Latest news with #CurbYourEnthusiasm
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Paul Rudd, Tim Robinson and the art of social suicide
FRIENDSHIP ★★½ CTC. 100 minutes. In cinemas July 17 Friendship is a comedy of embarrassment. It may make you may laugh or, like me, you may spend most of the film muttering, 'No, don't do it.' It's an absurdist take on male friendship. Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) has no friends of either sex. In contrast, his wife, Tami (Kate Mara), who readily admits that their sex life is far from orgasmic, has many friends. In the film's opening scene, she's about to go out with one who also happens to be an ex-boyfriend. Craig, on the other hand, is staying home alone in front of the television, having failed to persuade their teenage son to watch the latest Marvel movie with him. This routine changes abruptly when Craig meets the family's new neighbour, Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), a TV weatherman who fancies himself an adventurer. Instead of saying 'see you later' at the end of their first meeting, he points a finger at Craig and cries: 'Stay curious!' Instantly entranced, Craig takes him seriously and Austin, deciding that he's an affable eccentric with entertainment value, starts hanging out with him. They go on adventures together and Craig begins to loosen up with predictably mortifying consequences. The film's director, Andrew DeYoung, a friend of Robinson's, wrote the role especially for him by way of giving him the chance to elaborate on the kind of embarrassments he's been perpetrating in I Think You Should Leave Now, the sketch comedy series that has acquired a cult audience on Netflix. The typical Robinson character knows no boundaries. He's a juvenile variation on Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Whatever you say about Larry's tin-eared response to the sensitivities of others and his tenacity in holding a grudge, he's a grown-up. Robinson, however, is stuck in pre-adolescence. He's the naughtiest kid in the class, harbouring an obsession with bodily function jokes together with a bubbling desire to shock in the most bizarre way he can dream up. Naturally, he soon proves too much for Austin and after one particularly disastrous evening, Austin tells Craig that they're breaking up. The friendship is over.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Paul Rudd, Tim Robinson and the art of social suicide
FRIENDSHIP ★★½ CTC. 100 minutes. In cinemas July 17 Friendship is a comedy of embarrassment. It may make you may laugh or, like me, you may spend most of the film muttering, 'No, don't do it.' It's an absurdist take on male friendship. Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) has no friends of either sex. In contrast, his wife, Tami (Kate Mara), who readily admits that their sex life is far from orgasmic, has many friends. In the film's opening scene, she's about to go out with one who also happens to be an ex-boyfriend. Craig, on the other hand, is staying home alone in front of the television, having failed to persuade their teenage son to watch the latest Marvel movie with him. This routine changes abruptly when Craig meets the family's new neighbour, Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), a TV weatherman who fancies himself an adventurer. Instead of saying 'see you later' at the end of their first meeting, he points a finger at Craig and cries: 'Stay curious!' Instantly entranced, Craig takes him seriously and Austin, deciding that he's an affable eccentric with entertainment value, starts hanging out with him. They go on adventures together and Craig begins to loosen up with predictably mortifying consequences. The film's director, Andrew DeYoung, a friend of Robinson's, wrote the role especially for him by way of giving him the chance to elaborate on the kind of embarrassments he's been perpetrating in I Think You Should Leave Now, the sketch comedy series that has acquired a cult audience on Netflix. The typical Robinson character knows no boundaries. He's a juvenile variation on Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Whatever you say about Larry's tin-eared response to the sensitivities of others and his tenacity in holding a grudge, he's a grown-up. Robinson, however, is stuck in pre-adolescence. He's the naughtiest kid in the class, harbouring an obsession with bodily function jokes together with a bubbling desire to shock in the most bizarre way he can dream up. Naturally, he soon proves too much for Austin and after one particularly disastrous evening, Austin tells Craig that they're breaking up. The friendship is over.
