madscientist2787

Elaine, a young witch, uses love spells on men in this satire/homage of mid-century melodramas and Gothic romance fiction. This film boasts some of the most gorgeous set design, costuming and camera-work I've seen in ages. Biller's wholly unique take on gender politics leaves a lot to unpack, but is entertaining through and through.

Gorman Bechard's has created a unique type of music doc here, telling the story of cult-favorite Minneapolis-based rock band The Replacements exclusively via talking heads interviews with the group's fans and contemporaries. No-one from the group themselves is interviewed, nor are any clips, songs, or even photos used.

What could have been an experimental-seeming gimmick actually really draws the viewer in as the interview subjects recount the band's rise to prominence, their anarchic live shows, and the musical envelope-pushing of their early records and subsequent "commercial sound" of their later ones.

The roster of talking heads includes a handful of celebrity admirers like "The Kids in the Hall"s Dave Foley, George Wendt and Tom Arnold, contemporaries like Husker Du's Grant Hart, younger musicians who were influenced by the group like members of the Hold Steady, the Gaslight Anthem, and the Goo Goo Dolls, and a multitude of graying record engineers, punk club promoters, record store owners, college station DJs, and others. Collectively, they paint a vivid portrait of the group. Despite being only passingly familiar with the band, I found this approach deeply involving; much more so than the usual "Behind the Music" approach. Well and truly, a unique documentary.

This political farce, which is the third film that Larry Charles and Sacha Baron Cohen have made together, is also their first which is a straight narrative comedy rather than a prank-laden mockumentary. Although Baron Cohen exhibits the same total commitment to his wacky main character as always, this isn't quite on the same level as Borat, but that's only because you can't write anything as outrageous as tricking a rich Southern family into being okay with bringing a bag of your feces back into the dining room. This film is something of an homage and a reversal of Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Whereas Chaplin's film focused on a poor barber impersonating the Hitler-like ruler, Cohen's Admiral General Aladeen is shaved and abandoned in New York City, where no one recognizes him, while his uncle schemes to present his mentally challenged double to the United Nations. There is even an ironic inspirational speech at the end, which recalls the Chaplin classic. The film is very funny and happy to offend. It's dedicated to the memory of Kim-Jong Il, Aladeen plays a Wii shooter game of the '76 Munich Olympics, and tells feminist, organic co-op owning love interest Anna Faris "There's a woman going to school is like a monkey on rollerskates. It means nothing to them, but it's so adorable to us!" Jason Mantzoukas, Ben Kingsley, John C. Reilly, Fred Armisen, Aasif Mandvi and Chris Parnell all have funny supporting roles, and the soundtrack contains covers of pop songs, like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's "The Next Episode" and R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" sung in Arabic-sounding gibberish.