Film Review: Is This Thing On? (dir by Bradley Cooper)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I watched 2025’s Is This Thing On?, I found myself making a special plea to the Academy.

Dear Academy, I wrote in my head,

Please, please, please hurry up and give Bradley Cooper an Oscar so he’ll stop directing these depressing movies.  Love, Lisa Marie

Is This Thing On? is technically a dramedy.  Will Arnett and Laura Dern star as Alex and Tess Novak, a separated couple who try to learn how to be friends and parents while in the process of splitting up.  Both of them find fulfilment in activities that they couldn’t necessarily pursue while being married.  Tess once again starts coaching volleyball and dating Peyton Manning.  (Technically, Peyton Manning plays a character named Laird but, for all intents and purposes, he’s Peyton Manning.)  And Alex becomes a stand-up comedian, performing a routine about his failing marriage.

Casting Will Arnett as a comedian with a dark side isn’t that much of a stretch and Arnett does do a good job in the role, even if he sometimes seems to be doing a bit of a Bradley Cooper imitation himself.  (Of course, Cooper himself also appears in the movie, playing Arnett’s best friend.)  Arnett is not only plays the lead role but he also co-wrote the script.  Both Arnett and Cooper have been open about their past struggles with alcoholism and Is This Thing On?, with its muted color scheme and its nervous camera work, is very much a 12-step film.  It’s a movie where people talk and talk and talk about their problems and their past mistakes and their regrets.  The scenes of Alex performing stand-up have an AA feeling to them.  One could just as easily imagine Alex taking the stage and saying, “Hi, I’m Alex and I’m an alcoholic.”  The support that he gets from the audience feels very much like the applause that one would get upon announcing they had gone a week, a month, or a year without taking a drink.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Many stand-up comedians have attested to the fact that their sets often double as therapy.  I used to be pretty cynical about programs like AA but then I saw how it helped my Dad not only get sober but also stay sober.  Cooper and Arnett are smart enough to not focus too much time on Arnett’s stand-up.  We see enough to convince us that people would find him to be funny but the movie seems to understand that humor is subjective and, unlike other stand-up films like The Comedian, it doesn’t beg us to laugh at Alex’s act.  I appreciated the fact that the laughter in the club scenes sounded like actual laughter, as opposed to sounding like a bunch of extra being ordered to make a joyful noise no matter what.

Is This Thing On? is well-acted and, though he leans a bit too much on the jittery hand-held camera thing, Cooper’s direction gets better as it goes but ultimately, Alex and Tess never really come across as if their worth all the trouble.  They come across as being the self-absorbed friends that everyone secretly hopes won’t be able to make it to the party.  Unlike Cooper’s A Star Is Born, the film never quite convinces us that we’re watching real relationship.  It’s easy to believe that Tess could get back into coaching volleyball after she splits up with Alex but when Tess announces that she’s been offered a spot coaching the Olympic team, it’s hard not to roll your eyes just a little.  Being offered a chance to coach the high school team or maybe the community center team would have worked just as well.  Instead, it has to be the Olympics.  It’s one of those things, like quitting your job and using your homemade cupcakes to open a bakery, that only happens in Hollywood films.

Music Video of the Day: I Won’t Forget You by Poison (1987, directed by John Jopson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s the sensitive side of Poison.

I’ve been reading Nothin’ But A Good Time, an oral history of the 80s “hair metal” scene.  Poison emerges as unlikely heroes in the narrative, a band that worked hard to put on a good show and managed to avoid a lot of the excesses that plagued other bands of the era.  Before he landed his spot with Guns ‘N’ Roses, Slash reluctantly auditioned out for Poison.  Bret Michaels wanted to hire him but the rest of the band preferred CC Deville.  It turned out to be the right choice for both the band and Slash.

This video was directed by John Jopson, who also directed videos for The Hooters, Icehouse, and everyone’s favorite, Air Supply.

Musical Film Review: Freebird…. The Movie (dir by Jeff G. Waxman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

My Dad was a huge Skynard fan.

When I was little, I didn’t really know that there was any controversy about the lyrics of Sweet Home Alabama or the fact that Lynard Skynard’s stage show usually featured a Confederate flag.  I didn’t know what Tuesday’s Gone was about.  I didn’t know that Free Bird was considered to be a classic by anyone other than my father.  I didn’t even know about the tragic 1977 airplane crash.  I just knew that when my Dad was driving he liked the Eagles, he enjoyed the Steve Miller Band, and he loved Lynard Skynard.  Even today, whenever I hear Sweet Home Alabama, I imagine my Dad driving his big rig across this beautiful country of ours.  The song may have been about Alabama and it may have been an answer song to a very specific song written by a Canadian (of all people) but it was still a song that could be listened to and enjoyed anywhere.  It was a song about Alabama but it was also a song that uniquely American.

