Discussing THE INTERVIEW

Article first published as Movie Review: 'The Interview' on Blogcritics.

Much press has surrounded the controversial film The Interview, which Sony first canceled, and then later made available, to independent theaters and video-on-demand services. (Many major theater chains have opted not to carry it, though presumably they could if they wanted to.) Now that the movie has come out, I couldn’t help but check it out, considering the attention, and see if it is worth the trouble surrounding it. The short answer is, sort of.

The plot of The Interview is goofy, bordering on surrealistic. Television producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen, Super Bad, The Comeback) wants to get into more serious news, but the star he works with, Dave Skylark (James Franco, 127 Hours, The Mindy Project), is all about sensationalist entertainment. These two worlds merge when the guys find out Kim Jong-un (Randall Park, Veep, Larry Crowne) is a super-fan of Skylark and invites them to visit, which is complicated when the U.S. government asks Skylark to assassinate the dictator, and gives him minimal training to do so.

One can easily see why North Korea is upset by this movie. It takes their Supreme Leader, whom they worship as a god, and make him a metrosexual, emotional, cartoon character. In fact, much is made in the movie of exposing the true Kim to the people of that country, something that would go against the administration’s policies. With a dramatic climax that I won’t spoil, which goes a step further in defacing Kim, it makes sense that his home country wouldn’t want people to see The Interview.

That being said, terrorism is inexcusable, and threatening nuclear warfare isn’t right. The United States would never do that to anyone who made a similar movie about our elected leader. In fact, a British film about George W. Bush’s fictional murder, Death of a President was released in 2007, though that one was not a comedy. In that spirit, I urge many people to see The Interview, if for no other reason than to thumb our noses at a petty regime that would seek to infringe upon freedom of speech and resort to scare tactics to censor art.

The Interview is pretty funny, though not spectacularly so. Rogen’s character isn’t very humorous, presumably on purpose, which drags down the feature more than if every part of the script were to be played for laughs. But Franco is hilarious, especially when sharing the screen with Park, whom will soon be starring in an ABC sitcom called Fresh Off the Boat, and is absolutely terrific here. The supporting cast includes many notable faces, including Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex), Ben Schwartz (House of Lies), Timothy Simons (Veep), Diana Bang (Bates Motel), Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation), rapper Eminem, and many semi-self-playing cameos. The movie makes terrific use for Katy Perry’s “Firework,” and there are a number of laugh-out-loud moments.

Where the piece suffers is in it’s satirical quality. It flirts with full-on lampooning in the style of Team America: World Police, which skewered Kim’s father, but backs off by trying to make itself a more mainstream film. It raises several important issues, such as the state of current media, but it barely scratches the surface.

I can’t help but wonder how much better The Interview would be had it fully committed to its premise, instead of couching a relatively pedestrian, predictable buddy story that happens to be set in an outrageous environment. Franco and Rogen’s This Is the End is superior because every bit of it revolves around the unique tale being told. The Interview pulls itself back, making it relatively tame and safe by comparison.

Is The Interview worth watching? Sure. I probably would have viewed it when it came to HBO or another premium channel, rather than going to see it in theaters, but I still would have eventually watched it. Is it worth owning? Probably, but only because of the stir it created in our culture, not being quite good enough on its own merit to shell out my hard-earned money for. But right now, when you can pay a few bucks to watch it on YouTube, I recommend everyone check it out, even if the stars aren’t quite your brand of humor, which is admittedly not critically-acclaimed.

The Interview is currently in select theaters, as well as being available on YouTube, GooglePlay, iTunes, and other online outlets.

TV Review: ‘Glee’ – ‘A Katy or a Gaga’

Article first published as TV Review: ‘Glee’ – ‘A Katy or a Gaga’ on Blogcritics.

This week’s installment of Glee, the first episode to air in several weeks (and only the fourth of the year) stunk. Glee is all about embracing yourself for who you are, not changing for others or allowing yourself to be pigeonholed. The episode, titled “A Katy of a Gaga,” insisted that each of the students was one or the other, and when one didn’t want to change for an assignment, she was punished.

First of all, I didn’t know there was a rivalry between Lady Gaga and Katy Perry fans. The performers don’t seem that different. Yes, Gaga is definitely more over the top and out of the box, but Katy is no girl next door, letting whip cream shoot out of her boobs. Glee tries to draw a clear distinction between the two, but the comparisons falls flat, and the entire premise doesn’t make sense.

Not to mention, for an episode focused on the music and style of two major artists, there are a scant four songs involved, only two for each, which doesn’t feel right, either.

At the beginning of the hour, the New Directions are concerned with a never-before-heard-of super group who somehow is going to crush them at Nationals. Since this group is all Gaga, Will (Matthew Morrison) divides his club in two and demands that each play to the opposite of their strengths, expanding their range and mastering all genres. There are some funny jabs that Will makes up assignments on the spot, a tongue-in-cheek comment that rings true, and despite this new group stupidly coming out of nowhere, the set up is solid enough, with a sound idea.

Unique (Alex Newell), Kitty (Becca Tobin), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), and Jake (Jacob Artist) identify themselves as Gaga. Of course Unique is on this list, and Kitty, sure. But while Tina does act that way now, it makes me groan and roll my eyes at the inauthencity, and I really don’t understand why Jake is included.

The four spend the whole hour trying to come up with a Katy number to showcase how “toned down” they can be, and yet all of their brainstorming sessions reveal only outrageous thoughts. These are not stupid kids; surely they understand the assignment enough to not be so ridiculous.

In the end, the four settle on performing “Wide Awake” while sitting atop stools. It’s a pleasant, sweet song that they do really well. Too bad it comes at the end of a convoluted mess of a story.

