Archive for the ‘Comedy/Laffs’ Category
Friday, January 2nd, 2026
There are a couple reasons why BRONCO BILLY isn’t one of the better aged Clint Eastwood pictures. First of all, it’s part of that phenomenon that he was so enamored of Sondra Locke that he kept putting her in movies, but playing his most obnoxious love interests (here a comically snide and uptight heiress whose upper crust accent exaggerates more with each cowboy she comes in contact with). These days that also means you might be reminded that after they broke up he reportedly used his clout to sabotage her career.
It’s also a particularly blunt version of the “yeah he’s sexist but he’s secretly sweet and she’ll come around” trope. Clint’s “Bronco” Billy McCoy coerces Locke’s Antoinette Lily into working as his assistant when she’s just trying to borrow a dime for the pay phone. Then he slaps her on the ass. He does rescue her from rapists (good), but then makes a pass at her (insensitive). Maybe worst of all he interrupts her explanation of why she knows how to shoot guns already and then never follows up. I don’t need to know, but he should care if he’s supposed to be in love with her! Anyway I did not find the magical untightening of the rich lady to be all that charming.
At the same time as all that the movie does have a timeless appeal that I can’t resist, because it’s about a tight crew of show-people who have worked together for years, get mad at each other but would die for each other, and have sacrificed to live unconventional lives dedicated to this thing they do together, this traveling wild west show. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Beverly McKinsey, Bill McKinney, Clint Eastwood, Dan Vadis, David Worth, Dennis Hackin, Geoffrey Lewis, Merle Haggard, Sam Bottoms, Scatman Crothers, Sierra Pecheur, Sondra Locke, Walter Barnes
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, December 30th, 2025
There’s this distribution company called Gravitas Ventures. They’re owned by Shout! Studios, but they just put out indie movies, mostly ones you’ve never heard of, both on VOD and on DVD-R. They’ve been around for almost 20 years and their biggest moment might be in 2021 when THE MOLE AGENT was nominated for the best documentary Oscar. That’s the Chilean documentary that inspired the Ted Danson show A Man on the Inside, which you can see on Netflix, not from Gravitas. And maybe you haven’t heard of that either.
Oh, they also put out DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS. And GRIZZLY II: THE REVENGE. I’ve seen those. And they did SLOTHERHOUSE. I’ve heard of that one.
Being released by Gravitas is not a mark of quality. Most of their stuff, honestly, I assume I wouldn’t like. (Could definitely be wrong.) But I appreciate their existence just because they’re putting movies onto physical media that otherwise would disappear, either by not being noticed or not being available. Some obscure movie that played at some obscure film festival, somebody worked hard on it, very few noticed, but Gravitas did, so there it is on a purple DVD, if you need it. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Alex Ebert, Gravitas Ventures, Kyaw Kyaw, Maja Holzinger, Myanmar, punk, Zero External Reviews on IMDb
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2025
FUCK MY SON! is a movie that, for the foreseeable future, you’re only gonna see if it comes to your town as part of a road show. Writer/director Todd Rohal (THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE, THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM) is traveling around with a 35mm print that hit Seattle last weekend and has many more stops lined up.
Rohal says he plans to do that for at least a year, and that he’ll never license it to streaming, though eventually it will come to physical media. But it’s the kind of thing that if you’re gonna have a great time it’s probly gonna be in a midnight movie (for me 8pm) type scenario laughing, cringing and groaning together with other area weirdos. Did I mention it’s called FUCK MY SON!?
It’s based on a comic book by Johnny Ryan (Looney Tunes Cartoons, Who Raped My Horse?), and this screening started with a puppet show based on another Ryan comic, followed by a discussion between Ryan and fellow alternative comix legend Peter Bagge. The former was grossed out by the fake poop left on the ground by the puppeteers and made Rohal clean it up. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Gabe Bartalos, Hormel Chili, Johnny Ryan, Kynzie Colmery, Robert Kurtzman, Robert Longstreet, Steve Little, Tipper Newton, Todd Rohal, x-rated
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs, Comic strips/Super heroes | 31 Comments »
Tuesday, December 9th, 2025
THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM (2011) is weirdly-titled Todd Rohal comedy #2, and truly the only thing I knew about it was that the OCN partner label Factory 25 gave it a special edition blu-ray a few years ago and some people seemed to think it was some type of cult classic. I feel pretty ignorant now because it turns out it’s a Seattle production and I even know a couple people in the credits. I had no idea.