At least, that’s what I always thought.  When I was in college, my friend Jen absolutely hated Sweet Home, Alabama (both the song and, believe it or  not, the film) and she would always start going, “No, don’t do it!” whenever she saw that I was about to play it.  That just made me play it louder.

By that time, of course, I knew that there was some controversy about both the song and the band.  Because Lynard Skynard was proudly and defiantly Southern, there were quite a few people who interpreted Sweet Home, Alabama as being a defense of everything that going on in Alabama during the early 70s.  Of course, that’s not the case of all.  The song was defending a group of people against other people who, like Mr. Young, looked down on Alabama while ignoring or excusing the very similar things that were happening in their own backyard.  Massachusetts, for instance, was the scene of a good deal of violent racial strife throughout the 70s but Neil Young was never tempted to write Boston Man.  While Alabama was finally starting to move away from Jim Crow, people in Boston were rioting about busing.  The appeal of Lynard Skynard, at least as far as the original 70s version, was that they were tough, they were loud, and they didn’t apologize for being who they were. They weren’t going to apologize for being from the South and speaking with Southern accents.  They were defiant in a way that brought together both hippies and rednecks.

1996’s Freebird…. The Movie was one of the last films that my Dad watched before he died.  The film is a mix of archival concert footage and interviews with the members of Lynard Skynard, all of whom are rather worshipful of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.  Van Zant emerges as such a charismatic performer and frontman that it’s easy to see why the members of the band and the audience would follow him just about anywhere.  Of course, the main appeal of the film is the music.  Sweet Home Alabama is performed with a blast of pure energetic Southern rock that stands in contrast to some of the band’s more mellow songs.  Freebird is performed beautifully and Billy Powell’s piano solo remains amazing.  As always, it probably helps to already be a fan of the band when watching a film like this.  All I can say is that, on July 31st, 2024, my Dad smiled as he watched it and I cried as I watched it with him.

Lifetime Film Review: I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco (dir by Heather Hawthorne-Doyle)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco is an example of one of the latest trends in Lifetime filmmaking.  The real Mary Jo Buttafuoco tells us her story in between scenes of it being reenacted by actors.

That’s not necessarily a bad idea.  Lifetime did something similar with Elizabeth Smart and it led to one of the most powerful films to ever appear on the network.  However, the Elizabeth Smart film benefitted from the fact that Smart is an articulate, intelligent, and insightful speaker in her own right.  She is someone who went through the worst and managed to come out of it not only stronger but also with the passion and articulateness of an genuine activist.

Mary Jo is not quite as compelling.  It brings me no joy to say that because Mary Jo really was put through Hell and, far too often, she has been treated as an afterthought in her own story.  For those who may have forgotten or who haven’t had seen any of the previous films made about what happened to her, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was the wife of Long Island mechanic Joey Buttafuoco.  She stood by Joey while he struggled with drug addiction and she supported him when he opened his own garage.  Joey rewarded her loyalty by having an affair with a teenager named Amy Fisher.  Fisher, who apparently believed that Mary Jo was the only thing standing in the way of her being with Joey forever, went to the Buttafuoco home and shot Mary Jo in the face.

The story was a media circus, with Amy Fisher being dubbed “the Long Island Lolita” and three made-for-TV movies being made, all in the same year, about the shooting.  Joey initially denied that he had ever touched Amy and Mary Jo, who miraculously survived, originally stood by Joey.  Unfortunately, in all the attention that was given to Amy and Joey (and really, the word “goombah” might as well appear with a picture of Joey in the dictionary), the fact that Mary Jo nearly died was often overlooked.  Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco became odd celebrities as a result of the crime.  Mary Jo was ridiculed for both not realizing that Joey was cheating on her and continuing to stand by her man for years after she was shot by his mistress.

There’s a great movie to be made about Mary Jo Buttafuoco.  (Considering that one of three previous films was told from Joey’s point of view, it only seems appropriate that there should have been a movie from Mary Jo’s.)  Unfortunately, having Mary Jo tell her own story doesn’t work as well as one might hope.  When you really want Mary Jo to go off on Joey, she instead goes off on being raised Catholic.  If only she hadn’t been raised in a Catholic family, she seems to be saying, she never would have married and stuck with Joey Buttafuoco.  Instead of really examining her marriage to Joey Buttafuoco, she instead blames her mother and her religion.  It feels like too convenient an excuse.

The film is a bit more compelling in the flashbacks, with Chloe Lanier giving a strong performance as Mary Jo and Madelyn Grace playing Amy Fisher as not being a Lolita but instead as being a neurotic and rather stupid brat.  In the end, what matters is that Mary Jo did eventually free herself from Joey and we should all be happy for that.

