comedy
Best friends and brothers-in-law run a scrappy regional ad agency in Detroit. Pleasing clients like a mirror retailer is par for the course. Pleasing parents is harder. What’s not challenging? Loving each other. Mad Men they are not. You don’t have to be in advertising to enjoy this tv show from Comedy Central. Detroiters, starring Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson, is weird and endearing and not realistic at all.
Thank you to Caleb Smith for recommending this show to me!
This coming-of-age comedy series is more than “high schooler decides she wants to be cool this year and that means boyfriends” - even though that is kind of the plot. Devi is a first-generation American Indian girl who has a tumultuous relationship with her mom, is jealous of her hot cousin who lives with them, somehow convinces the hottest guy in school to agree to have sex with her, has two best friends who have their own problems, and has an arch enemy who also has his own problems. Just like your high school experience! Never Have I Ever on Netflix clever, funny, and narrated by tennis legend John McEnroe.
WATCH if you're not too cool to watch teenage comedies.
Sometimes movies don’t really feel entertaining anymore. But Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (2019) was just a whole lot of fun. An acclaimed murder mystery writer suddenly dies in his clue-ridden home after a clue-ridden family gathering. A detective tries to figure out if there’s foul play. Every member of this ensemble is weird and has something they’re hiding. Chris Evans, spoiled grandson, wears a hole-y cable knit sweater, Daniel Craig, a mysteriously hired detective, does his best Frank Underwood, Ana de Armas, nurse who vomits when she lies (!!!), wants the audience to believe she’s in fact dowdy and not super gorgeous. There’s something for everyone. Not into character quirks? You’re in luck, there’s also an undercurrent of class tensions.
What movie in 2019 wasn’t about class disparity? Parasite (2019) is about a poor family that cons their way into working for a rich family to make ends meet. And then things get bloody. Parasite is also a movie about metaphorical architecture. There’s a gated house with large glass windows, luscious grass, and ample space. Then there’s an apartment that’s halfway under ground, halfway above ground with a window that looks to the street floor. It’s musty, cluttered, and does not have wifi. This movie is funny until it’s not. Come for the culturally relevant themes, stay for the wonderfully cast ensemble. So put your glasses on and get ready to read some subtitles.
There’s cringe comedy like Ben Stiller movies where everything goes wrong and then there’s cringe comedy by Tim Robinson that starts normal-is then gets weird and then takes a big turn and then blows up into something you can’t get out of your head and all of a sudden you’re quoting scenes, replaying the sketch again and again, months later still talking about it with friends and coworkers because it’s stuck in your head and you find yourself laughing out loud thinking about how magicians suck! That’s I Think You Should Leave (2019) on Netflix. If you’ve heard, “oh my god he admit it!” or “is it really in my cue zone?” or “the bones are their money” or “remember when I told you you could never be a writer because you don’t have a curious mind” - it’s from this show.