I also didn’t know that it’s a two-hander with two actors I like who I’ve never seen in lead roles like this before. Steve Little, who I know as Kenny Powers’ sycophantic sidekick Stevie Janowski on Eastbound & Down, plays a very similar character here, except that he has somehow become a priest. Father Billy causes concern with the elders when they overhear him telling a long story to his Bible study group and admitting it’s not biblical, not allegorical, just some crazy shit he read on the internet. “It was more of a joke story,” he explains when asked how it pertains to their discussion of Deuteronomy. He’s also into heavy metal, calls everybody “dude,” and doesn’t know how to modulate in front of people who expect him to behave like a grown adult and/or clergyman. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Robert Longstreet, Rough House Productions, Steve Little, Todd Rohal
Posted in Comedy/Laffs | 3 Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2025
Recently I got invited to see this new movie called FUCK MY SON!. It’s a disgusting x-rated comedy based on a Johnny Ryan comic, meant as a theatrical experience, they’re road-showing a 35mm print around and it was in Seattle on Friday and Saturday. Beforehand I looked at writer/director Todd Rohal’s filmography and noticed two titles I’d been vaguely aware of for many years. I really had no idea what they were about, just that somebody some time told me they were good. I decided to watch those and review them before the new one, so today we’ll be discussing Rohal’s 2006 debut THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE. It’s the very definition of a “not for everyone” movie, though in an entirely different way than FUCK MY SON!. But I liked it, so I’ll tell you about it in case you’re not everyone.
There is a Guatemalan character in the movie, but I couldn’t tell you what the title means. Other aspects I could describe but not explain. It’s a very odd, absurd but dry comedy (arguably dramedy?) about a group of interconnected characters going on with life after the simultaneous disappearances of a guy named Donald (Will Oldham, WENDY AND LUCY, JACKASS 3D, THE BIKERIDERS), his dad’s goofy electric car, and an old lady’s dog. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Cory McAbee, David Wingo, demolition derby, Todd Rohal, Will Oldham
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs | 3 Comments »
Thursday, December 4th, 2025
CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT is a movie that I heard about last Christmas but it wasn’t on video yet. Some people were really flipping for it and that’s really all I knew about it, so I checked it out when I saw it was on blu-ray this week.
I think what they were responding to is that it’s very old school in many ways: beautiful cinematography, big ensemble cast of mostly unfamiliar faces who seem very natural, an emphasis on characters and moments over any sort of plot, a shockingly low amount of conflict. It’s about a huge family get-together and involves multiple age groups but the movie it most reminds me of is AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Probly not coincidentally the cast features a couple children of George Lucas’s friends (Francesca Scorsese and Sawyer Spielberg).
Of course, that led to a horrifying realization that AMERICAN GRAFFITI was set 11 years before the time of its release, while this is set sometime in the aughts, so it’s more like 20 years ago, but doesn’t seem like it. The biggest differences are flip phones and one family still has a station wagon with faux-wood paneling. It kinda feels timeless though because the music is much older and the fashions aren’t very aggressive. It could almost be five years ago, or thirty, or forty. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Carson Lund, Chris Lazzaro, Christmas, Elsie Fisher, Eric Berger, Francesca Scorsese, Gregg Turkington, Kevin Anton, Maria Dizzia, Matilda Fleming, Michael Cera, Sawyer Spielberg, Tony Savino, Tyler Taormina
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs, Drama | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, November 12th, 2025
BASKET CASE 3 (advertised with the subtitle THE PROGENY, but that’s not on the actual credits) came a year after part 2 and continues in a similar vein. Once again, they knew exactly which “previously on” footage would make an incredible opening (Belial doggystyling Eve).
