The A.V. Club - Daily

TV: Caprica:"Ghosts in the Machine"

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:46:00 -0500

I try to reserve my A grades for episodes that really knock everything they do out of the park or episodes that substantially push forward what a show or the medium is capable of. By both of those measures, "Ghosts in the Machine" doesn't add up. The Amanda plotline, while vaguely interesting, still seemed to be stuck in neutral, and you can't say that Caprica hasn't engaged with many of the issues it's dealing with in this episode before. This is very much a "putting things in place" episode, one that is getting everyone in position ...

Film: A.V. Talk:Greenberg / Repo Men

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:15:00 -0500

First, Keith and Nathan praise Noah Baumbach's latest portrait of misanthropy. Then Keith and Tasha find a lot less to like in another misanthropic film that had the temerity to steal from the best and churn the results into the worst. Subscribe to A.V. Talk iTunes http://feeds.theonion.com/avtalk

Film: Newswire:Adaptations of A Wrinkle In Time and Mrs. Frisby And The Rats of Nimh in the works

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:10:00 -0500

If you are now, or have ever been, a young person, you're probably familiar with Madeleine L'Engle's classic anti-Communist allegory A Wrinkle In Time. If not, you should be. It's a classic of Christian literature. Now the trippy fantasy novel is coming to the big screen courtesy of Disney and screenwriter Jeff Stockwell, who previously adapted a film adaptation of the beloved young adult novel A Bridge to Terabithia. According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter, a feature film adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of Nimh is also ...

Music: Interview:Cherie Currie

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:00:00 -0500

In 1975, legendary L.A. rock scenester Kim Fowley invited 15-year-old Cherie Currie to front the all-girl rock band he was promoting. Within a year, Currie was out on the road with The Runaways, playing gigs in skimpy outfits and singing songs about sex stoked by the dueling guitar riffs of Joan Jett and Lita Ford. By the end of the decade, Currie was out of the band and trying to recover from drug and alcohol addiction—all before she turned 20. Currie told about her experiences with The Runaways in the book Neon Angel (which has been recently revised ...

Film: Hater:J.Lo To Re-Enact "Jenny From The Block" Video, Pretend It's A Remake Of Overboard

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:30:00 -0500

Can someone please give Will Smith a time-consuming acting role that doesn't involve suicide-by-jellyfish? Because apparently when Will Smith isn't acting, he's producing—which wouldn't be so bad except that for Will Smith "producing" means "horrendously miscasting a pointless remake of a beloved 80s movie so that Jaden and/or Willow will have something to do over the summer." First, it was a remake of The Karate Kid, but set in China, starring Will's favored son, and somehow about kung-fu. Now, Will Smith is remaking Overboard with Jennifer Lopez for some reason—even though the ...

TV: Archer:"Dial M for Mother"

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:12:00 -0500

I groaned a little when it seemed like Archer was going to throw a typical cliffhanger at us. Malory opens fire on an Archer who has a chip implanted in his head that's turned him into a homicidal maniac (because, uh, she was dialing someone on her cell phone). We see her fire through a closed door, hear a body hit the floor outside and hear her say, "Sterling?!" On just about any other show, this is where everything would have faded to black, where things would have gotten crazy and FX would have cut to a promo that ...

TV: Community:"Beginner Pottery"

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:30:00 -0500

It was a weird little episode of Community tonight. It was also - according to Jaime Weinman - an episode that was significantly out of production order, being bumped to the 19th episode to air after it was the 14th episode filmed. Unlike swapping the last two episodes with each other, this didn't create any continuity problems, but it did suggest the show was somehow a little embarrassed by this one or that the network was embarrassed by it. I, on the other hand, actually preferred it to last week's episode, though I don't think it hits the heights ...

Music: AVQ&A:Favorite album deep cuts

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Welcome back to AVQ&A, where we throw out a question for discussion among the staff and readers. Consider this a prompt to compare notes on your interface with pop culture, to reveal your embarrassing tastes and experiences, and to ponder how our diverse lives all led us to convene here together. Got a question you’d like us and the readers to answer? E-mail us at avcqa@theonion.com. I was listening to New Miserable Experience by the Gin Blossoms, and I had to marvel that they chose to follow up “Hey, Jealousy” as a single with “Found Out ...

TV: Interview:Donald Glover

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Donald Glover is a lucky man, and he says so himself. After Tina Fey hired him right out of college to be a writer for 30 Rock, he was cast as dim-bulb jock Troy in NBC’s latest hit comedy, Community, and now he’s debuting his first half-hour stand-up special March 19 on Comedy Central. But his rapid ascent through the comedy ranks is more than just luck. He’s a prolific entertainer, juggling his acting and stand-up with writing and performing duties for the sketch team Derrick Comedy. He also produces and releases albums under the name Childish ...

Books: Hatecast:Mike Tyson: Boxer, Rapist, Pigeon-Racing Star Of Animal Planet

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

It's the 35th edition of the Hatecast. In honor of the occasion, Amelie Gillette and Onion News Network writer/director Lang Fisher did their best JFK impressions for 35 wisely unrecorded minutes before discussing Mike Tyson's passion for pigeon-racing; why E!'s Pretty Wild would be nothing without an arrest for burglary; and how horse-murdering turned Lisa Jo Druck into Rielle Hunter. Subscribe to The Hatecast iTunes feeds.theonion.com/hatecast

TV: Parks and Recreation:"Park Safety"

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:41:00 -0500

Before I get into tonight's slapstick-heavy episode, here's one thing that really bothered me about the episode: Andy Samberg wasn't used well. He plays a park ranger who oversees a section of Pawnee where Jerry—the office buffoon—was mugged and injured, and for some reason he talks really loudly, all the time. Like, full-on shouting. There's a joke that Tom Haverford makes in one of his testimonials that this guy can't hold an office job because, well, [cue silence and hearing Andy Samberg shouting from behind a closed door]. And there's a line ...

