Stateside

Stateside

Samuel Goldwyn Films

February 27, 2004

Drama

DVD
D

Impressively unappealing.  Reverge Anselmo wrote and directed.

Relative Strangers

Relative Strangers

Garlin Pictures etc.

May 1, 2006

Comedy
DVD
C

I gave this 20 minutes because of the cast, but I have to admit that I started to lose interest when DeVito and Bates showed up as the crude bio-parents.  Greg Glienna directed and co-wrote.

Plus One

Plus One

Studio 71 etc.

June 14, 2019

Romcom

DVD
B

This is one of the best romcoms I've seen in ages, but I will freely admit that it is about a mismatch that works despite itself, both romantically and in terms of talent, because Maya Erskine is a raunchy but layered delight as Alice, and no one else is at her level, including Jack Quaid as her best friend and possible love interest.  Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer co-wrote and co-directed.

Best in Show

Best in Show
Warner Bros.
October 20, 2000
Mockumentary
DVD
B

Guest directed and with Levy co-wrote this movie, and the two of them play two of the main characters in it, although each set of dogs & owners gets moments in the spotlight.  I saw this movie at the time and maybe once again in the intervening almost twenty years, and I do think it holds up well, in both humor and story-- all the more impressive considering how much of it was improvised-- but I don't think it has the extra oomph that This Is Spinal Tap (1984, and reviewed here https://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2014/11/this-is-spinal-tap.html) has.  By the way, I think Begley's reference here to a rock band he can't say by name is a Spinal Tap joke. 

I actually forgot which dog won and thought it was Hubert the Hound, but it makes narrative sense for it to be the Flecks' Winky, because that family, especially Gerry (Levy's character), are most the (sorry) underdogs.  And the funniest performance here is Larry Miller's cameo as one of O'Hara's many exes, which surprised me because his humor can be hit or miss for me.  The "not the same Starbucks" line remains classic.

I had to leave Patrick Cranshaw out of the crowded tags, but I will note that he was then 80 and had been playing old men for about thirty years, like on Mork & Mindy.