Well, that was dark. While last week’s episode was possibly the funniest of the series, tonight’s was definitely the least funny – intentionally so. Those of us speculating about how “Veep” would handle the major plot twist from last week’s episode were dealt another curveball this week. Instead of moving forward with Selina’s pregnancy or…
A word like “enchanting” was made for reviews of Wes Anderson films. So were words like “quirky,” “disarming,” and “meticulous.” Which is to say it is very easy to spot a Wes Anderson film and very difficult to be surprised by one. Here is what you can count on: you will hear a great indie-pop…
Last weekend, I was in New York to see the Broadway revival of “Death of a Salesman,” directed by Mike Nichols (“The Graduate,” “Catch-22”) and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willie Loman. I was blown away by his performance, became even more enamored of another actor in the show, and walked out of the theater…
Because Tony Hale spends much of “Baseball,’ the sixth episode of HBO’s “Veep,” awkwardly trying to impress his macho father and because there was a reference to “afternoon delight,” it was hard not to think of “Arrested Development.” Since AD is basically the funniest sitcom of all time, any show that finds itself compared to…
“Where has Will Smith been?” Despite a four-year absence from film that has ended with the recent release of “Men in Black III,” it’s a question no one has been asking. Smith is clearly a movie star; the box-office numbers prove it. Everyone likes him. People go see his movies. But he inspires no rabid…
Sacha Baron Cohen is a childish filmmaker, and I mean that in the most non-judgmental sense. His humor in movies like “Borat” and “Bruno” pushes the viewer far out of his comfort zone, almost as if he is trying to see how far he can go before he gets in trouble. The stories from the…
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is always at her funniest when she’s pissed off. She can do a lot as an actress (she specializes in desperation), but her anger has a wonderfully madcap, absurd quality to it. In this regard, she has always been held back by the limits of network television. Here on HBO, she can let…
This was the week that I really started to like Selina Meyer. The fourth episode of “Veep” miraculously accomplished two things that are hugely important to creating a successful television narrative: it humanized its protagonist and raised the stakes. Last week, I wrote that “Veep” was going down a dangerous road by making Selina too…
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