Out of Order

I've been an Eric Stoltz fan dating back to Fast Times and The Wild Life, so it's very gratifying to see him in this extremely adult show playing such an extremely adult part. Out of Order is going to be hugely popular, I predict - it's brilliantly written, intelligent, funny, wildly creative, extraordinarily insightful and it's got balls. I was hooked 3 minutes into the opening episode, maybe earlier.

All the characters are well-developed, no caricatures here, and the relationships felt real to me, particularly the one between Mark and Danni, and Stoltz' trying-to-masturbate-but-continually-being-interrupted sequence was priceless. This show exists on the fine line of being able to be funny although not at the expense of its characters but rather BECAUSE of its characters, who are allowed to show their inner lives - Stoltz' Mark in particular, and it feels right, of course, because he's a writer, and we do have highly developed inner lives if nothing else. To the real-life writing team who brought this show to fruition, I say keep up the great work. We'll be watching.

Not that I think it's truly fair to compare the two, but if you liked "Adaptation" as I loved it, you will obsess over the "Out Of Order." It's funny, witty, wise, wonderful, creative, charming, and highly addictive. Honestly, I was a little hesitant falling into such a world of chaos as its familliar, a satire of the known and even scarier, the unknown. But I liked it and want more. My only regret is that its not a longer show, but in its defense, despite how much fun you'll have watching it, time doesn't fly and the short hour seems like an enjoyable eternity. That is until you realize its over and have to wait until next week. And the cast is perfect, whoever casted the movie is a genius. Eric Stoltz is the man. The leading ladies are beautiful and talented to the point you forget they are A.M.W.'s--you'll have to watch to understand what that means--and William H. Macy is always a treat. Based on the life of a screenwriter Mark, and his troubles with his wife to his partner screenwriter, Lorna and, well, life. The cool thing is that Out of Order revolves somewhat around the actual screenwriters Wayne and Donna Powers who give inspiration for the starring characters. A must see, especially if your life is out of order.

I saw this tonight at the Minn/St Paul Film Fest, it's dark sexy weird and kind of funny too. The story is basically of a husband and wife screen writing team trying to keep their heads and love about them in modern day corrupt Hollywood.

The couple is played by Eric Stolz (Pulp Fiction, Mask) and Felicity Huffman (Sports Night, Frasier) both better here than I've ever seen them, and they've both been in a lot of good stuff before. They have a difficult marriage, and both have affairs; she with William H. Macy (Fargo, Pleasantville) and he with Kim Dickens (Things Behind the Sun) and possibly Justine Bateman (who has one of the funniest lines in the film, too 'blue' to reprint here, but hearing it come out of 'Mallory' from 'Family Ties' mouth was a big surprise and got a huge laugh!) It's an odd story, but I ended up caring for them, because even though they are both screw ups, they TRY to be good parents and good people, and I guess that's what moved me, they aren't the cookie cutter romantics that work out all their problems, in fact they actually compound their problems by the end. There are a lot of dubious elements involved; it's very frank and sexual and not in a coy way, and they experiment with illegal substances too, but it's surprisingly straightforward about it, in a way that took me by surprise. There's an element of whimsy too, he sees his life 'as a movie' so a movie crew follows him around, which confused me at first but then I warmed up to it. It's very well done, much deeper than most 'story of a marriage' stories, things between the husband and wife are not easy but they struck me as being true. The acting is all great, as is the camera work. Sometimes the music bordered on cheesy, but overall I'd say this was a terrific little movie. I'd give it a 8 out of 10.

I was hooked after seeing the pilot. I was fortunate enough to see the rest of the episodes one after the other with Video On Demand (digital Cable). I found myself relating to situations even though I was never in that position before. I thought it was season 1 of a new show at first, and it's too bad that it was a miniseries. I'm sure there are many or will be many shows that describe this period of life that people have; Having children, working, dream house and around all that showing the difficulties or problems that arise. However, this miniseries was done so well, it wasn't afraid to show what really can or could happen as two people try to make it through life together.

I saw this pilot last night on Showtime. I must say, it's refreshing to have another "real life" show back on. Eric Stoltz shines, as usual. His charm and creative acting brings life to the screen. He is real and true to his character. We feel for him. The actress that plays his wife is also wonderful. She brought reality to the "manic depressive" and takes it to the limit. I believe she wants help but just doesn't know where to start. All the characters were great! The acting was great and the storyline is very real. For people that live in the entertainment industry, knows that writing can be very stressful and puts a lot of unncessary pressure on you. But, again, I'm back to Eric Stoltz. He's brilliant as an actor and producer but even better as a Director. He carries this show and because of that, I think SHOWTIME has a hit on their hands yet again!