Ron Funches has been the king of dry, soft spoken wit since he first popped on the scene in 2011. After spending years on the road, he’s hit the big time. He’s one of the stars of NBC’s hit sitcom Undateable and is also a regular on @midnight as well as the dearly departed The Kroll Show. Spinning Platters had the honor of getting to speak to Funches recently.
This wouldn’t have happened if Chuck just went to a few comedy shows instead.
WHAT?!? Sketchfest is already here?!?! It’s quite a bit earlier than usual this year; I’m sure that this is due to some strange event — wherein grown men run around and throw objects at each other in order to help promote the new Coldplay album — interfering with everything in the Bay. If you are actually interested in the big football game in Santa Clara, this list probably isn’t for you. However, if you’re like me and have never seen a football game nor got picked for anything athletic in their life, this is your list. This is where you go to determine which of the 824,422,122 amazing comedy events will be happening in San Francisco over the next three weeks.
SF Sketchfest runs from January 7th – 24th. A full schedule of events can be found here.
Spinning Platters film critics present their top 10 films of 2015
Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chad Liffmann each share their ten favorite films of 2015. Here is Chad’s list, presented in reverse-awesome order. Also check out Carrie‘s top ten list!
10.) Cinderella
Lily James emerging from her pumpkin-turned-coach.
A lack of the classic Disney song ‘Cinderelli!’ didn’t prevent Kenneth Branagh’s live action version of Cinderella from reaching magical heights. After a plethora of disappointing “re-imaginings” and “discover the true story” versions of classics — Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland, Oz the Great and Powerful — it was time for a movie to play it straight, and Cinderella did just that. With amazing performances from Lily James and Cate Blanchett and beautiful costumes and set designs, Cinderella (hopefully) represents the first in a new series of live action Disney remakes that stick to the strong source materials without egregious silly additions. (Read my full review of Cinderella here.)
Spinning Platters film critics present their top 10 films of 2015
Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chad Liffmann each share their ten favorite films of 2015. Here is Carrie’s list, presented in alphabetical order. (And you can find Chad’s here.)
1.) Brooklyn
Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) shares a tender moment with boyfriend Tony (Emory Cohen).
The immigrant experience in America is exquisitely captured in director John Crowley’s finely crafted film about love, loss, and longing in 1950s Brooklyn. Based on the novel by Colm Tóibín, Nick Hornby’s screenplay presents us with the intrepid young Irish woman Eilis, who leaves her family in the Irish countryside for adventure and opportunity in New York. Saoirse Ronan suberbly conveys Eilis’s gradual shift from shy newcomer to confident cosmopolitan. Called back home for a family emergency, Eilis must choose between familiar comforts and new possibilities, and Ronan depicts Eilis’s struggle with heartrending openness and aching honesty. Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson, as competing suitors on opposite sides of the Atlantic, also deliver strong, sharply drawn performances.
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New Star Wars Movie
One has aged. The other has not.
[KINDASPOILERS AHEAD]
Don’t let my subtitle fool you—I actually really enjoyed Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I saw it twice and can’t wait to see it again! However, as one of the most highly anticipated films in decades and what will likely be the highest grossing film of all time in the next week (with every word I type it probably makes another $1 million), it was hard to put all my thoughts together in an unbiased film review — after all, I don’t want to be one of the few saying “it’s really not that good”. But what I know now is that as The Force Awakens has marinated in my mind over the past two weeks, I now know that I didn’t just like the film, I actually loved the film. Everything I initially took exception to I have now found justification for, and that’s how my review will unfold:
The competition this year was not quite as violent as that between Wells & Coffey. (Photo: George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress)
2015 marks the 7th consecutive time that the collective staff of Spinning Platters have come together, selected our favorite records of the year, and then spent the following month listening to every possible contender on the list and picking the best of the best. With such an eclectic mix of music — from creative genres birthed into existence, to old artists returning to the fray, and, of course, new works by those still deftly holding fast in the tumult — it definitely made for an interesting set of choices. This year, we had a whopping 54 albums to choose from, and narrowed that list down to our ten favorites over the course of five weeks. Here are the records that made it to the final round.
Grace Jones is an icon in her own right. Her sold out show in Oakland, this past September, exceeded my wildest expectations.
Like many people contributing to Spinning Platters, 2015 was a full and busy year to the point where I didn’t have the time to write and share as much as I would’ve liked. I didn’t go out often and chose to prioritize client work (and a burgeoning drone hobby) over excessive concert-going.
However, quality of the subjects trumped the quantity of shows I attended – especially compared to years past (apologies for the over-used analogy, my mind is on Holiday break). Legendary acts, big names, and a combination of both crossed my lens in the pit this year alongside some up-and-comers that should be on your radar if they’re not already.
Samuel L Jackson in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight
Your typical Quentin Tarantino movie is full of scenes that are powder kegs ready to explode, full of characters you can’t trust, and smart, crackling dialogue that keeps you constantly entertained. But what if the dialog stopped being smart and crackling? You’d have The Hateful Eight.
Brad (Will Ferrell, left) tries to find common ground with Dusty (Mark Wahlberg, r.), his wife’s ex-husband and the father of Brad’s step-children.
Back in 2010, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg starred in a middling buddy cop movie called The Other Guys, which at least had the benefit of being directed by Adam McKay, who directed Ferrell in the well-received Anchorman movies, and is currently garnering deserved praise for the very smart and very funny The Big Short. McKay’s early, relatively innocuous effort pairing Ferrell and Wahlberg, however, looks like the Hamlet of movie comedies compared to the newest film featuring the duo, a lazy, paint-by-numbers, dispiriting picture called Daddy’s Home.
You’ll have a good time partying with these Sisters
Sisters Kate (Tina Fey, l.) and Maura (Amy Poehler) throw an epic party at their childhood home.
Believe it or not, there actually are other films being released today aside from that minor little sci-fi picture that, for some reason, seems to have attracted a fair bit of media attention (kidding, people, kidding!). One of those movies daring to go up against The Most Anticipated Opening Ever is Sisters, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey’s bright, serviceable new comedy.