TV: 30 Rock:Don Geiss, America and Hope

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:38:00 -0500

I have complained in the past about 30 Rock’s reliance upon flashy celebrity guest stars and also about this boil on my ankle. So I am pleased to report that I am loving the show’s last two flashy celebrity guest stars and I had that boil lanced before it got infected. Elizabeth Banks is just about perfect as the shark in a miniskirt who has won Jack Donaghy’s heart and inflamed his loins and Michael Sheen is hilarious as sort of a bizarro world Hugh Grant. Last week we were introduced to Sheen’s Wesley Snipes when ...

TV: Project Runway:"Takin' It To The Streets"

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:20:00 -0500

"You know the drill with the Bluefly wall." Yes, Tim, they do. And we feel you. We all know the drill with this show too, and you know what? That drill needs to go a hell of a lot faster. How is it possible that there are still 8 (now 7) designers? Let's cut to the chase, Bunim-Murray Productions. It's going to be Maya, Seth Aaron (he's just soooo Seth Aaron, you know?), and either Emilio or Jonathan, right? And Anthony will stick around as long as possible, obviously. Just get on with it. All these Garnier ...

TV: The Office:"New Leads"

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:38:00 -0500

I read Scott’s terrific piece on Glengarry Glen Ross today. The film adaptation of David Mamet’s classic play is the archetypal masterpiece about sales, boiler rooms, con-artistry and capitalism at its most ruthless and inhumane. From Boiler Room to Two For The Money to the rightfully obscure direct-to-DVD Vince Vaughn vehicle The Prime Gig, I can’t see a film about sales without being reminded of Glengarry Glen. It’s the gold standard against which all entertainment about salesmen will be measured. Yet even though The Office prominently involves sales and airs immediately before a show starring Glengarry ...

TV: FlashForward:"Experiment Zero, Parts 1 and 2"

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:00:00 -0500

I'm uncertain on whether I should be rating FlashForward's return tonight against the run of the show so far or against the rest of television. As an episode of FlashForward "Experiment Zero, Parts 1 and 2" is pretty good and one of the show's better efforts (particularly that nearly Benford-less second hour). As an episode of television, though, the series still has a fair way to go. There's a whiff of desperation to a lot of what's going on here, as the show frantically throws stuff at the audience to see what sticks. There's ...

TV: Hater:Who Are Ke$ha's Influences?

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:00:00 -0500

Last night, this mysterious entity known as Ke$ha p€rform€d on American Idol, which is a popular thunderdome program about trilling. What is Ke$ha? She is the reverse of that high-pitched ringtone that adults can't hear—only people under 20 can't hear the horrible noises she makes. Ke$ha (the dollar sign is silent) does not trill, but she is a musician of sorts. Based on the following video of her performance last night and nothing else, here's a short list of who (or what) Ke$ha's influences clearly are: —The set design ...

Film: Review:Greenberg

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:07:00 -0500

In Greenberg—the latest caustic character study from writer-director Noah Baumbach—mumblecore darling Greta Gerwig plays a rudderless 26-year-old whose overarching philosophy involves taking the path of least resistance. Gerwig toils as a nanny for a wealthy Southern California family, halfheartedly pursues a singing career, and stumbles into bed with men she barely knows because wordlessly cooperating is often easier than saying no. Into her inert, apathetic life comes Ben Stiller, her employer’s black-sheep brother and housesitter, an emotionally fragile recent graduate of a mental hospital engaged in a passive-aggressive, decades-long battle with the compromises and vulgarity of the ...

Film: Review:The Bounty Hunter

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:06:00 -0500

Based on the onscreen evidence, not a single person in front of or behind the camera cared a whit about how The Bounty Hunter turned out. Director Andy Tennant and his two stars, Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston, are all battle-tested veterans of forgettable romantic comedies: Tennant is responsible for Fools Rush In, Sweet Home Alabama, Hitch, and Fool’s Gold; Butler played creeps of different flavors in P.S. I Love You and The Ugly Truth; and Aniston hasn’t stopped squandering her guileless charm in the likes of Picture Perfect, Along Came Polly, and Love Happens. Together, the ...

Film: Review:Repo Men

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:05:00 -0500

In a newscast near the beginning of Repo Men, an anchor informs her viewers about an ongoing conflict in Nigeria, pausing briefly to insert the quick aside, “…that’s in Africa.” That fleeting moment says a lot about the world of the movie, a place much like ours, only slightly dumber. It’s a bit more brutal, too. The economy remains in the tank, dividing the populace into two groups: those who have nothing, and those just hanging on to what little they’ve got. Medicine, at least, has advanced to the point that most any organ can be replaced ...

Film: Review:The Runaways

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:04:00 -0500

Late in The Runaways, Michael Shannon’s cold-blooded Svengali Kim Fowley dismisses the seminal ’70s all-girl punk band of the title as nothing more than a failed conceptual project. Those are the bitter words of a star-maker cavalierly tossed aside by his own creation, but there’s an element of truth to them as well. Like the Sex Pistols, The Runaways combined raw punk anarchy and cynical commercial calculation. They were prefabricated yet authentic, the product of estrogen-fueled rage and a sleazy music-industry lifer intent on exploiting ripe teenage sexuality. There is a fascinating film to be made about Fowley ...