Defending Your Life was one of the cornerstone films of my childhood. It wasn’t a kid’s movie, but I was such a nerd and an armchair philosopher that I was obsessed with this film. Albert Brooks became my hero. Of course, as I got older, Meryl Streep ALSO became my hero. But the guy also hasn’t done a lot of public appearances in recent years, so it’s super exciting that SF Sketchfest has managed to snag the dude to talk about his career as a a filmmaker, an actor, and, hopefully even his stand up days! Continue reading “New Sketchfest Events! ALBERT F’ING BROOKS!!!!!!”
Tag: Albert Brooks
Film Review: Midsommar
Summertime… and the living is… in doubt
We all look to the light for safety, for warmth, for life. Filmmakers use light to communicate safety or victory, and definitely health. In almost every hospital scene, convalescing characters lie in a bed, tucked safely in sheets, looking out to friends and family, as if to say, “whew … I made it. I’m alive. I’m here,” Hospital sets usually include rejuvenating daytime light cascading in from expansive windows.
All the more impressive, then, that Ari Aster’s ambitious, perplexing, unrelenting film Midsommar uses, abuses, and undermines light, to prove that dread can build in any season, horror respects no clock, and terror can strike on the brightest of sunshiny days.
Film Review: A Most Violent Year
Top-notch thriller explores the underside of the American dream
Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac were overlooked during yesterday’s Oscar nominations, which is a bit disheartening, since they both give tremendous performances in writer/director J.C. Chandor’s newest film, A Most Violent Year (which opened in New York and L.A. in December, making it eligible for this year’s Oscars). Chandor, whose previous pictures include the pulse-quickening, terrific Margin Call and last year’s lost-at-sea thriller All is Lost, is a master at pulling his audience into a visceral time and place, and his skill remains exceptionally sharp, as evidenced here in his latest film.
Film Review: This Is 40
starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segel, Annie Mumulo, Robert Smigel, Megan Fox, Charlyne Yi, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Chris O’Dowd, Melissa McCarthy, Lena Dunham
written and directed by: Judd Apatow
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, crude humor, pervasive language and some drug material
Film Review: “Drive”
starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks, Oscar Isaac
written by: Hossein Amini
directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
MPAA: Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity.