// Category Archive for: Comedy

TV Review: Broad City S3 E01, “Two Chainz”

By Sachin Hingoo

It takes approximately zero minutes for the third season premiere of Broad City to scream, with all the unhinged joy of a Kelly Ripa girls night, that BFFs Abbi and Ilana haven’t missed a beat and that the shit is on.

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TV Review: F is for Family, Season 1

By Tyler Hodg

Netflix’s latest original adult-oriented cartoon, F is for Family, is racist, homophobic, and misogynistic–all in the name of satire.

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Mexican Wrestling Sensation Lucha Underground: A Primer

By Sachin Hingoo

I’ve always been fascinated by pro wrestling’s ability to tell a story in a non-traditional way. Mixing elements of a stage play, a circus, and a TV show, along with the fact that there are usually no traditional “seasons” makes for some potentially great and potentially horrendous narratives that are equally entertaining to me. Lucha Underground, however, is unlike any other wrestling product that I’ve seen.

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TV Review: Trailer Park Boys, Drunk, High, And Unemployed–Live In Austin

By Tyler Hodg

Photo credit: http://blog.swearnet.com/

The Trailer Park Boys are a national treasure. While the trio doesn’t represent Canada as a whole, there is just something so Canadian about the show’s approach. Park resident J-Rock even built a car spoiler out of hockey sticks, for maple syrup’s sake.

Yet, somehow, the appeal of Trailer Park Boys extends globally. Following their onstage Netflix specials in Dublin and Minneapolis, the boys have traveled to Texas for a brand-new theater production titled Trailer Park Boys: Drunk, High, and Unemployed–Live In Austin.

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Today in Pop Culture: Ernie Kovacs Exits, Stage Left

By Jeffery X Martin

A rainy morning in Los Angeles. A man loses control of his Chevrolet Corvair and hits a telephone pole. He is thrown halfway out of the passenger side, dying almost instantly from the impact. The year is 1962, and the man is Ernie Kovacs.

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DVD Review: Deathgasm

By Tim Murr

Many movies have attempted to capture the coming of age journey, of misfits finding their path and rising to their true potential or becoming the hero they were always meant to be. Deathgasm proves that most of these movies are utter bullshit.

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TV Review: W/ Bob & David, Season 1

By Tyler Hodg

Netflix is expanding their catalogue with not only new shows, but old revivals as well. Sleeper hit Mr. Show with Bob and David originally aired on HBO from 1995-1998, but has since received a spiritual successor by the previously mentioned studio in the form of W/ Bob & David.

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Our Fave Women In Film & TV Moments of 2015: The MUFF Society

This was a crazy—cahhhhrazy—awesome year for women in film and TV. So many amazing films, shows, speeches, tweets, pictures… even Barbie dolls, guys. We (Lisa, Richelle, and Siân of The MUFF Society) thought back over the past year (thank god for the Internet) and picked out our favourite moment[s] for each month. We undoubtedly left out a lot of great moments so instead of whining about it, tell us yours!

JANUARY

Can you believe it’s almost been a year since the cast of the Ghostbusters reboot was first announced?

Not only are we getting LADY Ghostbusters, but we get these goddesses? Bless you, Paul Feig. Since that announcement, we’ve seen first-look photos, amazing girl power crew photos from the set, and most recently, these amazing teaser posters. Basically this movie needs to come out yesterday.

FEBRUARY

Marjane Satrapi’s (Persepolis) first live action directorial feature The Voices got its wide release in February. Fitting because this movie is all about love. Do yourself a favour and skip the trailer–just watch this cold.

Patricia Arquette won an Oscar (yay!!!) and spoke about the wage gap during her acceptance speech (even more yay!!!!). While she could’ve chosen her words more carefully, we admire her for using the platform of Live Television to deliver such an important message. She had more to say recently, too.

MARCH

Sally Field real talks at SXSW about aging in Hollywood. Preach. Also, when is Hello, My Name is Doris coming out? WE NEED TO SEE IT IMMEDIATELY.

Watch out, late night. The ladies are coming. In March we were blessed with the news that The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee would be starting her own late night show called Full Frontal. It airs in February of 2016 and it is the late night show we need and deserve.

APRIL

Amy Schumer has been killing it this year but our favourite moment of hers was unanimously Last Fuckable Day. We would like to come and talk about our pussies over there.

We were as shocked as you were that 2015 marked the first year since 1987 that Cannes had opened with a woman-directed film. How is that even possible? That’s a 29-year-old person! In any case, here’s to more women opening Cannes (and every other festival) in 2016 and beyond.