Black America Web
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Larry David And The Obamas Team Up For An HBO Sketch Comedy
Sometimes comedy makes strange bedfellows. The co-creator of Seinfeld and the star and creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm is teaming up with the most elegant first family to ever grace the White House for an HBO sketch show about the history of America. 'David will act as co-creator will act as executive producer, writer and star of the limited series consisting of six half-hour episodes, produced by the Obamas' company, Higher Ground,' HuffPost reports. This will be David's first return to HBO since ending Curb Your Enthusiasm a year ago, and the jokes are already coming. 'Once 'Curb' ended, I celebrated with a three-day foam party. After a violent allergic reaction to the suds, I yearned to return to my simple life as a beekeeper, harvesting organic honey from the wildflowers in my meadow,' David said. 'Alas, one day my bees mysteriously vanished. And so, it is with a heavy heart that I return to television, hoping to ease the loss of my beloved hive.' HuffPost notes that 'Curb' showrunner Jeff Schaffer will be back with David to co-write and direct episodes. 'President and Mrs. Obama wanted to honor America's 250th anniversary and celebrate the unique history of our nation on this special occasion. …But then Larry David called,' the logline of the yet-to-be-named project noted. Barack Obama's statement added: 'I've sat across the table from some of the world's most difficult leaders and wrestled with some of our most intractable problems. Nothing has prepared me for working with Larry David.' Jokes aside, shortly after leaving the White House, the Obamas launched 'Higher Ground' production company that has already produced the 'Oscar-winning documentary American Factory , the kids series Waffles + Mochi , and the movies Rustin and Leave the World Behind . There is no set date for when the HBO series is set to premiere, but see how social media is reacting to the news below. Larry David And The Obamas Team Up For An HBO Sketch Comedy was originally published on
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The backlash started before this show began. 13 years later, it's found its audience
The backlash had begun before Girls even premiered – how had this 25-year-old indie filmmaker with one feature under her belt locked down an HBO deal with Judd Apatow? We didn't yet use the phrase 'nepo baby', but Dunham's NYC-based artist parents sounded glamorous enough to have connections that made it possible. Once the show premiered it was like a shot of nitrous in the hot takes engine that fuelled online media – especially its unvarnished sex scenes, often featuring moments of discomfort and shots of Dunham's very normal body that were not optimised to be titillating or 'flattering'. The show's reputation also suffered from the conflation of Dunham's character with Dunham herself. Hannah's gracelessness dovetailed neatly with Dunham's sometimes clumsy navigation of becoming a public figure. I wrote about Girls regularly and when it came up in conversation people (usually women) would say 'I just find them all so insufferable, especially her.' They would wince and squirm, the way I do about the exquisite but (for me) unwatchable cringe comedy of Curb Your Enthusiasm – a fictional show with a protagonist explicitly based on its actual creator that is nonetheless received as fiction. In the years since the show's sixth and final season ended in 2018, Dunham's reputation as a particular kind of annoying, oblivious white woman had crystallised. A provocatively phrased story in her collection of essays about inappropriate play with her baby sibling Cyrus when she was a small child is behind the oft-repeated claims that she is a sexual abuser, despite Cyrus repeatedly denying any harm. More troubling was her full-throated defence of a Girls writer accused of assault, which Dunham later retracted and apologised for. But while Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner vanished from public life after being accused of sexual harassment (an accusation he has contested), it didn't spark any soul-searching about whether his creation was still one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Loading All this is to say that despite the critical praise and 19 Emmy nominations, it still feels like Girls never had a chance to be received on its own merits. Its current renaissance feels two-pronged: younger audiences watching for the first time as adults, and people in their 30s or older appreciating this wise, spiky coming-of-age story with the benefit of a little hindsight. For all that people say they want relatable content, seeing yourself in awkward, annoying characters is sometimes just too painful if you haven't made peace with your own annoying awkwardness. One of the major flashpoints of Gen Z's obsession is Marnie Michaels, Hannah's best friend (herself based on Dunham's real-life BFF and #girlboss final boss, The Wing founder Audrey Gelman). Marnie is a put-together striver with perfect hair, a shiny foil for Hannah's bush-out messiness, cursed with far more determination than self-awareness. If you were playing Which Girls Girl Are You?, nobody wanted to be a Marnie. Actor Allison Williams recently theorised that audiences hated her character so much because it was 'a really unflattering mirror – a lot of people were Marnies and didn't want to admit it.' Much of the cringe was that she tried hard, and openly wanted things, and Williams says Gen Z viewers are reframing Marnie's fussiness as self-care and self-knowledge on the path to the life she wants to lead. 'A lot of people don't want to be seen becoming something,' Williams said. 'They just wanna be it already.' As the first generation to do a huge amount of our 'becoming' online and thus in public, in ways we're still reckoning with, millennials have been the butt of the joke online for a few years now – both snark-poisoned and too earnest, clinging to nostalgic media as we enter ungraceful middle age. But we're also old enough to look at people in their 20s and younger with real tenderness, and forgive them their cringe because it is also ours.
