Glenn Ficarra and John Renqua have made some films that are close to my heart. BAD SANTA, I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS, CRAZY STUPID LOVE are movies that are funny and smart without resorting to schmaltz. Instead, they are subversive satires about human nature, and what happens when wide-eyed innocence meets conniving manipulator. The same… Read More »
BAD SANTA
In BAD SANTA, a film produced by the Coen Brothers and based on their original story, we have a holiday story for our times. One that dares to show us without pulling any punches the nightmare that all this enforced good cheer has become, that exposes the seamy underbelly of what the season has devolved… Read More »
BAD NEWS BEARS
My oh my, but what mess has been made of THE BAD NEWS BEARS. Not that it was ever a classic, except in a minor sense for fans of Tatum O’Neal and Walter Matthau, but what Richard Linklater, a man capable of producing works of unorthodox beauty and beautiful complexity such as WAKING LIFE, has… Read More »