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Written and directed by Charlie Day, his first credit as director. What appears to be just another gang gang romp ends up being a surprisingly sophisticated and watchable film. Charlie Day plays a character called Latte Pronto who says no more than five words the whole film. It's not a silent film, but Charlie Day is largely silent. So the tribute to Charlie Chaplin can't be ignored, nor can the Lynchian critique of Los Angeles and the New Wave-inflected pacing and edit. It's billed as a comedy, but that's almost a Shakespearean category here. Some of the shots are way more beautiful than a movie directed by Charlie Day needed to be. It feels the only authentic Hollywood products these days are the movies about making movies (forgive me, but I thought Babylon was OK until they obviously started running out of ideas...) and in the case of Fool's Paradise, there's a really engrossing postmodern thing happening stylistically: time has collapsed. Ken Jeong plays a desperate never-was; Kate Beckinsale, hotter than ever, sells her character exactly too much. A pretty vicious George Lopez dig turns out to be (according to the credits) a hint to an easter egg.
Nov 16, 2023

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This 2007 cult classic from Richard Kelly has it all: An insane ensemble cast including The Rock, Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Janeane Garofalo, and Wallace Shawn. An original score from Moby. Nonstop schizzed-out nonsense about the end of the world, quantum entanglement, psychic porn stars, exploding blimps, and, as Timberlake helpfully informs his drug dealer, “angels under a sea of black umbrellas, angels who can see through time.” Then he pours a can of Bud on his head and lip-syncs a Killers song to an arcade full of strippers.
Jun 28, 2022
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Kevin Corrigan is the lead and Michael Rapaport amongst others are a great supporting cast. Someone was kind enough to put the full film on YouTube. I love an aimless script just full of shenanigans and banter. Also I love that the poster on Letterboxd looks scuffed, was that the design or did someone scan a scuffed up poster for it?
Feb 27, 2024

Top Recs from @howmanygods

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Any kind.
Nov 29, 2023
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Finally a media product honest about the psychosexual trauma and deranged generational entitlement of millennials. The Fielder-Safdie meetup bridges the confounding cinéma vérité of the former with the disconcerting aesthetic of the latter. To be sure, I'd call this a "drama;" but, as is the case with the auteurs here, the blurring of "reality" with "fiction" ends up presenting a truth larger than the sum of its parts. Well-meaning liberals gentrify the frontier, while excusing themselves from the shitty and destructive behavior that they knowingly partake in. Emma Stone is truly un-believable, an uncanny powerhouse. There's no boundary here, in the Derridian sense: you are at fault as you watch, especially when Nathan shows us his tiny, tiny, tiny little dick. "It's not a big deal and I'm not insecure about it."
Dec 11, 2023
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An astounding aside in one of the greatest filmmaker's greatest films, Nick Cave and co are accompanied by angels.
Nov 8, 2023