ratings-baiting murder plotline in Season 2 springs to mind…), no show in recent memory has delivered such uniform excellence, and the show’s last season was no...
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Margaret (2011)
Margaret’s troubled production history, during which director Kenneth Lonergan and Fox were unable to agree on a final cut of the film, and a limited release in both the UK and US, would suggest that there’s nothing worth seeing here. Instead, Lonergan’s film feels fully formed in its messiness, an almost-masterpiece of anger, grief and heartache. Anna Paquin is a revelation as Lisa, the...
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The Week In TV 12/12/2011
Community, Season 3, Episode 10: Regional Holiday Music
If there’s one show that can pull off a parody of Glee, then it’s Community. Not least because Community has always gazed open-mouthed in horror at the success of the entertainment behemoth, waiting quietly as the show first devoured, regurgitated and then devoured itself again. I’m a fan of Glee, or at least I think it’s capable of...
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50 / 50 (2011)
Three hanky weepies aren’t really designed for men, which is why Will Reisner’s semi-autobiographical cancer comedy feels unusual. When Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) encourages him not to worry, but to use his terminal diagnosis as a pick-up line instead. 50/50 takes some time to really dig beneath the surface of its...
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The Week In TV 04/12/2011
Community, Season 3, Episode 9: Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism
If there’s one thing Community has taught us, it’s that it’s okay to re-visit old TV tropes if you can do them in ways that illuminate character and/or are very funny. This week, Community re-visited two such tropes, one in which two of its characters discovered that they knew each other as children (in an...
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Beginners (2011)
Sometimes a film will come at you sideways and hit you when you least expect it. Beginners is one of those films. Starting with a meet-cute reminiscent of Miranda July or Wes Anderson, Mike Mills’ story possesses a strength and individuality entirely its own. Ewan McGregor plays Oliver, a graphic artist who, in two separate timelines, is helping his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer),...
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The Help (2011)
Adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel, Tate Taylor’s film feels in every way like 90s Oscar bait. The book’s whitewashed vision of racism in 60s Mississippi has been carried over to the big screen, but so have its undeniably big-hearted (if naive) message of acceptance and strong characters that we care about. Emma Stone plays Skeeter, a recent university graduate...