Comedy – The News Desk

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” Finale, Reviewed: Larry David Gets the Last Word

8Apr

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” Finale, Reviewed: Larry David Gets the Last Word

On a late December night many years ago, I was riding around midtown cheerfully stuffed into the back seat of a taxi with two of my kids. One was around seven, the other around four. We passed the skaters and the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. We passed by the twinkling displays in the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue, and the clusters of people clutching shopping bags and peering in. There were Santas tolling bells for the Salvation Army, venders hawking blistered chestnuts, flocks of pedicab drivers, tree hustlers, carollers, the whole frenetic birth-of-Jesus, half-off-at-Macy’s phantasmagoria.My kids gazed out the window. A long silence set in. Finally, the four-year-old turned to me and said, “Daddy, why is there so much Christmas, not so much Hanukkah?” As I went about drafting an...

“The People’s Joker” Is an Outlaw Vision of the Superhero Movie

6Apr

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

“The People’s Joker” Is an Outlaw Vision of the Superhero Movie

“The People’s Joker,” directed by Vera Drew, is the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen—because, unlike studio-produced films in the genre, it responds to the filmmaker’s deep personal concerns. There’s a noble history of directors transforming commercial assignments into personal statements, but it usually doesn’t extend to superheroes. First, the characters’ canonical identities admit of only slight shifts, and even these are inflated by fans to intergalactic proportions. Second, even slight changes impose a butterfly effect on a franchise: changing a detail in a movie today will force change all the way down the line in any planned sequels. By contrast, “The People’s Joker”—a crowdfunded, D.I.Y. parody of Todd Phillips’s 2019 film “Joker”—gives not a hoot about comic-book canon and car...

George Carlin estate settles with podcasters over fake comedy special purportedly generated by AI

3Apr

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

George Carlin estate settles with podcasters over fake comedy special purportedly generated by AI

LOS ANGELES -- The estate of George Carlin has agreed to a settlement with the media company it sued over a fake hourlong comedy special that purportedly used artificial intelligence to recreate the late standup comic’s style and material.In the settlement agreement filed with a federal court Monday, and a proposed order from both sides that awaits approval from a judge, the podcast outlet Dudesy agrees to permanently take down the special and to refrain from using Carlin's image voice or likeness in the future without the express written approval of the estate. The settlement meets the central demands laid out by the Carlin estate in the lawsuit filed on Jan. 25. “I am grateful that the defendants acted responsibly by swiftly removing the video they made,” Carlin's daughter Kelly Carlin ...

British actor Tom Wilkinson, known for ‘The Full Monty’ and ‘Michael Clayton,’ dies at 75

31Dec

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

British actor Tom Wilkinson, known for ‘The Full Monty’ and ‘Michael Clayton,’ dies at 75

LONDON -- Tom Wilkinson, the Oscar-nominated British actor known for his roles in “The Full Monty," “Michael Clayton” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” has died, his family said. He was 75.A statement shared by his agent on behalf of the family said Wilkinson died suddenly at home on Saturday. It didn't provide further details. Wilkinson was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his work in 2001's family drama “In The Bedroom” and in the best supporting actor category for his role in “Michael Clayton,” a 2007 legal thriller that starred George Clooney. He is remembered by many in Britain and beyond for playing former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper in the 1997 comedy “The Full Monty," about a group of unemployed steel workers who formed an unlikely male stripping act. Wilkinso...

Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86

28Dec

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86

Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86. The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle.“I'm just devastated,” his brother and the duo's other half, Dick Smothers, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. “Every breath I’ve taken, my brother’s been around.”When "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967 it was an immediate hit, to the surprise of many who had assumed the network’s expectations were so low it positioned their show opposite the top-rated "Bonanza."But the Smothers Brothers wou...