Brad’s 4 Shots From 4 Films – Happy 100th Birthday, Andy Griffith!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Today would have been Andy Griffith’s 100th birthday! I love The Andy Griffith Show so much. It’s one of those shows that just makes me feel good on the inside, as the warmth of its homespun nostalgia still echoes to this very day. At least it does in my house. I’ve seen every episode of the series at least 3 or 4 times in my life, and I’ll often bring various scenes or sayings up in my daily conversations. 

As is the case for all people, Andy Griffith was a much more complicated man than his Sheriff Andy Taylor from the classic series. And his many other roles were also more diverse upon a further inspection. What we can be sure about is that Andy Griffith is an icon of American television, and I celebrate him today with 4 Shots from 4 Films! 

As “Lonesome Rhodes” in A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)
As Sheriff Andy Taylor on the “Mr. McBeevee” episode of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW which premiered on October 1st, 1962
As the evil John Wallace in MURDER IN COWETA COUNTY (1983)
As Ben Matlock in the MATLOCK series which ran from 1986-1995

A Scene That I Love: The Merciful Dinosaur and the Meteor From The Tree Of Life

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

The scene from The Tree of Life is a reminder that empathy is not just a human trait and that no one and nothing will be here forever. This is one of my favorite scenes from this film. I don’t claim to understand everything about The Tree of Life but I’m still moved every time that I watch it.

Lisa Marie Reviews An Oscar Nominee: Marty Supreme (dir by Josh Safdie)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Leave it to Josh Safdie to make an anxiety-ridden film about ping pong.

That’s not a complaint, by the way.  Both with his brother Benny and working solo on this film, Josh Safdie has proven himself to be a master at making anxiety compelling.  Much more so than Benny’s 20205 offering, The Smashing Machine, Josh’s Marty Supreme keeps you off-balance.  Marty Supreme may be set in the 50s but it’s deliberately shot in the gritty style of 70s-era Scorese and Lumet.  Meanwhile, the background music is largely made up of classic songs from the 80s.  Timothee Chalamet may play the title role of Marty Mauser, a shoe salesman who also happens to be a ping pong champion.  And the film may also feature recognizable actors like Odessa A’Zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Drescher, and Emory Cohen (remember him?).   But the majority of the cast is made up of people best-known for not being actors.  Shark Tank co-host and aspiring lead of Canada Kevin O’Leary plays Paltrow’s husband and Marty’s occasional sponsor.  Director Abel Ferrara plays a gangster who is searching for his dog.  Penn Jillette plays a New Jersey farmer who shoots first and asks questions later.  David Mamet, Isaac Mizrahi, early internet sensation Ted Williams, former New York mayoral candidateJ ohn Catsimatidis, rapper Tyler The Creator, and performance artist Sandra Bernhard all show up in small roles, creating a very New York atmosphere that somehow feels both familiar and artificial.  Watching the movie is like living the tourist’s dream of traveling to New York, seeing your favorite Manhattan celebrities hanging out in Brooklyn, and then having them curse you out for owing them money.

As is to be expected from a Safdie film, Marty Mauser is not always a sympathetic protagonist.  He’s been having an affair with the married Rachel (Odessa A’Zion) but, even after he finds out that Rachel is pregnant, that doesn’t stop him from having a purely sexual relationship with former actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), the wife of businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary).  Marty thinks that he’s the world’s best ping pong player, which is why he has a hard time accepting being humiliated at the hands of Japan’s champion, Endo (Koto Kawaguchi).  Marty’s efforts to return to Japan for a rematch lead to an at times dizzying array of complications.  Marty is the type who will steal his lover’s necklace just to return it and apologize after learning that it was only worth two bucks because it was costume jewelry.  Fortunately, Marty is played by Timothee Chalamet, who gives such an energetic and charismatic performance that it’s hard not to be charmed by the character even while his actions might upset, annoy, or even offend you.  The film never claims that Marty is the best ping pong player in the world.  Only Marty claims that.  Instead, the film shows just how unshakeable Marty’s belief in himself is.  It’s hard not to like someone who refuses to accept defeat.

In many ways, Marty is a quintessential American figure.  He believes in himself and he’s not going to apologize for it.  Both the character and the film celebrate the individualism that make America unique.  That 50s setting really does make sense.  Marty truly is the post-war American, dedicated and unapologetic.  And, in that context, the film’s “stunt” casting, for lack of a better description, makes sense as well.  David Mamet, Kevin O’Leary, Penn Jillette, Abel Ferrara, John Catsimatidis, and so many of the other familiar faces that float through Marty Supreme: they’re all people who have gone their own way, even at the risk of alienating the establishment.

Marty Supreme was nominated for 9 Oscars but failed to win any of them.  Indeed, the amount of negative stories that were breathlessly reported about the film’s director and lead actor after the nominations were announced indicates that there was an organized whisper campaign against the film.  (In a sad sign of the time, there was a good deal of negative backlash online from the dishrag brigade, who were upset that the film’s lead character was Jewish.)  Despite being the best of the nominated films, Marty Supreme lost to One Battle After Another.