The Katy side is even worse. Artie (Kevin McHale), Blaine (Darren Criss), Sam (Chord Overstreet), and Ryder (Blake Jenner) have no trouble going all Gaga in their over-the-top, well-outside-of-school-budget  production of “Applause.” This is all well and good.

But Marley (Melissa Benoist), feeling pressured to have sex with Jake, refuses to let her inner wild child out. First of all, when did Marley become so goody two-shoes? Secondly, when did Jake stop appreciating Marley for who she is, so much so that he runs off and cheats on her with Bree (Erinn Westbrook)? Third, when did Will become so cruel that he would suspend Marley for a week for staying true to herself, or at least the version of herself in “A Katy of a Gaga?” Fourth, when did not participating in a single school assignment qualify as suspension-worthy?

While this plays out, Sam is still attempting to win over Nurse Penny (Phoebe Strole), whom I thought he had already won over. Inexplicably, she shuns his good guy image early in the hour, then shuns his bad boy persona later. This episode doesn’t know who Penny is or what she wants, which ruins the entire subplot.

Then, after all this, Sue (Jane Lynch) storms into the choir room and re-declares war on Will, suspending the kids, who defiantly fight back with “Roar.” I missed the villain Sue, and she makes a good obstacle for Mr. Schue and the students. And she’s right, the glee club’s costumes, besides being completely unrealistic in how good they are, are totally not school appropriate. One week’s suspension seems far too harsh, again, going outside the realm of believability as much as Artie swinging in a vine from his wheelchair does, but the emotional cues in this sequence are nailed. Too bad it’s too little, too late for the episode.

The only thing that slightly bothers me about Sue lashing out is that she does need the New Directions to succeed to make her look good as principal. However, we’ve seen her tough-love approach before, and she may think they’re floundering and need this kick in the pants to rise to the occasion of Nationals. If she wants them to win, she might want to start with making the rest of the glee club, mostly MIA for half a season, actually show up to practice.

As usual, the New York City part of the episode is much, much better. Kurt (Chris Colfer) starts a band, which Dani (Demi Lovato) and, to a lesser extent, Santana (Naya Rivera), eagerly agree to participate in. Rachel (Lea Michele) tries to beg off, citing how busy she is, but can’t resist offering suggestions, and eventually comes around.

Rounding out the group is Elliott ‘Starchild’ Gilbert (Adam Lambert, American Idol), who kills in his audition of “Marry the Night,” but whom Kurt is reluctant to let in for being too flamboyant. It’s Rachel, the best friend, who drags out of Kurt what is really bothering him: he wants success, and thinks mainstreaming it is the only way to get some. Rachel talks him down from his ledge, and they gleefully welcome Starchild into their midst.

The five participate in “Roar,” too, and it is icing on the cake for their tale. As bad as the McKinley stuff is, the New York thread is solid. Kurt’s crisis of confidence is completely understandable and in character, and Rachel plays the perfect adviser. I don’t hate Lovato as much as I expected to, and anyone who listens to her has to admit that she can sing! Add the incredibly talented Lambert to the mix, and this is a story I want to see more of.

Rumor is, Glee may soon drop the high school setting all together and focus exclusively on the Big Apple. For the sake of the quality of the series, let’s hope this comes in the very near future. The show has outgrown its roots, and it’s time to move on.

Glee airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.

Saturday Night Live premieres with Amy Poehler

     NBC may be (unfairly) holding Parks and Recreation until mid-season, but Amy Poehler returned to the network this week as host of Saturday Night Live's season premiere.  Not only did Amy show up, brought she brought a multitude of friends with her.  In her awesome monologue, she relayed a dream she had supposedly had the night before, and the sequence was filmed for our enjoyment.  She had a kissing scene with Justin Timberlake, who proclaimed her a horrible kisser. Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon taunted her, saying they were back, and she would not be doing the Weekend Update segment.  A polar bear devoured her friend Rachel Dratch.  The whole thing was bizarre, and also very funny.

     SNL has been uneven for awhile now.  One could argue that last season was pretty bad, on the whole.  This week's episode was mostly polished and sharp.  While Amy's friends did fill in during the monologue, only a couple of them appeared in skits, so they can't get all of the credit for improving the quality of the show.  Justin Timberlake was in one very short skit with Andy Samberg called "Actor II Actor".  There wasn't much to it, but I laughed out loud the entire time.  Maya Rudolph also returned for a brand new "Bronx Beat", which featured Katy Perry in a sly nod to her Seasame Street video that was cut.  Perry also returned for an Oscar segment that was probably the worst part of the episode.

     Two cast members, that I noticed, are no longer with SNL.  Jenny Slade had not been on the show that long, and she's gone.  Also, Will Forte resigned.  I do not know if his departure had anything to do with the box office failure of the Macgruber movie, but it wouldn't surprise me.  The show added four new cast members to this year's lineup, but they weren't featured much, so it's hard to form an opinion yet.  My current favorite, who really stood out this week despite very limited screen time, is Nasim Pedrad.  I wasn't overly impressed with her last year, but her mock of Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie was spot on, and she also could easily replace Amy Poehler in the "Rick" sketches.

     The one did a Will Smith impression during Weekend Update that marked the only blemish in that part of the show.  Update was fantastic this week, with one of the best "Really!?! With Seth and Amy"s of all time, covering Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and gays in the military.  The real Governor David Patterson also showed up to face-off with his rival, and played along with the recurring bits.  My favorite sketch of this week's episode was probably the Mosque commercial.  The sad part is, there are people in this country that would take that seriously.

     Next week Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) will be the host, and Kanye West is the musical guest.  Tune into NBC Saturday nights at 11:30 to watch the show.