China’s government can’t take a joke, so comedians living abroad censor themselves

5Dec

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

China’s government can’t take a joke, so comedians living abroad censor themselves

WASHINGTON -- Comedian Xi Diao says he knows he should avoid talking politics on stage, but sharing a family name with Chinese President Xi Jinping makes it hard to resist.Even his name is politically sensitive, the Melbourne-based amateur comedian tells audiences, setting up a joke about a group chat on the Chinese messaging service WeChat being shut down as soon as he joined it. The 33-year-old civil engineer gets nervous laughs whenever he breaks a de facto rule of Chinese comedy: Don’t say anything that makes China look bad. To most comedians, that means no jokes about censorship, no mentioning the president's name, and no discussion of China’s extraordinarily strict COVID lockdowns or social topics like domestic violence.“It is a pity, if the environment were open, there would be som...

Marrakech kicks off film festival in the shadow of war in the Middle East

24Nov

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Marrakech kicks off film festival in the shadow of war in the Middle East

MARRAKECH, Morocco -- Film industry leaders in Marrakech attending one of the Arab world's largest film festivals emphasized Friday the importance of elevating cinema and artistic expression amid a shadow cast by Israel’s war with Hamas and an earthquake that struck Morocco less than three months ago."In the weeks leading up to the festival, we were not sure that we would even be able to be here. The world we share is shattered and devoured," said American actor Jessica Chastain, serving as the president of the festival's jury, in a speech on the festival's opening night.“Throughout history, art has been used as an accessible tool for communication, raising awareness about social issues and affecting positive change," she added.Surrounded by red carpet crowds and flashing camera lights, o...

Movie Review: Nicolas Cage finds fame to be highly overrated in chillingly funny ‘Dream Scenario’

8Nov

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Movie Review: Nicolas Cage finds fame to be highly overrated in chillingly funny ‘Dream Scenario’

Quick: What’s a good adjective for Nicolas Cage’s screen presence? Mercurial, perhaps? Volcanic? Volatile?How about mundane, schlubby, average? Not the page we’d think to turn to in our Roget’s Thesaurus.Yet here Cage is, channeling his inner drabness to chillingly comic effect in Kristoffer Borgli’s “Dream Scenario.” As Paul Matthews (heck, even the name is drab), a college professor at nowhere famous, he performs his job with perfect mediocrity, and seems a fairly mediocre husband and dad, too. With his graying beard, wire-rimmed specs and shiny bald spot, Cage’s Paul is the guy in the room you ignore.Until, suddenly, you can't. Because something weird starts happening. Paul starts appearing in people’s dreams. Everyone’s dreams.The premise is delicious — and precarious. It recalled for...

Weekend box office results are muted without ‘Dune: Part Two’

5Nov

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Weekend box office results are muted without ‘Dune: Part Two’

The North American box office had one of its slowest weekends of the year, due in large part to “Dune: Part Two’s” absence from the lineup. Moviegoers had many other options to choose from. The video game adaptation “Five Nights at Freddy’s” repeated its first-place ranking, followed by “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” still going strong. Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla ” expanded nationwide and “Oppenheimer” returned to IMAX screens. Several well-received indies opened as well. But this was the weekend that Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “ Dune: Part Two” was supposed to open, before the SAG-AFTRA strike prompted many studios to shuffle release dates in anticipation of a lengthy dispute that has stopped movie stars from promoting their films. The “Dune” sequel starring Timothée Chalamet and Zenday...

Richard Moll, who found fame as a bailiff on the original sitcom ‘Night Court,’ dies at 80

27Oct

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Richard Moll, who found fame as a bailiff on the original sitcom ‘Night Court,’ dies at 80

NEW YORK -- Richard Moll, a character actor who found lasting fame as an eccentric but gentle giant bailiff on the original “Night Court” sitcom, has died. He was 80.Moll died Thursday at his home in Big Bear Lake, California, according to Jeff Sanderson, a family spokesperson. Moll played "Bull” Shannon on NBC's “Night Court” from 1984-1992 alongside stars Harry Anderson and John Larroquette. His character formed a close friendship with the court’s other bailiff, Roz Russell, played by Marsha Warfield. Bull was known for his shaved head, catchphrase, “Ohh-kay,” and a dim but sweet world view.After “Night Court” ended, Moll contributed his trademark gravelly voice to various video games and comic book projects like “Batman: The Animated Series” as Harvey Dent and appeared in horror films ...