The Age
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
The backlash started before this show began. 13 years later, it's found its audience
The backlash had begun before Girls even premiered – how had this 25-year-old indie filmmaker with one feature under her belt locked down an HBO deal with Judd Apatow? We didn't yet use the phrase 'nepo baby', but Dunham's NYC-based artist parents sounded glamorous enough to have connections that made it possible. Once the show premiered it was like a shot of nitrous in the hot takes engine that fuelled online media – especially its unvarnished sex scenes, often featuring moments of discomfort and shots of Dunham's very normal body that were not optimised to be titillating or 'flattering'. The show's reputation also suffered from the conflation of Dunham's character with Dunham herself. Hannah's gracelessness dovetailed neatly with Dunham's sometimes clumsy navigation of becoming a public figure. I wrote about Girls regularly and when it came up in conversation people (usually women) would say 'I just find them all so insufferable, especially her.' They would wince and squirm, the way I do about the exquisite but (for me) unwatchable cringe comedy of Curb Your Enthusiasm – a fictional show with a protagonist explicitly based on its actual creator that is nonetheless received as fiction. In the years since the show's sixth and final season ended in 2018, Dunham's reputation as a particular kind of annoying, oblivious white woman had crystallised. A provocatively phrased story in her collection of essays about inappropriate play with her baby sibling Cyrus when she was a small child is behind the oft-repeated claims that she is a sexual abuser, despite Cyrus repeatedly denying any harm. More troubling was her full-throated defence of a Girls writer accused of assault, which Dunham later retracted and apologised for. But while Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner vanished from public life after being accused of sexual harassment (an accusation he has contested), it didn't spark any soul-searching about whether his creation was still one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Loading All this is to say that despite the critical praise and 19 Emmy nominations, it still feels like Girls never had a chance to be received on its own merits. Its current renaissance feels two-pronged: younger audiences watching for the first time as adults, and people in their 30s or older appreciating this wise, spiky coming-of-age story with the benefit of a little hindsight. For all that people say they want relatable content, seeing yourself in awkward, annoying characters is sometimes just too painful if you haven't made peace with your own annoying awkwardness. One of the major flashpoints of Gen Z's obsession is Marnie Michaels, Hannah's best friend (herself based on Dunham's real-life BFF and #girlboss final boss, The Wing founder Audrey Gelman). Marnie is a put-together striver with perfect hair, a shiny foil for Hannah's bush-out messiness, cursed with far more determination than self-awareness. If you were playing Which Girls Girl Are You?, nobody wanted to be a Marnie. Actor Allison Williams recently theorised that audiences hated her character so much because it was 'a really unflattering mirror – a lot of people were Marnies and didn't want to admit it.' Much of the cringe was that she tried hard, and openly wanted things, and Williams says Gen Z viewers are reframing Marnie's fussiness as self-care and self-knowledge on the path to the life she wants to lead. 'A lot of people don't want to be seen becoming something,' Williams said. 'They just wanna be it already.' As the first generation to do a huge amount of our 'becoming' online and thus in public, in ways we're still reckoning with, millennials have been the butt of the joke online for a few years now – both snark-poisoned and too earnest, clinging to nostalgic media as we enter ungraceful middle age. But we're also old enough to look at people in their 20s and younger with real tenderness, and forgive them their cringe because it is also ours.