MAY

Mad Max: Fury Road was released. Charlize Theron. Furiosa. Enough said.

JUNE

Rose McGowan was our hero when she tweeted about a disgusting, sexist casting note. She’s always been outspoken and blunt about the realities of the industry for women and it’s so damn refreshing.

JULY

Summer was great for indie film releases like Tangerine–an amazing film that is deservedly creating a lot of buzz this awards season. Mya Taylor has already become the first trans actress to win a Gotham Award.

AUGUST

This summer we also got Marielle Heller’s Diary of a Teenage Girl. Don’t let the trailer fool you: this isn’t a light, fun coming of age movie. It’s troubling and moving and absolutely beautiful.

SEPTEMBER

If you haven’t listened to Viola Davis’s Emmy acceptance speech multiple times already, what’s wrong with you?

OCTOBER

In October, the Federal government officially began to investigate Hollywood’s lack of women directors. Earlier in the year, the ACLU sent a letter to three organizations requesting official investigations. We wonder what the results will be. Ha.

Céline Sciamma’s absolutely brilliant Girlhood was also released in October, along with Room, which features a screenplay by Emma Donaghue and stars Brie “Finally Getting The Attention She Deserves” Larson.

NOVEMBER

The end of the year was all about speeches and we can’t get enough of the speech Reese Witherspoon gave at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards.

And then the New York Times and Maureen Dowd blew us all away with this absolutely arresting piece: “The Women of Hollywood Speak Out.”

DECEMBER

We already knew filmmaker Ava DuVernay was absolute perfection but now that she has her own Barbie, she’s reached a new level totally unattainable by the rest of us mere mortals. This Barbie sold out in minutes, guys. Minutes.

We loved Lena Dunham’s speech at Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment brekkie. We also really need T-shirts with “Power Bitches” on them.

Carrie Fisher ended the year with a bang because eff all you body shamers. (And then when some idiot thought it was appropriate to do this, Carrie put them in their place, too.)

Damn, if 2015 was this good, imagine what 2016 is going to be like!

Before we go, we couldn’t end off any Faves List without our combined most favourite thing of the entire year. Ahem: Shia LaBeouf’s #ALLMYMOVIES. This captured our hearts in a way we are still trying to comprehend. Also, picking a favourite Shia was the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do. But we did it. For science!

I literally can’t look at this because it’s too good.–Richelle

The Sleeping Shia obviously speaks to me more than any other Shia.
I would actually say that White-Coloured-Blob-On-The-Floor-In-The-Back-Corner-Taking-A-Nap-Through-Transformers
is my favourite Shia, but that doesn’t make a very good photo.
Rest well, sweet baby angel Shia.–Lisa

I thought about this for a long time.
I think my favourite Shia is So Ecstatic He Might Burst Or Is He Actually Angry Shia.
Because this isn’t just a Shia–it’s a raw moment of pure emotion.
Shimotion, maybe? Actually, no, because that’s stupid.–Siân

But actually, the real winner of the year is this cat. Nothing in 2016, or any upcoming years ever for that matter, will compare.

The MUFF Society is a monthly screening series and community that champions women in film. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and at their website.

Best Of 2015: Less Lee Moore

For more discussion about the items on my list, check out the Popshifter Best Of 2015 Podcast!

Many thanks to the following: All the writers at Popshifter but especially Melissa Bratcher, Brad Henderson, Tyler Hodg, Jeffery X Martin, and Tim Murr for being so generous with their time and talent; all the fantastic PR folks that help make everything possible (too many to list!); Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe at Spectacular Optical for graciously publishing my essay on Ricky Kasso in their Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s anthology; the kind people of Rue Morgue for publishing my music reviews in the magazine as well as my Frightful Flashback column on the blog; the good folks at all of the websites who invited me to write for them this year: Everything Is Scary, Nerdy Stuff, Modern Horrors, Dirge Magazine, and Biff Bam Pop; Colin Geddes and Carol Borden for being terrific and for letting me write for the TIFF Vanguard and Midnight Madness blogs again; and last but certainly NOT least, Shaun Hatton for being a generally awesome person.

And now, for the lists!
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Best Of 2015: Jeffery X Martin

By Jeffery X Martin

When you compare and contrast 2015 with other years, it really wasn’t half bad. It was a great year for movies, an absolutely stellar year for music, and television reached new heights of creativity and watchability. Sure, there were some celebrity deaths that shook me to the core (these are still hard times, Dream), but there wasn’t a whole lot to complain about in 2015, except how difficult it was to choose the best things of it.

So let’s start with the movies, shall we? In ascending order, please, Maestro. (more…)