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Portlandia: Season 1
Leo Portugal, Literature Editor
Portlandia is a sketch comedy show by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein about the city of Portland and the cast of characters that inhabit it; there are feminists, organic-food snobs, “artists,” and stupidheads. It’s sketch comedy that is oddly specific, yet remains totally universal. And with great guest appearances by the likes of Steve Buscemi, Jason Sudeikis, Aubrey Plaza, Aimee Mann, and Kumail Nanjiani, you really can’t lose.
Episode One opens with a song that serves as a bit of a thesis statement for the show. In it, the following exchange is had:
Fred: Remember when people were content to be un-ambitious? They’d sleep ‘til 11:00, and just hang out with their friends? I mean, they had no occupations, whatsoever… maybe working a couple hours a week at a coffee shop?
Carrie: Right. I thought that died out a long time ago.
Fred: Not in Portland. Portland is a city where young people go to retire.
Brownstein and Armisen are 100% likable and hilarious. They’ve cultivated a great rapport after years of working together as sketch duo Thunderant. In fact, their feminist bookstore characters (as seen in Portlandia) were born in Thunderant. Now Portlandia comes as a wonderfully polished and welcome extension of their past work.
Rabbit Hole
Steve Bessette, Entertainment Editor
When art depicts pain in a prime fashion, it can suspend our little realities and bridge the gap between sympathy and empathy. And for the empathy, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been there and back or not. It’s a false sense of empathy, since it’s fiction. But gosh, when you’re in the throws of this immediate experience, you do feel it. Rabbit Hole does this. This isn’t a tearjerker or a heartbreaker. This’ll rip your fucking heart out and then go for you soul next.
Rabbit Hole is about two parents trying to keep their life and marriage together after their young son gets hit by a car. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart give truly harrowing performances as a mother doing her best not to destroy herself and a father trying to stay physically and emotionally close to his wife during the most painful era of their lives. Though most of it is quiet and introspective, this isn’t an indie movie to throw into typical categories. It’s an underrated, earnest, well-crafted film with a superb supporting cast and striking tone. This isn’t a casual movie to randomly sit down and watch, and you probably won’t want to do anything or go anywhere right after watching, but the emotional experience is worth it.
Judd Apatow’s latest project The Five-Year Engagement has unleashed its full theatrical trailer, for those of you who care. It opens with the title song from that annoying sitcom Whitney, so already the film is not scoring any points with me since I associate it with another mediocre piece of shit. The trailer starts off tame then…Wait, it stays tame. The most shocking moments are when an old person dies and a girl (oh my, a girl!) shoots Emily Blunt in the leg with an arrow. Oh, and we learn Jason Segel doesn’t exercise. Shhh!
The story seems to center around a middle-class couple (played by Emily Blunt and Jason Segel) who get engaged, then have to postpone their wedding. Emily Blunt’s character gets accepted to the University of Michigan, so their wedding is delayed two years. She gets a job after that and the wedding is delayed four years. Who knows what brings it up to a five-year delay. (Jason Segel learning to use a treadmill to get in shape for the wedding?) The couple experiences a few mild arguments (and presumably have one big fight in the film), but appear to get back together in the end because they are crazy in love. Aw! I’ve always wanted a romantic comedy by Judd Apatow, featuring Jason Segel that didn’t make me laugh! What seems to be missing from this trailer is the shocking, raunchy but nonetheless witty humor Apatow is known for. I should’ve seen this coming after Funny People, but I had hopes he could return to his Knocked Up/Superbad days of glory.
The trailer has all the hallmarks of a typical romantic comedy and I see little if any evidence that Apatow had a hand in it. Apatow’s last project, Bridesmaids, redeemed him in my eyes. But this trailer only proves they are trying to capitalize on that film’s success instead of bringing the talented, comedic energy to The Five-Year Engagement that they seem to have used all up on Bridesmaids.
