Incendiary Lit

If the names: Seth Green, Sarah Silverman, and Eugene Levy bring, even a small smile to your face, and you don’t own the complete series of Greg the Bunny, and for some reason don’t trust me enough to do to amazon and buy it used for $10.99, just give it a chance. The premise: Like Muppets, the puppets in the “Greg the Bunny World” are another type of intelligent being, they’re a minority, known (in the PC way) as ‘Fabricated Americans” and also by the racist “S” word (sock, shh!). They have jobs, go to school, do everything people do. Seth Green is a slacker (big stretch, I’m sure) who ends up working as a Production Assistant (aka gopher) at the children’s tv show his dad (Eugene Levy) directs. Greg and Jimmy are genuine friends, and it’s absolutely hilarious. Up there with Arrested Development and Firefly in the “Why the hell was this canceled?” category. Rabbit Redux is one sad, sad episode, considering it’s all about a Fabricated American. I’m thinking sad like “The Message” episode of Firefly. So check it out,  (here at blockbuster.com)I promise if you have any sort of sense of humor, you will like it.

Put it on the top of your Netflix queue here.

What happens when you take a bunch of ultra sarcastic, sharply hilarious comedians around to a bunch of smaller venues usually used by local or indie bands? And film it. Well, you get trips to comic book store, to the ‘classic’ arcade, lots of eating and sitting in cars talking, and lots of fuckin’ funny. Patton Oswald is the kind of ringmaster of this comic circus, with Maria Bamford (Yay Minnesota!!!), Brian Posehn, and Zack Galifianakis, and a few other guests including Sarah Silverman and Doug Benson (Super High Me looks hilarious)

Random quote: “I wish there was a morning after pill for Denny’s Moons Over My Hammy.” -Zack Galifianakis.

If you like things like The Sarah Silverman Show, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, or just generally funny stuff, and don’t get offended (what’s there to really be offended by stereotypes and hypotheticals anyway?) then this is for you. There is a LOT of swearing. Keep your under 13 kids away from this, definitely. But, everyone else should watch this and laugh and laugh and laugh. There’s enough stand up, and actually funny/interesting conversations tokeep you entertained throughout. I would love to hang out with/meet/whatever any of these inventive artists. Word. OK, enough ass-kicking. Put that shit on your Queue, and be very excited about it appearing in your mailbox. Though, the Rodney Kings of Comedy would have been a great name for this documentary/movie also. And there’s nothing like running around a crowded restaurant with a tray full of red meat thinking in your head “He ain’t gonna email you no mo’, email you no mo’, e, mail, you, no, mo-, o, o.”

Perhaps the first Jim Carrey movie that didn’t utilize a shot to the nuts, The Truman Show is probably in my top ten movies of all time. It’s a really sad story, but an empowering one, a sweet movie. EdTV was a similar idea at the same time, but Ed’s world was the real one made surreal by the live television cameras. Truman’s entire life is a fix. And he’s figuring that out. Jim Carrey gives an amazing performance, solidifying him, at least in my eyes, as a terrific dramatic actor. 5 friggan stars! (out of five.) Also, Paul Giamatti is in it. I love that guy! For some reason I think of him and Philip Seymor Hoffman as similar. (Incidentally, Hoffman was excellent in Charlie Wilson’s War.)

Here’s a netflix link, and here’s a blockbuster.com link. Put it on the top of your queue, or else, go rent it. You must. Spoiler after this.
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There are certain Christmas programs that you kind of have to watch. A Charlie Brown Christmas for example, Rudolph (though that’s getting easier and easier to skip as I get older and animation gets cooler), of course the Ralph Bakshi-esque The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and I gotta admit, I’m a sucker for Cindy Lou-Who’s song in the mail room in the new Jim Carrey version of the Grinch. Come on. Max is the cutest cartoon dog ever, and hardly live-up-to-able, but that dog is pretty cute.

But one Christmas movie I’ve come back to year and year over, is The Ref. It’s not the cheesy family movie that one generally watches. It’s a foul-mouthed, violent, angry Christmas movie, and I’ll be damned if it’s not some of Denis Leary’s finest work. Even if only because I’ve grown attached to this movie like a conjoined twin at Christmastime. I always wanted to be badass enough to blackmail a Military School Captain with racy photos developed in my own darkroom. Or punch out a drunk Santa. That is pretty high on the list too. The main plot is Denis Leary’s a burglar who’s driver leaves him in a New England mansion when an alarm goes off on him on Christmas eve, and he takes a family hostage. Watch this if you are a fan of funny, aren’t horribly offended by the infamous F-word, and want to watch a damned funny movie that makes you wish your dysfunctional family came together as well at the holidays as this one. Also, Kevin Spacey in a pre-American Beauty character in a Lester Burnham-type revelatory moment. Come on… just before that pool of red. Man. Anyway. The Ref is the first of the more adult Christmas movies like Bad Santa, and Ice Harvest, and it at very least lives up to their standard, and for my money, is better. Besides,put it at the top of your queue and it doesn’t cost you any money anyway right? Be sure to have some Cinnamon Apple insence burning for this one too. Get real Christmasy.

Netflix: The Ref

Blockbuster Online: The Ref

OK, in case you forgot, I found the little “Where Are You Christmas” part of the Grinch. Come on, that’s so sentimentally Christmas you can’t help it. I know I can’t.

You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there’s always someone who wants to destroy it.

Finding Neverland, the second IncendiaryLit.com pick by director Marc Forster, tells the story of noted playwright J.M. Barrie and how his world-famous play Peter Pan made it to the stage. Released in 2004, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Actor, for star Johnny Depp. Known for his chameleon-like ability to play a wide variety of characters, Depp turns in one of his strongest and most moving performances to date, as well as “the most realistic Scottish accent by an American,” according to an actual Scottish person. (Ha.) The cinematography is gorgeous and lush, and the musical score, which won the Oscar, is both whimsical and wistful.

However, one of the film’s most revelatory aspects is young Freddie Highmore, who portrays Peter Llewelyn Davies, the child who inspired Barrie’s Peter Pan. His performance here is honest and heartbreaking; Depp was so impressed he insisted Highmore was cast opposite him as Charlie Bucket in 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The film celebrates the beauty of childhood innocence and the magic of imagination, but ultimately reminds us that, all too often, reality intervenes to take it away. I highly recommend this movie, but be warned: it’s one hell of a tear-jerker. Watch it. Then tell us what you thought- and how hard you cried. Don’t worry, we won’t make fun of you.

…it’s a book about a man who doesn’t know he’s about to die. And then dies. But if a man does know he’s about to die and dies anyway. Dies- dies willingly, knowing that he could stop it, then- I mean, isn’t that the type of man who you want to keep alive?

2006’s Stranger Than Fiction has the dubious honor of being the first (and, quite possibly, only) Will Ferrell movie to make me cry. Not that a few tears haven’t leaked out during one of many re-viewings of Anchorman, (60% of the time it works, every time) but that isn’t exactly the same thing. Directed by Marc Forester, (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) the story follows anal-retentive IRS agent Harold Crick, whose methodical life is derailed when he begins hearing the voice of an English woman narrating the events transpiring in his daily life. Despite a misleading marketing campaign that suggested the film was a slightly more highbrow version of Talladega Nights, Stranger Than Fiction is as much a drama as it is a comedy, and one that tackles the big issues- love, death, and of course, writing, with surprising dexterity. Like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, Will Ferrell gets a chance to prove his acting range doesn’t top out at ‘beer-bonging frat-man’ and turns in a strong performance that resonates, and doesn’t come off as forced. Add that to a strong supporting cast, featuring the fabulous Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Arrested Development’s Tony Hale, lovely cinematography, clever dialogue and a great soundtrack, and you’ve got one of my favorite movies of the last few years. Rent it!

Big Bad Love (or, on blockbuster.com) is a movie based on Larry Brown’s short fiction, adapted and directed by Arliss Howard of Full Metal Jacket fame (Who is, incidentally, the grown up Scotty who’s a sport’s writer in “The Sandlot”), is “The staggering tale of one man’s relentless pursuit of imperfection.” It is the surreal tale of a consistently rejected Vietnam Veteran writer struggling to make ends meet, and keep reality separate from fiction. It is gut-wrenchingly funny, heart-wrenchingly sad, and just a tremendous independent film. The directorial style is vaguely similar to that of Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (which will be a Netflix Pick shortly, if you haven’t seen it, or it’s been awhile) and leaves you sometimes questioning what is actually happening, and what is merely happening in the character’s head. I love it, and you should too.