We’re still at Grannie Ruth’s place. She re-separated the twins after Duane’s little self-surgery, and luckily she has a padded cell and straitjacket for him. (Where does she get the money for this stuff? Is she eligible for grants?) Duane has been spaced out for months, giving Grannie an excuse to straight up tell him/us what’s going on now: Belial has gotten Eve pregnant, and “no one’s exactly sure what will come out of her,” so they’re all getting on a school bus for a road trip to Georgia, because some guy named Uncle Hal (Dan Biggers, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL) is “the only doctor I’d trust with a delicate case like this.” (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Annie Ross, Frank Henenlotter, Gabe Bartalos, Jim O'Doherty, Kevin VanHentenryck
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs, Horror, Monster | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2025
You know from the jump that BASKET CASE 2 (1990) is gonna have a little more money behind it than the first one, because it has both Troma and Shapiro Glickenhaus credits. That’s power right there. For those just joining it starts with footage from the end of part 1, with poor Duane and his murderous, surgically separated lump brother Belial hanging off a hotel sign, falling and splattering in front of screaming New Yorkers. We also get a news report from Times Square, describing Belial as “a small, grotesque monstrosity” and a “small, twisted deformity whose most startling feature is an unnervingly human face” and a “strange little being” that “might actually be human.”
An old lady, Grannie Ruth (Annie Ross, PUMP UP THE VOLUME), and her adult granddaughter Susan (Heather Rattray, “White House Press Conference Reporter [uncredited],” DEEP IMPACT) flip through the channels watching all the coverage, and seem to know who the Bradleys are, and they head to the hospital to free them. By that time though the boys have already escaped on their own and added to their crime spree. (Henenlotter pulls a HALLOWEEN II by having hospital staff hitting on each other before becoming victims.)
(read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Annie Ross, Frank Henenlotter, Gabe Bartalos, Heather Rattray, Jason Evers, Joe Renzetti, Kathryn Meisle, Kevin VanHentenryck
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs, Horror, Monster | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, October 14th, 2025
(there will be spoilers)
I was pretty sure I’d like Paul Thomas Anderson’s ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, but I was surprised to walk out feeling it was the movie of the year. That’s not only because it speaks so deeply to our exact moment of political insanity, but because it’s such an exhilarating viewing experience – confident, masterful filmmaking, very effective as a thriller, but also extremely funny, absurd and original. It’s possibly Anderson’s most traditionally entertaining movie but it doesn’t feel in any way watered down or compromised.
I saw it in bona fide IMAX, where its Vista Vision format fills the entire screen, so the anxiety-inducing score by Johnny Greenwood rumbles in your jaw as you stare at a scraggly, sweaty, 37-foot-tall Leonardo DiCaprio face fretting and scowling. Then sometimes it switches to a taller version of a Sergio-Leone-type-shot where two tiny characters stand apart on opposite sides of the screen. That’s the full range of cinema right there.
The credits say this was inspired by (not adapted from) the book Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. I was surprised when I learned that character names like Perfidia Beverly Hills, Virgil Throckmorton and Junglepussy didn’t come from the book. These little heightened details spike a mostly naturalistic feeling world with exaggeration and draw attention to the authentic ridiculousness of our world. Sometimes that feels more real than if it was realistic. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Benicio Del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Eric Schweig, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Thomas Pynchon
Posted in Reviews, Action, Comedy/Laffs, Drama, Thriller | 20 Comments »
Thursday, October 9th, 2025
VILLAINS is a 2019 indie movie I’ve wondered about for a while. It uses the reliable formula “somebody tries to rob a house and discovers a horrific thing going on there.” Other ones that come to mind are THE COLLECTOR, LIVID and DON’T BREATHE. This is a much jokier take on the format than any of those, more of a dark comedy than anything, but I’d say it’s at least horror adjacent. There are maniacs doing something crazy, it takes death seriously, it stars two perhaps underrecognized greats of contemporary horror… yeah, I’ll count it as horror.
It’s about a couple of addled deadbeats named Mickey (Pennywise/Orlok/The Crow himself Bill Skarsgård) and Jules (Maika Monroe, THE GUEST, IT FOLLOWS, WATCHER, LONGLEGS) who clumsily rob their last gas station, intending to use the money to move to Florida and start a new life selling seashells. Trouble is they run out of gas on a remote, wooded road. They are not criminal masterminds.
On foot they find a large, isolated house where no one seems to be home. They break in, hoping to steal the car in the garage or come up with some other escape plan. But they face a moral dilemma when they find a young silent girl (Blake Baumgartner, MADELINE’S MADELINE) chained up in the dark basement. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Bill Skarsgard, Black List, Dan Berk, Jeffrey Donovan, Kyra Sedgwick, Maika Monroe, Robert Olsen
Posted in Reviews, Comedy/Laffs, Crime, Horror | 5 Comments »
